Is the Julian’s reviews channel now dead with everything uploaded to this account? Did you forget your login details Julian – go on, you can tell us, we can keep a secret 😉

I went to Banggood, they have up-rated the solar panel to 10 watts….. I was impressed at the price for a 5 watt charger, not for the 10 watt, just because they cheated on the rating, lol…. You keep up the good work, love your post bag…. etc….

nice rucksack , too bad its 65$ wich is way to much , id pay 30 for it at best

What all the faffing around with using Powerbanks as a load? This application is precisely why you own Electronic Loads.

Rucksack is german 😀

How sensitive is the panel to bending?

I don’t see the point in things like this unless you literally spend the entire day out in the sun in the middle of nowhere. Just carrying a moderately sized powerbank (or a few) will be cheaper and more convenient

That zip on the side is for running your headphone cable out of the bag and to your head. It can then be zipped up to the top without the items falling out and without needing to access via the main opening.

I actually have a 5W solar backpack for some time now. It proved to be not as convenient as it sounds like.
The supplied 5W panel was broken after 4 days, looks like the connections between the cells got a problem.
I bought another, slightly larger panel, but this wasn`t good too. And I found out why. Putting a panel on a backpack isn`t a good idea for several reasons.

As the backside of the cell is covered and thermally insolated, those panels get incredibly hot. with a flir i could measure 83°C on the hottest spots of the panel. A foldable solar panel just next to it with uncovered back only hit 57°C. You loose a lot of power with temperatures like that. I think that was also the reason that the first panel broke. a lot of thermal expansion and retraction of the glued cells inside.

Second negative point is, that the backpack has to be in full sunlight to collect reasonable mAh. That also means that the backpack itself gets hot and all what`s inside. Not good for powerbanks and mobiles inside connected to the panel.

The third negative point is that it collects very little energy walking around. I used it for 7 days on mallorca island and gained 2Ah total. And that only because I paid attention to always aim it to the sun while resting. Most of the energy was collected in those phases. One sunny day running around 8h without those breaks, just on the back just collected 180mAh.

The other negative point is that now, after about three month of usage, the panel is covered with scratches and marks. You always hit the walls or else with the panel it seems.

I came to the conclusion that a foldable 15€ 6W solar panel is the way better way to harvest solar power backpacking.

I looked. The Chinglish is out in full glory!

I’d assume the back section is for a laptop and the side zip is to have cables passing through, for a powerbank for example. The panel might be 10W but the maximum output of the USB is 5W. This is usually to make sure you can get enough out even in poor sun conditions.

if it was actually sunny enough to power a solar cell, i would not want to be wearing a backpack. a simple t-shirt would be my go to choice, then go to the pub if you need to plug your phone in to charge it up.

I’m looking for a good powerbank for the money and a power monitor that is able to measure capacity of a powerbank. What would you recommend?

greeny brown = olive drab

How easy will it break? hit it with a hammer or stand on it and lets see if it will still work. a rucksack needs to be able to withstand abuse or it’s no good

*”Outdoor Camping Solar Backpack Rucksack Travel Charger Pack With 10W Solar Panel”*
“Solar Panel: Sunpower brand cell, High efficiencty
Transfer rate: 22.5%
Power: 5W
Output: 5V”

I look forward to seeing you wearing that when shopping near your Mediterranean Workshop 🙂