DIY | Voltaic Systems – Solar DIY and Device Charging

We love it when customers use our panels to design a system that fits their needs. A Dutch customer recently mod-ed his Ortlieb handlebar bag. He wanted a removable and waterproof system. We like the detailed wire work, the storage …

Solar Charger Tutorial – Part 4 Battery Protection

Part 4: How do you protect the battery? The goal of a charge circuit is to protect both the battery and your device. If you don’t have charge protection, you can damage the cells on a battery or cause a …

Solar Buddha Machine

For those of you who don’t already know about the FM3 Buddha Machine, here’s the scoop: The Buddha Machine is a small plastic box that plays meditative music composed by Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian. (source: fm3buddhamachine.com/) The device is …

Solar Powered Lego Car

You know it is going to be a good day at work when you get a solar-powered Lego Car in the mail. The folks at Play-Well sent it to us after choosing to use our panels for this project (if …

DIY Solar Lamp

Here’s a guide to building a USB powered LED lamp compatible with Voltaic Systems products. This is a quick and easy way to convert the solar energy we’ve stored in our Voltaic Systems batteries into light. We’ve used ours when …

Home Solar Charging Station 2.0

It took a bit too long to setup our first home solar charging station, so we made a number of changes in version 2. This one took us less than ten minutes and is a much cleaner implementation. Like the …

DIY Renewable Electricity Class

Voltaic Systems employee, Phillip Stearns will be teaching a 2-day class in DIY Renewable Electricity at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn, NY. Students will learn how to charge AA batteries using our 2-Watt solar panels, as well as from bike driven …

Solar Powered Charging Station

Our products are built to be highly portable, but we’re not always traveling — so how do you get the most out of a small solar power system? I wanted something that was as convenient as plugging into the wall …

Mod the IKEA Sunnan to Charge an iPad2

A while back we covered the nifty Sunnan solar powered desk lamp from IKEA, highlighting its usefulness while making note of some of the things we would like to change. In that list of possible improvements we mentioned increasing the …

EEWeb Interview with Phil Stearns and Jeff Crystal

EEWeb recently interviewed a few of us here at Voltaic. You can read the full interview here to learn more about what we’re working on, what keeps us up at night and our favorite hardware tools. The picture for the …