Where's this $15 deal @ Coolbuys?
Might buy a couple.
A 5 volt portable supply would power a motion sensor switch, an FPV camera, or my Dash Cam, and IR LED light. The RF transmitter I have would need a boost converter to run at 10 to 12 volts. Probably best to modify the unit to run a boost converter straight from the cell protection circuit rather than after a 90% efficient USB converter then another 90% efficient boost converter.
With a motion only duty cycle the solar charger might keep up with drain.
Laptop batteries work but need to be recharged.
Looking at description and pictures it looks like the solar cell is 2 strings of 10 cells.
This would give about 5.5 volts at full sun. My guess is the solar output, at full sun, would be between 1 and 1.5 watts. This would be adequate to run a 5 volt to Li-ion charger. Schottky diodes would allow the same charge circuit to be used for solar charging or an external input.
The Li-po cell is likely a grade C Chinese cell culled from the RC market line and maybe 10,000 mah. Since you won't be drawing 30 amps from the cell the quality is a little less important than a highly demanding use like RC.
Has 5 volt output converters for both smart and dumb USB devices. The charge level indicator is likely a cell voltage based indicator and not a coulomb counter.
The connectors, if pointed down, would be water resistant. For a DIY hobbyist application they could be potted in.
Lots of stuff for $15. Got a link to the one you bought?
panoz,
you posted while I was typing.
That device likely has 3 soft pack Li-po cells in series.
The individual cells could be 12000mah 3.7 volt 30C which would give 12000 mah at an average of 11.1 volts at a few amps or about 10 volts at 30C (30 times 12 amps) for short bursts. Hopefully the specs aren't like some ads that combine the mah for each cell. Like three 4000mah 3.7 v cells in series and claim 12000mah at 12 volts using Chinese Common Core math
Have you opened it up yet?
Size and weight of the individual foil pack cells would give a good indication of the capacity.
Other than high C cells being a little heavier than low C cells, weight and size will be very similar across the market for cells of the same capacity.
