Hand Held Walkie Talkie Solar Charger Adaptor Help Please

[gracefromspace]

I have a pair of hand held Uniden 77 channel Walkie Talkies. Does anyone know if it it is possible to obtain an adaptor so that they can be solar charged, or if they actually can be solar charged? I have searched everywhere and not yet found anything to enable me to do this. I have all kinds of adaptors for other items I can charge by solar energy (radios, cell phones, torches etc) but yet to find something that will fit correctly into the port on the charging base. Any ideas/knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

[JustABear]

Do they have an adaptor for car charging? If so easy to work around.

[gracefromspace]

No car charger adaptor unfortunately. Apparently standard AAA batteries can be used in place of the NIMH battery packs that are in them, so I may need to buy AAA solar batt's & solar charger. Seems the long way round to doing it, though I could use the AAA batteries for other things too I guess.

[JustABear]

If you already have the radios it may be a tad late to suggest this. I have made certain that all my equipment that requires batteries all take the same type. Occasionally it has meant not getting the exact item I wanted but I believe the benefit of only needing one type of battery is best. For me this is the AA size. For some items that simply must have a different battery...rifle scopes for example... I make sure they will also work without the battery.

JAB

[gracefromspace]

If you already have the radios it may be a tad late to suggest this. I have made certain that all my equipment that requires batteries all take the same type. Occasionally it has meant not getting the exact item I wanted but I believe the benefit of only needing one type of battery is best. For me this is the AA size. For some items that simply must have a different battery...rifle scopes for example... I make sure they will also work without the battery.

JAB

Thanks JAB. Hindsight is wonderful isn't it, as the majority of my equipment takes AA batt's. I did enquire when I purchased the units if they had solar chargers for them or were available and they were a bit vague in answering. I may need to look further afield for something compatible.

[wolfen]

hi there,i suggest you look uo yeticomnz(hes on facebook)talk to mike and let him know wolfen suggested it.he should be able to help you out.

[gracefromspace]

hi there,i suggest you look uo yeticomnz(hes on facebook)talk to mike and let him know wolfen suggested it.he should be able to help you out.

Thanks wolfen, much appreciated

[Denob]

I just picked up a set of GMRS radios and they come with a NiMH battery pack, but can also use 3 X AAA batteries. In fact, the included battery pack looks like 3 X AAA batteries pre wired together. I have a few of these as rechargeables, but as of now, I can only put 4 on solar charge at a time. I do however have a 2 hour charger that will be used while I run the generator to top off water from the well and cool down the fridge.
I do have a couple items that use C or D cells, but everything I buy now must be able to use AA or AAA sized batteries.

I would suggest jerry rigging something to work. An old car battery with a small solar panel and a small inverter would do the trick for simple charging of batteries.

[HeinB]

Grace,

The fact thay your radios will work with standard AAA batteries is a blessing in disguise. For one thing it enables you to change to LSD (Low Self Discharge) NIMH batteries which are vastly superior to the standard battery pack and regular NIMH batteries. Regular NIMH batteries lose a massive fraction of their charge relatively soon after charging even when they are just sitting on the shelf, from memory its something like 10% in just the first DAY !!! LSD NIMH batteries fix this problem, but at the expense of slightly lower capacity. They retain about 90% of their charge after a year on the shelf.

I have a pile of the Camelion LSD NIMH batteries that I have bought progressively from Trademe and now use them everywhere in everything. Like these: http://www.trademe.co.nz/electronics-ph ... 903661.htm

Solar charging the sealed battery packs is not impossible, it's not even that hard if you know what you're doing, but for the average person without electronic knowledge and tools using standard AA and AAA batteries with the appropriate solar chargers is just so much easier.

The two easy options are:
1. Buy a specific AA/AAA solar charger or a few if you want to charge lots of batteries simultaneously.
2. If you have some sort of backup power like a solar+battery+inverter then just buy a regular mains AA/AAA battery charger and run it from your backup power system if/when the time comes.

[gracefromspace]

[quote="HeinB"]Grace,

The fact thay your radios will work with standard AAA batteries is a blessing in disguise......



Thank you HeinB, I had been looking into these Camelion batteries and wondering if I could use them in the radios. It seemed none of the sellers with them could answer my questions or they didn't know for sure etc etc. I have several solar panels for charging various items, one quite large that does all my other gadgets with various adaptors that fit their ports for solar charging. I have very little knowledge of electronics, and to be honest, electronic gadgetry is definitely not my forte so I really appreciate the expertise and simplicity. Thank you so much:D