10 Strange Solar Powered Gadgets

Solar powered gadgets are everywhere now, and the ways solar power is incorporated into gizmos is fun to follow. Oh sure we’ve seen the double-take items like solar bras, and the cooler devices like cell phones. But so many are just down right strange. We’ve gathered up a handful of the odder solar powered devices that have made their way on to the scene. Click through to check them out.

Photo via 724deal

Starting with the silly, here is a desktop gadget that it meant entirely to entertain. The little head and body bobble back and forth, thanks to the tiny solar panel on the base. The point? Perhaps it’s just the very last life line to cling to if you’re dying of boredom.

Photo via Toys and Gadgets

This one is certainly strange, though actually serves a purpose. You can build your own bonsai tree with branches sporting various solar panels. The panels charge up a battery that you can connect your gadgets to. The battery, gadgets, and wires can all be stored inside the base, er, pot. It will lend a very sci-fi look to any home, and if you get bored with the look, just rearrange the branches. It’s one house plant you’ll have a hard time killing, but works just as hard converting sunlight to energy as its greener neighbors.

Photo via Select Solar

This…is a spider. We know it’s so because that’s what the company says it is…and that’s about the only way we’d guess it to be a spider. It does kind of resemble those little jumping spiders that hop on you when you’re laying in the grass at a picnic. Kind of. At any rate, it’s a 21-piece DIY kit that you, or anyone over the age of 8, can put together. If you’re itching to have it, most of the solar powered plasticrap stores sell it.

Photo via Technabob

What solar toy collection is complete without a solar powered rope-climbing monkey?! There’s nothing quite like slapping a solar cell on a piece of plasticrap and calling it educational. This little guy is intended to help kids “appreciate the power of alternative energy.” More likely, they’ll put it together, watch it climb the rope a few times and then it’ll end up at the bottom of the toy chest. If a parent really wants to make a toy educational, they’d grab one that is already at the bottom of the toy chest and teach their kids a cool hack, powering it with solar cells ripped off of the neighbor kid’s solar powered toy monkey that got used twice and tossed aside.

Photo via Gizmag

This is the Odysseus from Aurora. It is basically a low-flying satellite. It can fly in sustained uninterrupted flight for over five years, hanging around altitudes between 60,000-90,000 feet. And, it’s solar powered. It’s a concept device created by Aurora for military use, intended for surveillance and reconnaissance, communications relay and environmental monitoring. Useful, but still definitely a stranger bit of flying solar powered technology than we’re used to.

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Photo via Chinavasion

It’s not too often you think about your tire gauge. Tire pressure, yes; tire gauge, no. Especially the power source for your gauge. In fact, it’s easy to find one that doesn’t require a power source at all. But if you’re concerned that you have to have a digital tire gauge and it has to be reliably powered, well by golly there’s a solar powered one out there for you. So if you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you just have to check your tire pressure, have no fear…the solar cells on your trusty tire gauge won’t let you down.

Photo via Pocket Lint

If you’re looking for a way to line your walkway other than using solar luminaries, this could be a solution. But it looks a little too similar to a radioactive waste bin. We haven’t seen a yard-bound solar gadget light up quite like this, and in fact, one version will glow in an array of colors. The solar cell is on a spike that you set elsewhere, and a wire runs back to the battery in the pot. The makers say you can get as much as 8 hours of glow time in the summer, and as much as 4 in the winter.

Photo via Sunshine Solar

If you don’t want to return to a hot stuffy car, you could try out this solar powered ventilator. Somehow, with the window closed, it manages to clip on to your window and circulate fresh air into the car. Riiight. We’re guessing it actually just clips to your car window and whirrs away, pushing air around the car…nothing special, especially since the price tag is a relatively cheap $38. You might be better off sparing the plastic and just opening you car door and fanning your arms over the driver’s seat a few times before hopping in.

Photo via Gadget.Brando.com

If you want to look strange while walking around with a strange solar gadget, stick this one on the brim of your hat and consider yourself a success. The hefty-looking solar powered fan clips on to your visor and blows air directly into your face. Makes sense for a really hot day, but it might be a little less dorky to use a hand-held solar powered fan. Or, how about just…a fan.

Photo via Dvice

This little “Bugbut” named Nigel takes the cake for strange. Basically it’s a bunch of gadget pieces duct tapped together and powered by a solar cell. It climbs slowly around your desk, creeping out anyone who passes by. You can get one from Jenny, a.k.a. Tinyminds at Etsy. Definitely. Strange. Just keep it and the solar bug zapper a good distance apart.