Give the power of the sun this holiday season with solar power panels and projects! Checkout these Adafruit solar power gift ideas perfect for your green loving friends and off-the-grid projects!
Available At Adafruit
Volta Racers Solar Motorcar Kit – Never go looking for some AAA’s again, this solar racer car requires no batteries! The Volta Racer Solar Motorcar Kit contains all of the necessary parts required to successfully assemble your car – including the worlds first flexible polycrystalline silicon solar cell used for powering toys.
No special tools or batteries are required – just your hands! Makes for a great first electronics toy or project. (read more)
Solar Powered SKULL Blinky LED Pendant Kit from Lumen Electronic – Scary. Solar. Skull-y. The Solar Powered SKULL Blinky LED Pendant by Lumen Electronic Jewelry is an awesome new kit where, with a little soldering, you can make a battery-less blinking skull. That’s right, there’s no coin battery! Instead, a 1 Farad super capacitor is used to store energy. It takes around an hour to make and, when you finish, you can charge it either with a USB or with the power of the sun.
It takes less than 2 minutes or so to fully charge through the USB and 15 minutes from direct sunlight. In darkness, it’ll last for almost 90 minutes – making it the perfect goth accessory for outdoor Disneyland adventures or indoor Bauhaus concerts (you can charge it during the opening act). (read more)
Medium 6V 2W Solar panel – 2.0 Watt – These panels come to us from Voltaic Systems, makers of fine solar-powered bags and packs. These are waterproof, scratch resistant, and UV resistant. They use a high efficiency monocrystalline cell. They output 6V at 330 mA via 3.5mm x 1.3mm DC jack connector. The substrate is an aluminum / plastic composite, specifically designed to be strong and lightweight. They can easily stand up to typical outdoor use including being dropped and leaned on. They’re very high quality and suggested for projects that will be exposed to the outdoors. (read more)
MintyBoost Kit – v3.0 – The world’s first and only open-source hardware charger: The MintyBoost®!
New version! Works with the new iPhone 4 & 5 and more! Please review the Minty Boost project page(s) before purchase and assembly!, some phones require different modifications to the kit to charge properly! Some phones such as the *iPhone 3gs are very sensitive to charging via USB and may not work in all environments or configurations. (read more)
Snap Circuits® Green – Elenco SCG-125 – Learn about energy sources and how to “think green”. Build over 125 projects and learning about environmentally friendly energy and how electricity works. Includes full-colored manual with over 100 pages and separate educational manual. Features-Hand Crank-Solar Cell-FM Radio-Energy Compartment-Rechargeable Battery-Windmill-Clock and Analog Meter. Compatible with the Snap Circuits family of electronic learning kits. (read more)
Round Solar Panel Skill Badge – 5V / 40mA – This skill badge is self-fulfilling! Normally you would get the badge after the project is done, but in this case, the badge can be part of the project! The solar panel is epoxied into a round disc 55mm diameter (about 2.2 inches), its rugged and looks cool besides. We include a sticky foam pin back you can attach to the back of the panel to mount it onto a backpack, jacket or sash.
Of course, it also is a perfectly functional solar panel. There are 10 slivers of solar cell inside for a 5V rated voltage in sun. The output is about 40mA when in bright sun, less in shade or cloudy weather. You can use this to power small, low power projects with a small low power microcontroller or chip and maybe an LED. (read more)
Solar Powered Owl Blinky LED Pendant Kit from Lumen Electronic – This is the Solar Powered Owl Blinky LED Pendant Kit from Lumen Electronic! With a little bit of soldering you can make a battery-less blinking owl. That’s right, there’s no coin battery! Instead, a 1 Farad super capacitor is used to store energy. It takes around an hour to make and, when you finish, you can charge it either with a USB or with the power of the sun.
It takes less than 2 minutes or so to fully charge through the USB and 15 minutes from direct sunlight. In darkness, it’ll last for almost 90 minutes – making it the perfect accessory for forest séances with your witch friends or indoor Owl City concerts (you can charge it during the opening act). (read more)
We’re excited for the Holiday Season here at Adafruit, and we can’t wait to share that excitement with you! Stay tuned into the blog where you will find new, handpicked gift guides five days a week from November 9th through December 24th, 2015 alongside holiday themed tutorials and builds!
Free Deals
Adafruit offers exciting deals and free items when you shop with us. As of October 13th, 2015 we are currently offering:
- Adafruit Perma-Proto Half-sized Breadboard PCB – Single for order $99 or more
- Adafruit Trinket – Mini Microcontroller – 5V Logic for orders $149 or more
- Adafruit Pro Trinket – 5V 16MHz for order $249 or more
Adafruit Holiday Deadlines 2015
Here are your 2015 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
The Adafruit Shipping Department works hard to get your orders out as quickly as we can, but once they’re in the hands of our carriers they’re out of our control.
Carriers have been struggling to keep up with the sharp rise in online orders. UPS, FedEX, and USPS all experienced delivery delays over the last few years.
So all the Adafruit Shippers say: Please be sure you get your gifts early! Order as soon as you can! Once you place your order we’ll ship like the wind!
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 11, 2015 – There is no guarantee that UPS Ground packages will arrive by December 24.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 17, 2015 – Arrive by 12/24/2015.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 18, 2015 – Arrive by 12/24/2015.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 21, 2015 – Arrive by 12/24/2015.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday or Sunday service for UPS or USPS.
Friday, Dec. 25, 2015, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Friday, Jan. 1, 2016, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday– December 11, 2014 – Arrive by 12/24/2015 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders)): Place orders by Friday – November 20, 2015. Can take up to 30 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/25/2015 or sooner, but not a trackable service and cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/2015.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 5, 2015. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2014 or sooner.
Gift Certificates are always available at any time.
When in doubt contact us!
