Solar charged phone?

[ayu]

So, here's a little story and a question for ya

My grandfathers grave was decorated with some flowers, statues and such until just a few days ago, when some low life decided to go and grab all the decorations and run away with it. And this has happen before, so I came up with a little experiment to catch the bastard(s).

I have an old smartphone with a decent battery time and a GPS device built into it.
My plan is to remove unnecessary parts from the phone, set it up inside some sort of decoration, and track the bastard that keeps stealing them.

I have everything figured out, except one "little" detail, which is power.
My current idea is to hook the phone up to a very small solar panel that I will somehow "hide" on the decoration.

My question now is, how small can a solar panel be for it to charge a phone that is running 24/7?
And are there solar panels that can be bent so that I can neatly hide it on a decoration or statue of some sort?

The smaller the better, as I would prefer the solar panel to be about the same size as a regular sized smartphone.

Any ideas?

PS: It's currently in the middle of the night here and I am going to sleep, so I haven't had much time to research this, just a thought I came up with a little while ago ^^

[Lundis]

At this time of the year you won't get much solar energy, so I wouldn't be too sure if it's possible at all with a "hideable" solar panel.

Seriously though, who the hell steals flowers from people's graves? That's just retarded :S

[ayu]

At this time of the year you won't get much solar energy, so I wouldn't be too sure if it's possible at all with a "hideable" solar panel.

Seriously though, who the hell steals flowers from people's graves? That's just retarded :S

Indeed it's retarded :S ... but that retard is going DAOWN!

And with "hideable" I would mean a small one, doesn't need stealth capabilities

[computathug]

At this time of the year you won't get much solar energy, so I wouldn't be too sure if it's possible at all with a "hideable" solar panel.

Seriously though, who the hell steals flowers from people's graves? That's just retarded :S

Indeed it's retarded :S ... but that retard is going DAOWN!

And with "hideable" I would mean a small one, doesn't need stealth capabilities

Good luck with catching the A-holes buddy, some people have no morals/scruples

[floodhound2]

Cats,

What type of battery is in it? Take it out and list the voltage and current / hour rating. Ill see if this will work. I suspect a good size solar panel will do the trick.

[floodhound2]

Cats,

Now that I think about it there is an alternative. You could make a simple device that turns on the phone when the object that it is hiding in is moved. This would allow the phone battery to stay somewhat charged, perhaps up to a few months.

I thinks some string and a piece of insulation would do the trick but you will have to decide. It may need something more detailed.

[hotinsidevegas]

I dont mean to interrupt or interject but have you considered the possibility of it being the groundskeepers at the cemetery performing their normal maintenance and duties? I know at the cemetery my family is buried in they remove old decorations that have faded or otherwise seen better days. You say its happenned before, does it happen regularly? does it happen to other graves in proximity? I dont mean to rule out the possibility of theft just that you probably want to start by informing / inquiring the maintenance department.

re: solar phone charger

do you have any idea how much juice is used in watts in a given state such as sleep or active or otherwise. Might give an idea how quickly you discharge your battery. Otherwise as a start you need 5v regulated power into the usb charging/data port of the phone to start with. To accomplish that you can use a higher voltage array of cells and an inefficent linear regulator like 7805 - consider say 9v solar cells to account for voltage drop off of linear regulator. You could use a LDO (low drop off voltage) linear regulator and maybe a 6v array of cells, or maybe some type of buck/boost regulator and whatever voltage. After you worry about voltage you need to worry about amperage since watts = volts * amps (ohms law). say it operates at 1watt in active state you need at least 200mA.

to give you an idea the types of cells found in calculators and solar garden lights typically output right around 1.5v (i wanna say 1.5-1.7 typically) at say 20mA to 40mA. In simple terms it means you are gonna need a sizeable and therefore noticeable solar array. Did i mention it wouldnt be cheap either? not something you'd want thieves scampering off with.

As for making the phone smaller or dismantling it i'd avoid that at all costs - murphy's law aqnd all that. If you really want a small gps GSM tracker type device get one of those $20 jobs from dealextreme.com or something you put a prepaid sim card in and text a gps coord request. you just send it a text and it will spit out where it is. they are cheap, rechargable battery integrated (dunno standby or otherwise) etc.

[ayu]

I dont mean to interrupt or interject but have you considered the possibility of it being the groundskeepers at the cemetery performing their normal maintenance and duties? I know at the cemetery my family is buried in they remove old decorations that have faded or otherwise seen better days. You say its happenned before, does it happen regularly? does it happen to other graves in proximity? I dont mean to rule out the possibility of theft just that you probably want to start by informing / inquiring the maintenance department.

re: solar phone charger

do you have any idea how much juice is used in watts in a given state such as sleep or active or otherwise. Might give an idea how quickly you discharge your battery. Otherwise as a start you need 5v regulated power into the usb charging/data port of the phone to start with. To accomplish that you can use a higher voltage array of cells and an inefficent linear regulator like 7805 - consider say 9v solar cells to account for voltage drop off of linear regulator. You could use a LDO (low drop off voltage) linear regulator and maybe a 6v array of cells, or maybe some type of buck/boost regulator and whatever voltage. After you worry about voltage you need to worry about amperage since watts = volts * amps (ohms law). say it operates at 1watt in active state you need at least 200mA.

to give you an idea the types of cells found in calculators and solar garden lights typically output right around 1.5v (i wanna say 1.5-1.7 typically) at say 20mA to 40mA. In simple terms it means you are gonna need a sizeable and therefore noticeable solar array. Did i mention it wouldnt be cheap either? not something you'd want thieves scampering off with.

As for making the phone smaller or dismantling it i'd avoid that at all costs - murphy's law aqnd all that. If you really want a small gps GSM tracker type device get one of those $20 jobs from dealextreme.com or something you put a prepaid sim card in and text a gps coord request. you just send it a text and it will spit out where it is. they are cheap, rechargable battery integrated (dunno standby or otherwise) etc.

Indeed that's a possibility, but it is allowed by the church there to decorate the grave however we please, and the theft has happened a few times before.
So I think it's theft, although of course I can't be 100% certain.

At the moment I have forfeit this project, as the phone I was going to use has a new purpose, which is to be sold.
A friend wants to buy the phone if I can repair it to a good condition (switch the LCD and Touch screen), for about 150 Euro, so I thought id sell it to him and buy a few RaspberryPi computers when they start selling those at the end of this month ^^