How to Make a Solar-Powered DS Lite

Making A Solar-Powered DS Lite

It's the son of the Solar Wii! Or is it "sun" of the Solar Wii? Whatever. After putting together a mobile, solar-powered Wii recently at Toms Hardware Guide, we got a few comments and suggestions about creating a solar-powered DS Lite. As a result, we procured a DS Lite and began to mod once again. As was with the last solar power mod, this one was extremely easy and inexpensive to put together. In fact, it was even easier than the Wii project because we had a handy solar-powered mobile phone charger sitting in the lab. And it was roughly the same size and dimensions as the DS Lite, luckily (135 x 80 x 10 mm).

View Slide Show (31 images)

Here are all the ingredients:

Nintedo DS Lite Soldius 1 solar power charger Mario Kart DS Metroid Prime: Hunters DS Metal latch, glue, spray paint and other accessories

How We Built It: Building a solar-powered DS Lite didn't take very long. In fact, the longest part of the process might have been the arduous process of purchasing a DS at our local Best Buy. In any event, THG videographer modified the Soldius 1 solar-powered mobile phone charger so that the DS Lite's battery charger cable connected directly to the two solar panels. Max fashioned a simple connection between the wires, and that was pretty much it. The aesthetic work on the Solar DS was a bit more complicated. I purchased a black DS Lite and of course, the Soldius 1 was an off white colour. As a result, we spray-painted the panels, latch and top cover of the DS Lite black so it would look better.

We wanted to build it so that the panels would be exposed to direct sunlight during outdoor play, which would eliminate the need for the battery and allow the unit to run entirely on solar power. As a result, we couldn't simply stick the two solar panels to the back of each side of the DS. Instead, we kept the Soldius 1 intact for the most part and attached it to the DS with a folding metal latch. We then glued the latch to the top side of the DS Lite so that when you open the DS, the two panels can also unfold on the back side of the handheld device and face the sun.

View Slide Show (31 images)

While the system maximizes sun exposure for outdoor play, the metal latch ended up being a little heavier than we expected. Because of this, the weight of the latch tended to pull the top screen backward if it was not supported by the player's hands. We could have gone with a plastic latch that would be less sturdy, but then using plastic isn't very eco-conscious, is it?

How it Works: We concocted the solar DS Lite with the goal of having it run entirely on solar power, and we succeeded. The Soldius 1 solar power charger originally offered an output of 5.6V in direct sunlight; however, after Max made modifications to the panel, he was forced to removed the device's circuitry so that the DS battery cable could connect directly to the solar panels. That led to the output dropping to approximately 4.0V. But it hardly mattered, since the DS Lite's battery supplies 3.7V. So we were able to play the Solar DS outside continuous on nothing but solar energy. Unfortunately, the power would cut out when heavy clouds passed overhead and obscured the sun. The sensible thing to do was put the battery back into the DS and use the solar panels to charge the device. This process takes less than two hours to fully charge the Solar DS, which isn't bad at all. And it doesn't cost you a penny on your electric bill.

For more on the solar-powered mods, check out the article on how we built the Solar Wii.

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