solar mobile phone charger

[Simon Finnigan]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a way to keep an iPhone battery topped up over a prolonged period. Basically it's to go in a car as a tracker, so the phone won't be heavily used, rather it will make an occasional data connection, the screen won't be in use so the phone battery should last a couple of days anyway. What I'd really like is a battery pack that tops itself up using a solar panel, but that keeps topping up the iPhone battery whenever possible.

Can anyone suggest anything suitable, ideally ready to buy rather than requiring any additional messing about.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Adrian]

Wire up a ciggy socket, and keep it plugged in to a charger. Anything else is likely to go wrong. If you want solar top-up, use it to top the car battery up.

[Jabba]

Simon Finnigan wrote

Solar charges are not small and to work need to be left on show. They're bound to attract attention from car thieves.

[Adrian]

Yes, I think that's kinda the point, though, for a phone which is being used as a tracker/alarm...

[Simon Finnigan]

The phone is to be left in the boot, and there is no power nearby. I can run a supply through, but it's only live when the ignition is on and the car is sometimes only used for short runs, so the phone battery would run out over a couple of days.

[meow2222]

Its your call whether a bigger phone battery plus some downtime when car out of use is good enough. Perhaps you only need know its last location when it actually moves (under its own power anyway).

A supercap could make quick use of a few light feeds, but beware of overcurrent damaging electronics or triggering a fast-flash something's wrong alert.

NT

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 11:13:39 on Tue, 23 Sep 2014, Simon Finnigan remarked:

Why not use a device that's intended for use as a tracker? Perhaps their battery lasts quite a while anyway, but ones I've seen have a micro-USB charger connection, which you could run off a suitable adapter/lead from the car's electrics.

[Simon Finnigan]

Why would I want to have a flat car battery, when I can use a smallish solar panel to keep the phone charged and still be able to start my car when it's been parked up for a few days?

[Simon Finnigan]

I've got an iPhone that is free, and it will tie in with the same app I use to figure out where I've left my iPad etc. all the cheap trackers I've seen seem to need specific SIM cards with an ongoing cost that's non-trivial, whereas the iphone solution will burn through a pound or two a year.

Unless you know of a better tracker that's cheap, easy to use and has very low ongoing costs, in which case I'd be very interested :-)

[Simon Finnigan]

The location is only updated when I load the tracking app, so if I don't do this until I'm going back to the car, the information won't be available.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 10:16:00 on Wed, 24 Sep 2014, Simon Finnigan remarked:

I'm interested in an iPhone SIM that only costs a pound or two a year.

[Richard]

What about something like this:

[charles]

how is the iPhone going to work without a SIM card?

[fred]

I don't think it's a realistic expectation I'm afraid. The last time I did the maths on keeping (relatively low drain) alarm electronics active via solar for long periods whilst away and not using the car suggested it just wasn't viable.

In your place I would probably be looking at fast charging a secondary battery whilst the car was in use and relying on that to provide the juice to the phone.

[Chris French]

In message , Roland Perry writes

Nowt special about iPhone sims.

My daughter has a 4S, she is on GiffGaff (like most of us in the family). Minimum cost on GG for a year would be about 16p or something like that (a couple of texts, or couple of calls). You need to make a call or whatever once every 6 months to keep the credit on the phone.

Wondering about quite what Simon is using this for though.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 13:22:42 on Wed, 24 Sep 2014, Chris French remarked:

So you could put one of those SIMs into a purpose-built tracking device, and get the same low ongoing costs?

Won't a tracking device (of either kind) want to be sending data back to base, though; which will cost more than 16p/year. Especially if you need to fall back to cellsite-based location data in the absence of a GPS signal.

[JoeJoe]

Never used one, but they may insist on sending their location to base at regular interval without the ability to disable that.

An iPhone app can be set up to only communicate when required, so may no communicate at all unless prompted.

[JoeJoe]

back to square one.. what about keeping the battery charged?

[Chris French]

In message , Roland Perry writes

I've no idea about tracking devices.

Presumably.

I assumed that the OP gets the 'pound or two a year, because the iphone (aka tracking device) device will only be active occasionally, not permanently

[Roland Perry]

In message , at

14:48:10 on Wed, 24 Sep 2014, JoeJoe remarked:

The one I've seen does nothing until you send it a "wakeup" call. Although the battery is being used while it listens, of course.

You might want to check whether the iPhone itself isn't "phoning home" regularly too.