Power Monkey Extreme

[Mad Mountain Mike]

Does anybody have any experience with this power pack / solar charger? My wife bought me one this winter ( not sure because she loves me or wants me out of the house ). Out of the box it seems like a solid little unit, about the same weight as my New Trent with the added ability to solar charge. It's the first power pack that I've seen with a 12v charger, which means if it works well I won't have to carry extra batteries for my older Rino 530 HCX.
I plan on putting it through the paces bear hunting this spring but if anyone has one I'd sure like to hear ahead of time any pros, cons or hesitations you might have with it.
Thanks; Mike

 

[Bonedalien]

I have one season in the books with the power monkey explorer. worked well for what i used it for,keeping a smart phone going 9 days,used as alarm, family contact,ect. the solar component worked well also. maybe not the best, but definitely did its job and is light and compact.Im rolling with it again this seaon.

 

[Mad Mountain Mike]

Good to hear, how many phone charges do you think you could get without recharging the system?

 

[direwolf]

I have been researching the options for backup power as well. The lightest power banks I have seen are around 10000 mAh @ about 8 ounces or I could take 3 extra batteries for my Samsung Note @ 7.5 ounces or a combo solar/battery bank for 10-16 ounces.

My limited experience with the solar was that it was slow and annoying to have to remember to set it up and take down when I was fixated on moving, glassing and stalking. That said it would be a small weight savings if 2 hunters could share one solar.

Taking extra batteries would be the most power for the lightest weight. For me, having extra batteries isn't very useful in daily, non-hunting life. I wind up grabbing a full one when my phone runs down and I don't have time to charge. Problem is making myself charge a battery to full and then remembering to go swap that battery out and put one of the empties on to charge and keeping my extra batteries charged up.

I think I would use the lightweight portable bank a lot when I'm not hunting and it would be easy to keep charged because I could charge it at the same time as my cell phone.

I'm looking forward to hearing other ideas on this topic before I make up my mind.

 

[Bonedalien]

Good to hear, how many phone charges do you think you could get without recharging the system?

i think i got 2 full charges out of it before recharging with solar. yes Direwolf,if you are bivy hunting and camp is on your back the solar would be a pain and i would just pack spare batteries. im hunting out of a spike camp and leave the solar panels out in the sun all day while im gone.

 

[tttoadman]

Does anybody have any experience with this power pack / solar charger? My wife bought me one this winter ( not sure because she loves me or wants me out of the house ). Out of the box it seems like a solid little unit, about the same weight as my New Trent with the added ability to solar charge. It's the first power pack that I've seen with a 12v charger, which means if it works well I won't have to carry extra batteries for my older Rino 530 HCX.
I plan on putting it through the paces bear hunting this spring but if anyone has one I'd sure like to hear ahead of time any pros, cons or hesitations you might have with it.
Thanks; Mike

I am really interested in the ability to charge the 530. I had the Goal Zero guide 10 panel in the sun with the battery pack, and it still couldn't trip my 530 into charge mode. I say that as a 99% truth. at the peak of the summer day when the temps were about 95deg, it charged mine up to 8-10% and then quit. I could never get it to do it again. I called someone at Garmin, and their opinion is no small battery packs or panels can charge the rinos. They said even if you could get it to trip into charge mode, it would take many hrs of solid power to come close to charging the big rino battery. With performance like that, you would likely want to carry the AA battery pack anyway as backup. I also was discouraged by the amount of cordage required to go from the 12V source to the adapter...to the rino car charge cord...to the rino charge "clippy thing" on the back of the battery. I think a guy could carry 8 lithium AA and the battery back, and still be about the same weight as all of that stuff.

It would be great if you found some positive data with this package you have. I will be watching this one.

 

[Beendare]

Good info TT...thx.

I have the Rhino 530 and instead of trading it for a newer unit just going to get the OnX chips for it. I wonder if the newer/smaller units charge easier/better on these new fangled chargers?

 

[Mad Mountain Mike]

tttoadman this isn't very scientific but this is what I did. The power monkey power bank was at 68% and my Rino was at 70% when I plugged it in. It took one hour ( give or take, I didn't sit there watching it ) to bring the Rino to 100% and the power monkey dropped to 34% from 68. I then plugged the power monkey into the solar panel and placed it in direct sun light. In one hour the power bank went from 34% to 50%.
I'll try and remember to check in on it through out the day and see how long it takes to bring it back to 100%.