NOV 30

For me, this would make a nice server solution I've been thinking of; in a waterproof box on the side of the house with the solar cells on the roof overhead - headless of course, it's the way to go anyway, less power, plus it's how I run all of my servers. I'd like to at least have it for a starter 'This site run only by power from the Sun' website! With a Wifi it'd be completely wireless, could use the database inside on my server if I needed to. I have a thin, netstation client, it boots from a CF so no harddrive needed, it's a VIA chipset, I think like this one, so I suspect it's pretty low wattage. With this I'd only need the solar panel and the battery - looks like that's ~400$ to get started.

Anyone have any idea of how much power the batter would store, if it'd keep things spinning overnight? Also, any cheaper options for a solar panel/battery combo for an experiment like this? (have wanted to try this for a long time, but have to stay on the cheap for now, I'm a family geek ya know...

Any comments or advice welcome, thanks!

www.norhtec.com

has a machine that I've bought - runs linux (I think also windows CE if you want) and is very cheap.

So, that's 20W total with the monitor? Still, pretty darn impressive that the entire thing can be run from a small solar panel. What's the CPU and memory on such a device? I would just need to get a small solar cell to power my wireless and I'd be all set for the next power outage...

I've been reading about a laptop battery that can run for ten times more than normal ones. Now I read about a "computer" that runs on solar energy. What will I hear next? A car that flies?

Nah, don't be silly. That's what the future is for. ;)