Another Sketchy Solar Project - SolarHug

[vargoal]

Hi EEVBlog Members,

I found this project while browsing Kickstarter(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1609919685/solarhug-bracelet-external-charger-powered-by-the?ref=category_popular). I started to smell bulls**t when they claimed that an hour of charge = 10% phone charge in their video then went on to say 1 minute = 2% charge on your phone.. Also I doubt it will charge that fast as only one side can face the sun which equates to like 60 cm^2 of surface area. As I am not a solar energy expert I would like to get the communities feedback.

[electr_peter]

Hi, vargoal,

You are right, there are some reasons to be suspicious about this KS project.

• no actual prototype is presented clearly - only foggy pictures and CG
• it seems that there is no final prototype
• it is almost 100% sure that there is no final product
• funding target is very low for technical device
• delivery date is very early - no way they can achieve that if there is no final product yet
• team seems to be young group of CG designers, almost no engineers
• additional features are strange
• pledge levels indicate few versions, one with inductive charging -> risky
• general idea is flawed - have a massive weight on your wrist and connect your phone to it via few cm of wire? That is stupid.
• solar energy claims are very optimistic

I would not bet on this. I seems more like a scampaign.

[suicidaleggroll]

I started to smell bullshit when they claimed that an hour of charge = 10% phone charge in their video then went on to say 1 minute = 2% charge on your phone.

There are two "recharge" times being tossed around on that page.

1) an hour of sunlight will charge the bracelet's internal 2000mAh battery by 5%
2) a minute of plugging your phone into the bracelet will charge the phone by 2% (using the internal battery in the bracelet to make up the difference, since the solar panel is nowhere near that powerful)

Neither of these claims are very risky IMO, but they're glossing over the "usability" factor here.  In order to charge the internal battery  by 5%, you need to be out in bright sunlight for a full hour.  That means to get a full charge, you need to be out in the sun for 20 hours.  If you go on a 1 hour run in the sun per day, it would take 20 days to fill up the battery.  If you live somewhere that's overcast 30% of the time, you're looking at a month of daily 1-hr runs to refill a battery that will be exhausted after charging your phone ONCE.  And that's if you run like a crazy person with your arm extended to get maximum exposure to the sun.  If you run like a normal person, you'll probably only get 1/3 of their advertised solar power, so now you're looking at 3 months of daily 1-hour runs for a single charge.

Their "team" is just a bunch of marketers and business development people, and their "plan" is to raise a bunch of money and then outsource ALL of the development to China, where they'll likely get back a complete POS in return, if they get back anything at all (remember Kreyos?)

[Stonent]

One could always contact the websites whos logos are on their page. Posting their logos and saying "the press already knows about it" but not linking to the stories is kind of dodgy.

Also I don't think Apple licenses their "Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad" logos for free.

[LabSpokane]

Absolutely no fuckingwaywhatsoever is that enough solar panel to charge at a 360mA rate.
 A 10w Kyocera KS10 solar panel is about 30x36cm and will charge at a maximum rate of 625mA if everything is perfect.

The cells used in that device sound like thin film, which are substantially worse than the above polycrystalline panel I pulled the data off of.

[mikerj]

I started to smell bullshit when they claimed that an hour of charge = 10% phone charge in their video then went on to say 1 minute = 2% charge on your phone.

There are two "recharge" times being tossed around on that page.

1) an hour of sunlight will charge the bracelet's internal 2000mAh battery by 5%
2) a minute of plugging your phone into the bracelet will charge the phone by 2% (using the internal battery in the bracelet to make up the difference, since the solar panel is nowhere near that powerful)

Neither of these claims are very risky IMO, but they're glossing over the "usability" factor here.

What about the claim close to the top of the main "story":

Go from 0% to 100% of your Phone battery in less than 50 minutes

That's the sort of stuff that would really make roses grow well.

[suicidaleggroll]

What about the claim close to the top of the main "story":

Go from 0% to 100% of your Phone battery in less than 50 minutes

That's the sort of stuff that would really make roses grow well.

What about it?  That's the phone recharge time, not the bracelet recharge time.  50 minutes to charge a phone is pretty typical, you'd get the same result from any charger, battery powered or not.

Again, there are two times/rates being discussed on that page:
1) Recharging your PHONE BATTERY using the BRACELET'S BATTERY
2) Recharging the BRACELET'S BATTERY using SOLAR

ALL of the claims about recharging the phone battery are referring to #1, and they're nothing special.  As far as those are concerned, this might as well be just another of the hundreds of portable batteries that provides 5v for recharging any 5v device (phone, tablet, whatever).  In fact, that's all this project is...just another portable battery that you can use to recharge any modern USB-charging device.  The only unique thing about this project is how you charge IT, which rather than using a wallwart or USB, it uses solar, at an unusably slow rate.

I don't understand why this project is causing so much confusion.  It's not using solar power to charge your phone directly, all it is is another portable battery-powered charger like this or this.  The only difference is that this one is in "bracelet" form, and rather than using wall power to charge it, it uses solar.  That's it.

[SolarHug]

no actual prototype is presented clearly - only foggy pictures and CG
it seems that there is no final prototype
it is almost 100% sure that there is no final product

- We are actually working and improve final version. Pictures on campaign is real, but slightly modified in photoshop. If you want real working prototype, check this old video -



funding target is very low for technical device
- We are counted target lot of time and it's ok. We have price quotations for all components and forms.


delivery date is very early - no way they can achieve that if there is no final product yet

- Yes, delivery date is very early, because we are very handy

team seems to be young group of CG designers, almost no engineers
- Yes, we are young, but, on which planet is that problem? (and Dusan Zelenik - Business Development, he is Ing. and PhD.)


additional features are strange
pledge levels indicate few versions, one with inductive charging -> risky

- Of course, you can choose version with inductive charging or not. It's not strange.

generall idea is flawed - have a massive weight on your wrist and connect your phone to it via few cm of wire? That is stupid.

80grams isn't massive weight, it's like normal watches...
And if you don't like capital idea - Portable solar external charger on your wrist, sorry, but it's your subjective opinion.


solar energy claims are very optimistic
We are now still working on increase the effectiveness of solar panels.
Right now we are dealing with a company that can supply us solar panels with 22% efficiency. (Now our product have 10% efficiency)

yess, "suicidaleggroll" write it right - there are two charging times

"Again, there are two times/rates being discussed on that page:
1) Recharging your PHONE BATTERY using the BRACELET'S BATTERY
2) Recharging the BRACELET'S BATTERY using SOLAR"

One could always contact the website's whos logos are on their page. Posting their logos and saying "the press already knows about it" but not linking to the stories is kind of dodgy.
Also I don't think Apple licenses their "Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad" logos for free.

It's impossible create clickable link on kickstarter, but you can click on it in our website - www.solarhug.com/press, and logos "Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad" isn't official, we want only show you option - choose between Apple lightning or Android MicroUSB cables

[LabSpokane]

solar energy claims are very optimistic
We are now still working on increase the effectiveness of solar panels.
Right now we are dealing with a company that can supply us solar panels with 22% efficiency. (Now our product have 10% efficiency)

Outstanding news. A solar wrist charger for your telephone will then only be half as absurd.

[Derresh]

So... as we know form all the calculations Dave did for the solar roadways thing, you need the right position for the solar panel to be efficient.

So during daily use it will be rather badly positions, assuming it will even see the sun since you have a long sleeve jacket. Not to mention that its a rather fragile thing to be having on your wrist.

Also... would be way more useful if i could keep the phone in my pocket for charging not having to hold it

[electr_peter]

no actual prototype is presented clearly - only foggy pictures and CG
it seems that there is no final prototype
it is almost 100% sure that there is no final product
- We are actually working and improve final version. Pictures on campaign is real, but slightly modified in photoshop.

So no final version is available yet.

funding target is very low for technical device
- We are counted target lot of time and it's ok. We have price quotations for all components and forms.

£70,000 goal seems very low for such intricate item.

delivery date is very early - no way they can achieve that if there is no final product yet

- Yes, delivery date is very early, because we are very handy

I sure hope my postal service would be so "handy" as well.

general idea is flawed - have a massive weight on your wrist and connect your phone to it via few cm of wire? That is stupid.

80grams isn't massive weight, it's like normal watches...
And if you don't like capital idea - Portable solar external charger on your wrist, sorry, but it's your subjective opinion.

I stand by my statement that battery on your wrist is a stupid idea. Ignore solar cells, they are irrelevant to this point.
In pictures you show that cellphone is charged via a short lead coming from battery on wrist. Proper charge time is at least 30 minutes. This means that you have to hold cellphone in/near your wrist all this time - you effectively "lose your arm" for such a long time!
Unless you are stupid enough to hold cellphone all the time in your hand anyway...

[cloudscapes]

Kickstarters should have to supply raw photo output, as well as their "fixed" photos as a requirement.

Of course it'll never happen, but that's how it SHOULD be.

[Stonent]

Absolutely no fuckingwaywhatsoever is that enough solar panel to charge at a 360mA rate.
 A 10w Kyocera KS10 solar panel is about 30x36cm and will charge at a maximum rate of 625mA if everything is perfect.

The cells used in that device sound like thin film, which are substantially worse than the above polycrystalline panel I pulled the data off of.

But they have probably achieved over-unity! 

[snoopy]

no actual prototype is presented clearly - only foggy pictures and CG
it seems that there is no final prototype
it is almost 100% sure that there is no final product

- We are actually working and improve final version. Pictures on campaign is real, but slightly modified in photoshop. If you want real working prototype, check this old video -



funding target is very low for technical device
- We are counted target lot of time and it's ok. We have price quotations for all components and forms.


delivery date is very early - no way they can achieve that if there is no final product yet

- Yes, delivery date is very early, because we are very handy

team seems to be young group of CG designers, almost no engineers
- Yes, we are young, but, on which planet is that problem? (and Dusan Zelenik - Business Development, he is Ing. and PhD.)


additional features are strange
pledge levels indicate few versions, one with inductive charging -> risky

- Of course, you can choose version with inductive charging or not. It's not strange.

generall idea is flawed - have a massive weight on your wrist and connect your phone to it via few cm of wire? That is stupid.

80grams isn't massive weight, it's like normal watches...
And if you don't like capital idea - Portable solar external charger on your wrist, sorry, but it's your subjective opinion.


solar energy claims are very optimistic
We are now still working on increase the effectiveness of solar panels.
Right now we are dealing with a company that can supply us solar panels with 22% efficiency. (Now our product have 10% efficiency)

yess, "suicidaleggroll" write it right - there are two charging times

"Again, there are two times/rates being discussed on that page:
1) Recharging your PHONE BATTERY using the BRACELET'S BATTERY
2) Recharging the BRACELET'S BATTERY using SOLAR"

One could always contact the website's whos logos are on their page. Posting their logos and saying "the press already knows about it" but not linking to the stories is kind of dodgy.
Also I don't think Apple licenses their "Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad" logos for free.

It's impossible create clickable link on kickstarter, but you can click on it in our website - www.solarhug.com/press, and logos "Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad" isn't official, we want only show you option - choose between Apple lightning or Android MicroUSB cables

How about instead of mounting it on your wrist you make it into a hat. Much more area for solar cells and always pointing upwards and your head can handle the extra weight !!

Just my two cents worth