Power Monkey Explorer

Monkey on my rack: the power monkey explorer

When you are traveling with mobile devices like an Android phone, better be safe than sorry by packing a batter pack for emergency charging.
I anticipated this and power packs are never short in my arsenal when I hit the road.
For unforseen circumstances, there is always a pair of Sanyo Eneloop portable powerpack that also serves as a battery charger on my bugout bag.
Sometime back, while cruising the aisle at Kean Seng Heng bicycle shop in Taman Tun, I saw a power traveller gadget called the power monkey explorer.
Seems like a decent piece of equipment where you can charge its power pack with a solar panel and a plug-in wall AC charger.
The package was sold at RM325 a pop and the power monkey explorer is a red dot design award winner.
So, with all the hype and an LG Optimus 2X Android phone that is perpetually going flat and re-setting itself, I decided to go for a full road trial.
And there we were, cycling from Kuala Selangor to Sabak Bernam. 
The total return trip is 132.3km and I left the power pack plugged into the solar panel for the purpose of keeping my Endomondo sports tracker running.
Everything checked out, the pilot light was charging, a window on the powerpack showed that its in working order.
As my LG phone slowly drained away, I plugged in the auxiliary power to compensate for the high drain with a combination of cellular network and GPS tracking to log my progress.
Unfortunately, the power monkey had gone totally ape!
By mid-day, no more power. My phone was dead. Even my wife's ree-charge battery pack couldn't revive the LG.
So, to sum it up, the power monkey explorer is a piece of crap.
Its now back to the drawing board and I guess I will stick to my Sanyo Eneloop power pack at the moment....