That was my thoughts exactly. I have some other smaller pelican cases I use for camping to protect stuff so this looked kind of cool. Right now I use a small water proof Altec blue tooth speaker. I can clip it to my pack or use it anywhere in the camp site. But the battery is only a few hours at best.
Product recommendation request:
You or Jehanuum or gee probably have experience with this.
Portable solar chargers. The type you can unfold a panel and fasten it to the top of your pack while you're out and about all day.
Everything I've seen is all about the phone. I don't care about the phone. I'm thinking small rechargeable led flashlights, headlamps, and small, low output lanterns like you'd hang in a tent.
Searching around to spec how much charger to charge how much stuff how fast seems to be either pages of design engineer speak with a million variables or "user-friendly" maths that seem too simplified to be very accurate.
So.... is batt Wh / charger watts output x 2 (rule of thumb I read somewhere) get you even remotely in the ballpark as to how long it might take charger X to charge battery Y?
I'm also halving the rated charger outputs as those seem to be peak output, like perpendicular to an unobstructed sun in the middle of the afternoon on a nice day. Walking around wearing it, it seems 50% might even be generous depending on where you are.
Built-in regulators/protection circuits a common thing? Voltage can swing wildly with conditions it seems. Charger has to have more voltage than chargee to work.
So...imagine this. We'll call it foot travel camping. Hike some distance, go fishing or whatever, make camp for the night, use some light. Next morning, break camp, hike some distance, do whatever, and make camp at a new spot the next night. Rinse, repeat. Can't just leave stuff charging in the sun at camp because you're not going back there. Charge it on your back on your way to a new place.
Could a small charger like that fill 2 or 3 low power led lights during a day hike enough to use them, at least sparingly, the coming night? At a price that won't make me say "screw it, I'll just bring more batteries" or hurt too bad if things get waterlogged, broken, or lost? Is this asking too much?
It seems this isn't enough for old-school rechargeable Energizer AA's or whatever but might work with newer 3.7v Li-ion led efficient low power draw stuff.
My main trip-up is getting a decent estimate of how much can do how much for how long and nearly all of these common affordable consumer grade things being all about phones and tablets, which to me have no place in the wilderness. I mean, I do bring my phone with me, but it's only there in case we need to call in a medevac or something. Or maybe take some pictures. Not like we're making calls or surfing UF and stuff.