any soldering ninjas around here??

[bertopl]

ok, so timing is perfect so far!! all my parts happened to come in today.



my maintenance guy is back today too. he'll be over tomorrow to burn up some wire!! so the part from Voltaic is the Laptop 5525M Output Wire from 5.5x2.5mm Male to 5.5x2.5mm Male, $6.00. My RT charger was from eBay, $15.99. My buddy will be soldering it up for free. The Voltaic MagSafe cables for the MacBooks are $20, so this should only cost me a little bit more. just a side-note, it looks like all the knockoff chargers on eBay, including the one I got, don't have the little charging light on the tip. not a big deal to me but just worth noting. hoping everything goes well with the soldering and that everything works!!

 

[machistmo]

The voltaic process seems pretty straight-forward. However, I read on some other forums that there can be more to it and am about to go and provide the links to Voltaic about others experiences. I think for charging the unit that guide Voltaic provides should do the trick. I am wary of doing stuff like this via the mail and don't have a spare 400 to sink into Solar cell's after my recent Surface Pro, Wedge Mouse, Type Keyboard, 64 GB SDXC card and Dell S2340T Monitor purchase. Would love to see the results. Be sure he uses heat-shrink tubing for each wire individually and then one to bind them both up neatly.

 

[bertopl]

SUCCESS!!!!!!! so my buddy came through. he got it done tonight!!



I tested it and it works GREAT!! you can't see it in the picture but the surface has the charging indicator next to the battery icon, so it is working!! it's charging through the battery as I'm typing this. my biggest fear was that the whole thing would start smoking but all is well. the cable looks just a tad lumpy where the solder happened, you can see it through the shrink tube if you examine it closely, but I am happy!! actually, taking a closer look at the magsafe cable I bought directly from voltaic, they didn't have the cleanest look either. I think my surface cable looks much better!! now I just have to put the battery back in the backpack, plug in the panels, and I'm off!!

I noticed the thread too with mikegyver selling an external battery and checking out his website, the battery he is using looks exactly like mine minus all the voltaic branding. all the indicator lights look the same. I suspect mikegyver is sourcing these from the same place that voltaic doees, but voltaic probably just puts their stamp on it.

so now I have a small solar backpack that'll charge my iphone or ipad. and now I have my bigger pack with the larger panels that will charge my iphone, ipad, macbook or surface, so I can choose which devices to carry around with me. now the cable I got from voltaic that connects to the battery has the same connector on both ends so I have another connector to work with. I'm thinking about buying another $16 charger from ebay and doing up another one. my buddy thinks he can do a better job on the next one since this was his first try at it and he was in a little bit of a hurry. thanks to everyone who offered feedback and interest in this thread!! I used some of the suggestions that some gave me to do this project on the cheap!!

 

[Russ]

I'm thinking about buying another $16 charger from ebay and doing up another one.

Bert --

I am doing approximately the same thing for my Ladyfriend. I bought two car chargers on eBay for 12.95 (may do one for myself).

What did you do with the blue and white wires, if anything?

Regards,
Russ

 

[bertopl]

Bert --

I am doing approximately the same thing for my Ladyfriend. I bought two car chargers on eBay for 12.95 (may do one for myself).

What did you do with the blue and white wires, if anything?

Regards,
Russ

honestly Russ, I was doing something else while my buddy was doing the soldering. I only remember seeing two wires coming out of that third-party charger but I could easily be wrong about that. next time I chat with him, I'll confirm that. I'm definitely going to do a second one, which should look better than the one that I have, but for the time-being, I'm very happy with what I have.