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Hammock Fan Solar Charger Battery System.

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Xare

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Hi,

I am a Hammock Camper.

And I like to hang a fan on my ridgeline to keep cool when its hot. A ridgeline is just a bit of line that goes from the foot end of the hammock to the head and and it holds the bugnet up off you. You can lay down and hang stuff from it like lights or the fan :)

I have a 5 inch O2 cool fan. It runs on 2 D cell batteries. And it also has a port on the side for DC power.

With the 2 D cells it can run 40 hours on low and maybe 6-8 on high.

Instead of buying a bunch of D cells and a bay to charge them. I was thinking it might be nice to use a 6 volt battery.

My idea is to use a Solar Charger to top off the 6 volt during the day and use the battery to run the fan at night when I sleep in the hammock.

I can also use the 6 volt to charge my Cell Phone, mp3 player and GPS with a USB cigarette adapter.

My guess is that the 6 volt will run the fan on high for much longer then 2 D's

But I will need a DC to DC adapter that can take power from a 6 volt and bring it down to 3 vdc and 500mA because thats what the fan requires.

I have found 1 Adapter that I think will work. its a Powerstream 12 volt to 1.5V, 3V, 4.5V, 6V, 7.5V, 9V Volt DC/DC Converter #PST-DC292


Does this sound correct and is their anything I need to look for when buying a battery or solar charging panel ?

I was looking at the Guide 10 Adventure solar charger. It comes with its own AA battery pack. But I see no way to change the USB output into DC for my fan.

I know the four AA's would be weaker then the 6 volt but they should run the fan on high all night and they could be recharged in the morning in a couple hours.

Any suggestions are welcome. I am just bouncing around ideas.
 
The Powerstream converter should do what you want but its efficiency is 54-78% so you will be wasting some power to convert from 6V to 3V.

You can use one of these to get DC from a USB connector.

Edit: Look for the capacity you need in a solar panel to recharge the battery in a timely manner. Be aware that the solar panel power quoted is generally perpendicular to the maximum noon sun and will be less for any other conditions.
 
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It looks like the USB output of the AA battery pack is locked 5 volts.

If I plugged that into my fan I guess it would not run or blow the motor.
 
I just found out I can get a USB fan to plug into the USB output of the AA battery pack the Solar Charger can power.

I think It will get a longer runtime with the 4 x AA battery pack over a 6 volt anyway.
 
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