Author Voltaic Systems

This contest is closed. Congrats to all the winners! Great to see all the exciting projects in the works including weather, water, garden monitoring, sound art and water fountains. We're getting in the...

FieldKit, a core project of Conservify, was recently awarded the Grand Prize of the 2019 Hackaday Prize. Conservify works to build and develop tools and technologies that make it easy for communities to...

Emergency Solar Power: A Guide to Being Prepared At Voltaic we know the importance of having access to a reliable power source. When disasters strike, one of the first things to go is the electrical power...

We recently caught up with Anne Dangerfield, project manager & field coordinator at Arribada Initiative, to discuss the organization's goal of building a better camera trap. Anne recently became a...

Lots of manufacturers make small solar panels with PET coating. We do not recommend it for any industrial or for any case where you want to frequently use the panels outside. The reason is that PET has...

Thinking about getting your hands on a solar backpack? The crew at BuzzFeed's Worth It recently stopped by our offices to check out the features of our powerful (and popular) OffGrid Solar...

Unlike a AC inverter generators the Voltaic V88 Laptop Battery uses DC power to charge electronics away from the grid. While this will not effect how you charge USB devices such as smartphones and tablets, an...

Conservation Lower Zambezi is a wildlife protection organization located in southeastern Zambia, right on the edge of Lower Zambezi National Park. They run a variety of programs with the local wildlife...

We frequently get asked how to create an IV curve for a solar panel. We show you how to do it with a minimal amount of equipment. Why Generate an IV Curve for a Solar Panel We build out IV curves for our own...

Students at the University of Michigan are building a "high-altitude testing platform for atmospheric and space systems." After a lot of prototyping and test flights, they have arrived at their final...

Open Source Drifting Buoy As sensors and communications hardware drop in price, there are entire new worlds that are opening up for exploration and monitoring. One of those is the ocean. The Maker Buoy Shop...

USB-C Power Delivery: An Intro USB-PD, or USB-C Power Delivery, is a new protocol specification that allows for faster and more flexible charging. It was developed concurrently with USB Type-C (USB-C) which...

Lithium Battery Policy for Domestic and International Flights Can I bring my batteries on the plane? Lithium batteries are allowed on planes, but the rules vary by airline. We look at each major airline and...

To run an IoT device from solar you need to know how much power the device daily consumes (energy budget) and how much power you can produce from solar. Accurate data is extremely important. If your estimate...

Running a flash off a V88 Battery Pack This tutorial will show you how to modify a Yongnuo YN560-III Speedlite flash so that it can be run off the V88. We built this specifically for a remote camera trap...

V88 Portable Laptop Battery with USB-C Power Delivery We are excited to announce the release of our brand new V88 Laptop Power Bank with USB-C Power Delivery (USB-PD). This upgrade allows users with USB-C PD...

All Voltaic battery packs and solar chargers are approved for airline travel. Read more: Lithium Battery Policy by Airline Holiday Gift Guide 2018 Our Holiday Gift Guide 2018 is here, featuring a curated...

The black-capped petrel lives high in the mountains of Hispaniola and makes its nest in a deep burrow, among dense ravines or dry rocky ridges. It is an endangered seabird known as Diablotin (“little...