We recently came across the the Solar Stella, a project by John Wilson in which he upgrades his Stella Amp to run off of solar power. We were particularly interested because he uses a Voltaic 2-Watt solar panel to power the amp.
“When I designed the Stella amp a couple of years ago, I realized that I could make the amp run at 3 volts. I knew right then that I wanted to make a solar powered version of the amp. A few months ago, I grabbed one off the shelf and picked up everything I needed from Adafruit to make it happen.”
The original open source Stella Amp kit can be found on Wilson’s site for musically inclined DIY’ers. The solar upgrade just requires a few more parts from Adafruit, one of which is our own 2-Watt solar panel. The end result is a compact and portable amp that can go anywhere without ever needing to be charged.
Hi John,
My name is Bisi Obateru, a student of urban planning at San Francisco State University. I’m currently working on a project that involves solar powered amplifiers. I’m reaching out to see how much your idea as developed and if I maybe able to acquire one of your amps to prototype this project. I’m currently drafting the website and I have included it in this email so you get an idea of what our city stage intends to accomplish.
Thanks
Hi Bisi,
We did not make the solar amp, it was made by John Wilson using one of our solar panels – here is the link to his site – http://www.crazybutable.com/projects/solar-stella
Jeff