We test-charged an iPad with our solar backpack and it worked, but with two caveats: 1) The iPad charges from a USB port like a phone, but its battery is 25 Watt hours (about 5x that of an iPhone), so charging the iPad will take about 5x as long. 2) You’ll need to put the iPad into sleep mode for it to charge. If you use our iPod adapter, the iPad will charge while on.
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Customer update: the “iPad charged from 19% to 51% during three and a half hours” from the USB V11 battery. We’re typically hearing that customers are getting 1/3 of a charge from a full Voltaic battery.
This is not a bug in our charger, it is due to the size of the battery and the charge circuitry within the iPad. Since the iPad has such a large battery, it is designed to charge best off a wall charger or high-powered USB port found on a Mac and some other computers. If you plug it into a normal USB port on a PC, you’ll get 2.5 Watts instead of the 10 Watts or more you get from a high-powered USB port.
If you want to solar charge your iPad from one of our Backpacks, you should plan on plugging it into a full Voltaic battery at night or at a time time when you’re not planning to use the device. We are going to do more testing, but it took us an hour to get from 77% to 83% charge. One thing we haven’t tested fully is ability to charge direct from the solar panels (6 Volt setting) via our iPod/iPhone adapter.
You might also want to carry a spare battery as it will take about 3 full Battery Pack V11s to fully charge the iPad.
The other option is to use our Generator battery, which outputs 2Amps / 10 Watts and will appear more like a wall outlet to the iPad, although we currently out of stock.
Update: A customer using our earlier Silver JetPack battery (14.4 Watt hours capacity) reports going from 38% full to 81% in three hours. He did put the iPad into sleep mode before charging.
The Spark will charge an iPad well (as will the Fuse 10W, Array and Generator). It is currently not possible to add more panels to the Spark. If you want more more power, we suggest going with the Generator that has 16 Watts instead of 8 with the Spark.
Will the laptop charge a macbook pro then a iPad 2? Let me know when you get one for iPad
We don’t really understand the question – could you write to support@voltaicsystems.com with a bit more detail of what you’re looking to do?
Hi! I’d like to buy a Fuse Solar Charger to charge my iPad 2. It’s ok?
It’s big enough to hold my ipad inside?
Thank you!
It will charge an iPad 2 via the internal battery, but slowly. You’ll need our optional iPod/iPhone/iPad adapter for it to work.
Unfortunately, it won’t fit in the Fuse. If you can wait, we’ll be releasing a iPad solar charger in about a month.
Tanks for your reply!
Has the charge issue been resolved with the iPAD?
Would it be best to recommend to iPAD owners to use the AC and DC chargers?
The last updates were in 2010. Thought I should check before trying it.
Hi Matt,
It seems to depend a bit on which version iPad you have as well as your patience. Our current 4 Watt offerings will charge an iPad and iPad 2, although slowly (see numbers above) and we recommend you purchase our iPhone adapter. We are still working on getting our iPad specific case launched and hope to have that ready soon. See this post for the results of that test: https://blog.voltaicsystems.com/ipad2-charger-test/
Good question. I haven’t timed it, but the iPad does appear to charge directly from the panels (without the battery as an intermediary). Assuming, this is true and the iPad is taking the charge relatively efficiently. It might also work to put two Amps in parallel for 8 Watts which *might* bring it down to 8 hours or so.
I’m not sure how efficient the change along the car adapter path is. If anyone has an iPad and one of our bag and commits to do some testing, I’m happy to send them the extra parts.
I was wondering if it would be possible to charge directly from the panels instead of useing so many batteries. Ipad useing the 12v car adaptor that you can buy here and purchase a male adaptor bit that would have a usb terminal in it? how long would that take to charge?