I spent most of last week riding my loaded-up bike through the north of Spain, and as any self-respecting geek would do, I was carrying gadgets, including a power-hungry iPad 3, and a Changers solar-powered charger. I’m planning a longer post on how this worked out, but right now I’m going to tell you about a new accessory for the Changers charger which should make it even more effective on road trips.
The accessory is a spare panel for your Changers setup, along with a “spider,” or 2-into-1 adapter which lets you plug a pair of panels into one battery.
A refresher: The Changers system uses a tough, flexible and light solar panel connected to a battery. This charges by day and juices gadgets by night. Or juices them by day if you tuck them into your panniers and bungee the panel to your bike’s rack.
Adding a panel boosts the maximum input of the Sun to 8 Watts. If you regularly leave the panels unattended, you could also arrange them back-to-back in order to catch rays as the Sun moves across the sky throughout the day.
A second panel will cost you $60, and right now the Spider will be tossed in for free (its regular price is $20). If you have an iPad 3 to charge, this still won’t help you. Anything else, though, and you’ll be sweet.
Source: Changers
