mastertangler wrote on May 19^th, 2011 at 9:53pm:

The only thing I question is the intensity of the sun in the north country. Sure we can test all day long in Florida and Texas with stellar results but what do you think the chances are in Ontario?

The only thing I can go by so far is that today we had 100% overcast.  The solar panel still pegged out the volt meter's 10 volt setting.  When set at 50 volts, today's readings were about 10% less than full sun and were just about equivalent to full shade readings.

Supposed to be overcast here tomorrow.  I'm draining my 8-AA pack as we speak (connected the batts to a USB cable that I plugged into a 2 speed fan ... its still purring along after 2 hours.)  If it doesn't get stormy, I'll put the unit out and see how quickly I get a full batt charge.

The one feature I like about this unit is that it pumps out 300 mA and this is the low end of what PowerFilm manufactures.  If you need more juice (up to about 60 watts/3600 mA as I recall) they produce a foldable unit for that.  I've taken another solar panel that pushes out 60 mA, but that means the charge time is five times longer.  I also like the marine-grade electrical connector that this panel uses.

dd