Power Monkey Explorer

[stickbow]

Hi All
I splashed out Monday and bought a Powermonkey explorer, having played with it yesterday and today I am very pleased with it.
It came about 75% charged and I have charged 2 different phones to full charge (in about the same time as my home charger) and used about half the power in the monkey, I have charged it using the solar slave and after about 2 hours in cloudy conditions there was a definate improvement in the amount of charge in the unit, it can be charged from the mains just about all over the world (it comes with all the adapters) or from a computer via the supplied usb cable or from the sun and although this will be slower it certainaly works well.
The unit is water resistant and comes with 9 different adapters for different phones and I-pod and psp/Creative zen, and you can buy more from the website http://www.powertraveller.co.uk

I will try out the solar slave on a sunny day and I think it will work better, also you can charge direct from the powermonkey or direct from the solarslave, so you have 2 options.
The powermonkey will hold a charge for about a year so it will be usefull for taking away and topping up the phones or I-pods.
http://www.powermonkey-explorer.com

 

[SimonM]

Looks like a useful gadget. I'm due to spend a couple of weeks camping in the woods on the edge of Windermere this summer with school and it would be nice to keep my PDA charged up for the duration!

Also I notice that Cotswolds sell it, and we (FM's) get discount, bonus!

Simon

 

[Jared]

I see they have released their 2xAA Powerchimp version.

Wonder how that stacks up against the explorer, having the ability to charge AAs directly, and then use them, or charge other devices seems a win.

 

[stickbow]

Hi Again
I had a look at the powerchimp and yes it takes 2 normal AA rechargable batteries but it only has about half the power of the monkey and will only recharge a phone once or maybe twice, but if you want to recharge the batteries from the sun it will do it but takes a long while.
They are bringing out a bigger version called a power gorilla and solar gorilla soon for recharging laptops and things (laptops in a wood, good god whats next)