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soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

topic posted Wed, April 9, 2008 - 8:18 PM by  justin
going to Rothbury and am gonna need a fresh charge 4 days in a row. Has anyone found a solar charger that will put a full charge on my PSI during the day?
My other options would be some sort of car charger (dont know what I'd need for power rating/charge rate) or a booth at the fest that will let you plug stuff in for a fee. I dont really want to leave my hoop in the care of someone else every day tho....
Any help on charging at festivals is appreciated.

Justin
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justin
offline justin
South Dakota
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  • Blue...
    Blueberry
    offline 28

    Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

    Wed, April 9, 2008 - 9:16 PM

    I can't help you with a charger. But i have been pondering this for a while. Because I perform at a lot of festivals.

    Are you planing on hooping all night? or just a bit because the psi hoops does last a long time.
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  • Michele
    Michele
    offline 65

    Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

    Thu, April 10, 2008 - 8:22 AM
    ledheadyhoops has a solar power charger for their hoops for 20 bucks.. don't know if you can use it on a psihoop. they also have car chargers. their hoops are inexpensive, light and come with slow and fast change colors though no strobe... i tried one at a festival and thought it was pretty decent though just not as pretty as my psihoop. i'm thinking about getting a set of twins as i just can't afford two psi hoops and the one that i have already is two heavy for me to do twins with...

    also for a few hundred dollars you can get a portable foldable solar panel that can charge stuff just like you would at home in your wall outlet www.brunton.com/product.php
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  • Wonton
    Wonton
    offline 23

    Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

    Thu, April 10, 2008 - 10:54 AM
    This question may be silly but.......Is the time you charge the PSI hoop directly proportional to the amount of lighted time? i.e. 4 hours of charging will yield 4 hours of light. Also, it would be really cool if someone could make a hand cranked battery charger for hoops. I'm not all that familiar with solar powered chargers but I would think the crank would be handy if you wanted to charge at night. I've seen them for cell phones. So it could be an alternate solution to your conundrum. Just a thought..........
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    • Caro...
      Caroleeena
      offline 427

      Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

      Thu, April 10, 2008 - 11:03 AM
      What would be super cool would be an "abdominal crank" charger. Then you could charge your hoop while you're spinning it!

      No, I don't think the spin and charge times are equivalent. I get a lot more lighted spin time than I have to put in charge time.
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  • prodmod
    prodmod
    online 4

    Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

    Mon, April 14, 2008 - 9:22 AM
    Hi Justin - I have not been to Rothbury or Burningman yet, do either of these areas have a lot of wind? I wonder if I could develop a simple wind generator. You can leave it somewhere in the open, it can charge a bigger battery, which you then use to charge your PSI Hoop. This way you dont need to turn on your car, its a green way to get energy etc. You might even decorate the wind generator to be yet another art inspired object.

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    • Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

      Tue, April 15, 2008 - 10:46 AM
      I have been playing with this question for the last year. My RainbowRider psihoop lasts 5 to 6 hours straight. I took it to Burning Man last year and found numerous camps with solar set ups that I could plug into. Of course those set ups were too costly for me to buy just for myself.

      Last January, I spoke to the folks who make the Solio solar recharging systems when I saw them at MacWorld. The Solio units would be perfect for our psihoops, but the only adapters they currently offer are for phones and mp3 devices. I suggested to them that they look into making their Solio unit work with our psi hoops by just making the right adapter plugs and they thought it was such a fine idea they gave me a t-shirt. Whoo woo!! Ha!

      Now I have a new flashy dragonfly/elfin hoop and it only lasts 3 straight hours so this matter of recharging from the sun feels more pressing. I am tracking their site and waiting. Maybe someone has knowledge of how we could make something like the solio work through a "hack" of wiring?

      Good topic to keep going until some solutions are found. We are such a bright group dontcha think? !!!!
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      • justin
        justin
        offline 2

        Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

        Tue, April 15, 2008 - 12:39 PM
        I found one that might work, gotta get back to Patrick to double check on specs...

        solarstyle.com/detail.php Sorry for no linky....lazy

        But it sounds like my roommate is getting a twin of my hoop for himself. Dont know if there is a big enuf one for two at once or we will have to get 2 small ones..

        I'll post how well whatever I get figgered out works....
        Justin
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        • prodmod
          prodmod
          online 4

          Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

          Wed, April 16, 2008 - 8:51 AM
          Unless someone else can confirm, I think I read somewhere that the PSI hoop charger is 7 or 7.5V. Since the charge time for the PSI hoop is overnight, it is most likely a trickle charger. This means you are only supplying maybe 100mA of current into the hoop to charge it. The advantage here is that you dont have to worry much about leaving it on charge for too long. You wont damage the battery this way.

          The solio and the solar style chargers are designed for cell phones which have their own electronics built in to monitor the charge and decide when to stop charging. They also charge at faster rates because of this.
          They almost always need only 5V but they also take about 300mA.
          The solar devices you showed here acheive this higher current by first trickle charging its internal battery with the solar energy and then using the battery alone to charge your device's battery.

          Also since the solar charger outputs 5 volts, it might not be enough to actually fully charge your PSI hoop depnding on how many batteries are inside.

          But it is probably ok to try these chargers on your PSI hoop but to be safe I wouldnt charge it unless the battery was dead, and I would never leave it chargin overnight.
          Start with a 1 hour charge and make sure your batteries are not getting too hot.
          See how long it lasts on that charge.

          This precaution has nothing to do with "memory effect", NiMh batteries dont have that. It's only because waiting for the battery to die is the only way you really know how much energy is left in it when you started to charge.

          Theoretically, I am pretty sure that if you continually provided your PSI hoop with 300mA of current for too long you may damage the battery.

          So just use with caution, unless the guys at PSI hoop tell you otherwise.
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          • prodmod
            prodmod
            online 4

            Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

            Wed, April 16, 2008 - 11:26 AM
            Here is an excerpt from PSI hoop manual

            A/ The “VOLT CHANGE SW” should be set to 7.5V and NO HIGHER. This setting will fully charge the hoop in up to 12 hours (depending on how run down it is). You could set the voltage to 6V and leave the hoop charging for around 16 hours, and that may help to extend the overall life of the batteries. (A slower charge is supposed to be easier on the batteries, but the 7.5V setting is already quite slow. A higher setting will overload the circuits in the hoop and damage the hoop permanently).

            So perhaps the 300mA rating of the solar charger is not a bad thing becuase there is probably a resistor in the hoop that limits current to the batteries. But if 7.5V takes 12 hours, and 6V takes 16 hours, I can imaging that 5V from the solar charger will take 17 hours or so. Maybe try to find a solar charger that can be set to a higher voltage?
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            • prodmod
              prodmod
              online 4

              Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

              Mon, April 21, 2008 - 7:36 AM
              hi, sorry but I am back on my orginal thought. I think the batteries are meant to be charged with 100mA for 12 hours. Charging them with 300mA can damage the batteries. You'd have to measure that current during the charge to be sure the solar charger isnt over 100mA.
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              • justin
                justin
                offline 2

                Re: soalar chargers for a PSI hoop?

                Fri, April 25, 2008 - 2:10 AM
                I Emailed Patrick with the specs for the charger that I linked and asked if it would work... He said it was within specs and he actually ordered one to try out for himself.
                I do have an inverter for the car as a backup/emergency charge, but I am going to order one of these as well.
                I'll let everyone know the results had by both of us.

                Justin
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