ROCKPALS SP003 100W Portable Solar Panel for Solar Generator and USB Devices, Compatible with Jackery/EF/Bluetti/Anker/Goal Zero Power Station, Foldable Solar Panel Charger for Outdoor Camping Travel

I purchased my first Rockpals 100W solar panel about 18 months ago and it has performed very well in charging my Jackery solar generator. Having just purchased another Jackery, I decided to get a second Rockpals 100W solar panel to support it. I also have two Jackery 100W solar panels which can run parallel, but for camping I use the Rockpals for these reasons – 1) the suitcase style is handy to transport 2) you can hang it from the strong grommets installed at both ends, 3) it comes with a variety of connectors that come in handy, and 4) three USB ports are included.Yesterday I discharged the Jackery 1000 to 54% and decided to run the Rockpals today to monitor the performance. Set up the system outdoors at 10AM with full sun, no clouds. Input from Rockpals to Jackery was 82-83Watts until 11 AM, when it jumped to 88W and stayed there pretty much consistently until 1PM when the clouds starting rolling in. Why did it jump at 11 AM? I surmise the rising of the sun produced more solar. Experimented with different positions of the panel, from laying flat to almost standing up. The best performance was around 45-50% angle. Laying flat on the patio dropped the input to 50W so need to make a mental note of that.At 1PM the Jackery charged to 74%, so I gained 20% in three hours with just one 100W panel, which I was pleased with overall. Could I get more from running my two Jackery 100W solar panels parallel on a sunny day? Perhaps – need to experiment with that another time. But for now this review is about Rockpals.For a 100W solar panel to give 88W and at times even 90W input, I am very pleased. If you have a smaller Jackery, like a 500 or a 240, a 100W panel should give you a full charge on a sunny day. Now I must insert at this point that I live in a high altitude, dry desert environment with a majority of sunny and clear skies, which may differ wildly from a cloudy humid part of the country. For the previous reviewer that stated this is only a 50W panel on full sunlight, I beg to differ. I believe it depends on what part of the country one lives, as humidity can adversely affect solar gain and performance.I’ve read reviews where folks complain about Rockpals not having a stand to prop up the panel. No worries here….I used a wooden plant stand and my garden watering can to prop up both ends and we were in business. Lets me exercise my resourcefulness. For the price this is a high quality product with adaptability on many levels. Look for the deals that pop up now and then, you won’t be disappointed.

This is a wonderful solar panel for charging anything.48v Lithium ion chargingI started to use it to charge my 48v battery packs for my etrike which you will need a boost controller. The boost controller takes the output from the panel which is rated at 18v but is really 21v and boosts it only in one direction, up. So you can charge any battery that is higher than 21v with a boost controller such as the MPT-7210A Charge controller which is a very cool cheap controller. When charging any battery you always set the charging values a little higher and the best way to know the values is to look at your charger that came with the battery. For my 48v battery the values are 54.6v and 3a. You can see that this panel can get to the 54.6v through the boost controller but can only at that voltage produce a little less than 2a because Amps = Watts / Volts. This is a 100w panel and at full power putting out 54.6v it can produce 1.83a but it would be a little less because of power loss in the boost controller. This means it will charge but slower than my wall charger.18v garden tool batteriesNow this is the tricky part. There are two option to do this.Option 1. The panel puts out 21v but that needs to be controlled through a charge controller. If you use the mentioned boost controller MPT-7210A it cannot charge an 18v because the boost controller can only charge higher batteries than 21v. So we have to reduce the output to 9v and then let the boost controller handle the charging. The MPT-7210A boost controller can only operate at voltages over 8v because it does not have a separate power supply, the power for it comes from the input power. To drop the voltage from 21v to 9v you can use DC Buck Module, DROK Adjustable Buck Converter and then put the 9v into the MPT-7210A boost controller.Option 2 This is experimental and in a week I will have the component to test. The solar panel has a QC3.0 USB port which can provide 9v but it defaults to 5v unless it is told to provide 9v. How you force it to send 9v is use a Beioust QC3.0 trigger which goes in the USB port and has a USB out at 9v. You will then need a QC3.O USB cable because the amperage is higher than a normal USB cable. Get a 60W 5A QC3.0 cable and use the red and black wire to the MPT-7210A boost controller. So you have from panel USB > QC3 USB Trigger > MPT-7210A boost controller > 18v battery pack. This method can only supply 9v 2.5a = 22.5W which means the 18v can only charge at 1.25a .Option 1 should charge at a full amperage while charging.Option 2 will have limited amperage so will charge slower but it is an interesting way to use USB to charge an 18v battery.

This is about the most portable 100w panel I’ve seen. When I say that I mean that it’s accurately rated for 100 watts. More portable “100w” panels that were more portable. They just didn’t deliver even a solid 50 watts. I can toss this thing in the yard and be generating 60-70 watts without even optimizing it. When I use the MC4 connectors and some 10AWG cable, I can get 80-90 watts if the panel is faced properly. That puts this panel in line with my RichSolar flexible 100 panel setup. Now this panel will run you about $2 a watt which is very high for solar. It’s important to note though that this panel folds up and is very manageable. I’d buy this over a GoalZero Boulder every time. It’s actually portable. It actually puts out somewhere close to rated wattage, and it comes with a myriad of connection options. I love this thing.UPDATE: I have found this panel so useful, I ordered a second one.2nd UPDATE: I gave this panel a real adverse weather test. My Yeti 1000 was getting dangerously low and rain was forecast so I put my Boulder and my Rockpals 100 out. An early storm hit and I scrambled to get my RockPals out of the rain. The Boulder is advertised as water proof so I left it out. Once the storm passed I put the RP 100 back out. Of course it started to rain again. I decided to see if the RP could handle the rain, so I used plastic wrap to waterproof the 8mm connector and placed the panel flat so the USB connector was underneath the panel face. Then I left it in a massive thunderstorm.Once the rain passed I checked the zipper pouch and found is a little damp but not wet and the USB charger light was still on. I tested the power generation at it was still out generating the Boulder. Your results may vary, but one of my RP 100s sailed right through a large thunderstorm and came out the other side producing energy.

I ran into performance issues. Glad to share the customer service is responsive and helpful.The product seems to have good quality. Casing material and the panel looks pretty sturdy. Visually flawless.The only concern is the charging output seems underperformed. But if you give it enough time and good sun, it does the job and keep my battery station charged when I’m off the grid camping this summer.Overall it’s a good product.

en la casa de campo no tengo luz y con esto y el inversor tenemos acceso a licuadora, lamparas, t.v. además de que es energía limpia y nos la ofrece la naturaleza (sol)

Product works as intended.In direkt sun during Winter (January) in germany -> 70-80 Watts that arrives at my Power Bank (Bluetti - EB3A)

Works great for my 240wh Jackery solar generator. Love the 3 usb charging dock at the back, one is also a fast charger 3.0. light and very easy to set up! Jackery panel was close to $400, I saved almost $200 buying this . Definitely recommend.

Edit: I cannot bury the lead with this review, please understand the customer service is amazing.This panel will only produce 55w in full sun with an incident angle of 90degrees. It is not as advertised, I have contacted Rockpals support and am awaiting their reply; otherwise I will be returning it.Edit: Rockpals has responded and they are going through the steps to investigate and make it right.Edit Rockpals sent a replacement solar panel, very quick response. The new panel has the identical performance however; and I have validated my load can charge on solar at up to 200w so it is not the charge controller or battery. Looks like you need to buy two of these and wire them in parallel to get the advertised performance. Not happy, will be returning soon.Edit: Now I understand why people, even with product issues, give these a high rating; the customer service is amazing and second to none. They are committed to not only your satisfaction but, I believe, product improvement. They have gone above and beyond to try and make this right.