Rechargeable Batteries with Solar Cells, Called "Sun Cat" Batteries, by Knut Karlsen. The batteries should just bask in the sun like a cat and left for a while, in a sunny window, they would slowly recharge. A great and green idea! Knut also DIY these batteries prototypes.
"I had some older NiMH rechargeable batteries that i glued the flexible Photo Voltaic (PV) cells onto. The PV cells are rated at 1.8V and the batteries are 1.5V so they match quite well.
Half glued you can see the really shiny polymer substrate backside of the PV cell. The crude written text says: 3x0,6V B: 13.411.09 Which i guess is the voltage and a batch number.
Using a conductive silver pen and some flat wires from a broken canon lens I made an ok connection to the PV cell.
This setup is infact a (quite weak) trickle charger. It is not ideal, but really convenient. A second version would have some electronics (to check when full) and capacitors to charge the batteries more efficiently, but the battery would then be smaller if it all needs to fit within a C-cell battery. " Full pics at his flickr set. |
