Solar powered devices?

I was wondering if i can make an item for my mod that would recharge its batteries when in the sun. Like if it had solar panels installed.

Add that and rechargeable batteries I wish was a thing. ;w;

Technically you can do that “charge on the go” thing if you have the UPS item mod installed and use the UPS bionic, at least.

If you know anything about vehicles and crafting, most of that is possible. Solar panels on a single device won’t do you much good. To make it feasible you’d have to make them overpowered. So you’re likely better off making a solar charging cart with bays for removable batteries.

The thing is it would cut out the middle man out of the equation. No longer needing to find a charging station and recharging battery mod or having a high up skill to craft them. Maybe a couple of solar cells would do.

You’d need to make the item deployable, like a funnel, and use the solar panel code from vehicles, should be pretty straightforward. Obviously this isn’t json-only changes.

The issue is that the OP is suggesting something man-portable, from what I can tell.

I intended it to be item specific. Like a solar powered flashlight that was built to be a solar powered flashlight.

Right. Either way, that means the function is tied to the device, not a furniture or vehicle. Not sure how to go about that.

I’m not clear on how you want it to work.
Do you want it to work like a real solar powered flashlight, where you leave it out to charge so it’s ready to use, or do you want it to charge while you’re walking around?

Technically either way could work. In particular, a solar-powered wearable flashlight would work both ways if you wore it.

Either way would work. The only difference is that while walking you could use it while charging. Maybe eliminating the reload of batteries would also make sense.

Yeah. I might suggest having it not recharge if it’s just in your inventory, so you’d need to wield or wear it, or leave it dropped somewhere that gets sunlight.

Yes,that seems reasonable. now if only this gained traction…

If only I knew how to code it. ;w;

If only I knew how to code properly…

Either way, having it charge while wielded is kind of pointless, (worn makes some sense) because you’re going to need hours of charging to get minutes of illumination.

Charging while wielded would only be for the sake of consistency. You can play a guitar wielded or worn, right? It’s realistic and logical, but in practice you’re going to wear it instead if you have the option and intend to use it. >.>

This is assuming all solar powered items (if implemented) would be wearable. Assuming some would not,charging while welding or on the ground makes sense.

Exactly. Though we could instead make it as an electronics mod for existing items. This would allow a wider ranges of devices to be solar-powered, but would allow doing it with items that make no sense to solar-power. X3

My fear for that is that a mod for items would be centered on specific item classes. For example,I made a rifle that works on batteries but I can’t uses a double battery mod since it can only be used in tools.