The fully functional prototypes are complete. Yes, that’s prototypes-plural because I have two units, with one minor difference: Prototype 2 has two USB ports, and can charge two devices at once (although, only one port supports Apple i-devices). Also, while assembling the second unit, I documented the process if you’re curious to see how that works…
In general, I’m happy with the prototypes. I’ll be carrying them around with me, and will be taking them to Burning Man as a kind of field trial. Having said that, there are already a couple of changes I know I’d like to make for production. The biggest changes will be in the internal charging circuit (the one that takes power from solar panels and charges the internal battery). For the prototype, I’m using Adafruit’s solar LiPoly charger, which is the perfect off-the-shelf solution, but, for my production units, I’ll probably modify the board (which is Open Source) to better suit my particular needs.
Before I start putting too much effort into the production version though, I need to figure out whether or not there will even be a production run. So, the next big item on the todo list is to start a Kickstarter campaign, and for that, I need to make a video…
