I never shared pictures of the solar powered phone charger I made a while ago. I had been wanting to use solar panels on a project for a while because I think they’re cool, and solar power is awesome, but I couldn’t think of anything very interesting… so I made another phone charger, because chargers are useful, and it would be handy in the event of the apocalypse. Which, of course, is the reasoning behind most things I do.

I usually get my project cases from Radio Shack, and that’s also where I got this solar panel, all for less than $10.

Drilled a few holes for lights and switches.

I picked a pink LED for the indicator light since I don’t usually do much with pink electronics.

Test it all out on the breadboard… always a good idea before soldering things in place.

Hastily spray painted it silver, with a pink pattern on the side.

Inserted the lights, switches and USB port for power. Not pictured, but I glued the solar panel to the top. Not the slickest solution, but it works well enough.

Shine some light on it–it works!

Charging in action. (See the date? Told you I did this a while ago.)

That’s pretty much it! I often carry it around with me as part of my EDC but I haven’t had tons of opportunities to use it yet. Maybe during the summer.