Bushwalk Australia

I am packing tonight for an upcoming trip, and it struck me how many things I was carrying that used batteries and it surprised me.

GPS: 2 AA Batteries
Camera: 2 AA Batteries
Lantern: 4 AA Batteries
Headtorch: 3 AAA Batteries
Plus Spares: 4 AA Batteries

So I just packed 15 batteries.....

What devices do you carry that use batteries? Let's see who has the record for taking the most

Might be time to get one of these:
http://www.multipoweredproducts.com.au/ ... arger.html

Does that solar charger work? I have a power monkey which I have taken on a few walks and NEVER got it to work. It isn't light weight walking and I am giving it one more chance this week to prove itself it is a valuable tool.

I have pared my gadgets down to just an iphone as well, but having books and music on it, it chews through the battery quickly. I cringe in saying this.. but I also use the phone as my camera. But I get duplicates of good photos taken from my walking friends.

So no batteries apart from what powers my lights.

A lantern with 4 x AA batteries as well as a head torch with 3 x AAA batteries?
I recently bought a Princeton Tec head torch (not for me) with 4 x LED's, and 3 brightness settings plus flashing.
The specs of the head torch claim 50 hours at full brightness, and something like 146 hours on the lowest brightness (which is still surprisingly bright).
With such good light and long battery life in head torches, I question the need for a lantern. I'm not questioning you, just putting a perspective forward that might be worth some thought.

For myself, we have a PLB that has a built in battery, a GPS that has 2 x AA, between my wife and I we have two head torches, each taking 3 x AA batteries (and they last us over 2 weeks so no spare AA needed), then there's up to 9 of THESE camera batteries - one in each of 2 cameras plus up to 7 spare, depending on the duration of the walk.
I initially took spare AA's for the head torches but discovered pretty quick that I didn't need them. We very rarely need the GPS so they usually last, but say we got fogged in or something, we could use the head torch batteries as spares for the GPS. We also take one of those 19 gram wind up torches... They are brilliant.
Depending on where we are going, there is sometimes a small mobile phone, fully charged and turned off, in the pack as well, kept in glad sandwich bags with rubber bands wrapped around it.
That's it I think.

I take one spare battery for the GPS for each day of the trip.
I take on spare camera battery for each day.
But it does depend on how much walking I do compared with how much camera work. In one day at Cradle recently I went through two batteries (put the third in) and 6GB of card space. Which reminds me, I need to buy another card.

I take one spare phone battery.
I put new batteries in the torch before leaving.
I also carry a wind-up torch should I ever get stuck wtihout a battery.

Thats ALOT of batteries!!

I take one for my head torach and one spare.
2 AAA's for MP3 player

2 AA's for GPS and 2 spare.

So thats a total of 8...

Also I use Lithium batteries as they give 4-6 days of GPS use rather than 1-2.

I'm much more minimalistic for batteries.

I take one in my head torch and usually no spare. If the battery runs flat, I make do with flicking the flint on my lighter (which is all I used to do before I had a head torch at all).

I take one in my mobile (phone, GPS, camera, etc) and no spare.

If I take a separate camera (only sometimes) that has it's own batteries of course, but again, I don't take spares.

So that's a grand total of 2 batteries and no spares for most walks.

Whilst I take a number of batteries the replacable ones are all AAA's
GPS 2 (used two litttle plastic sleeves to convert from AA to AAA)
Head torch 3
Torch 4
Radio 2
Spares 4

Camera, phone and mp3 player all have their own rechargable batteries, no spares carried

Of note, I prefer AA's to AAA's because of, for want of a better description, power to weight ratio.
Referring to rechargeables, while AAA batteries have a typical capacity of 800mA, the AA batteries that I use have 2400mA. And they certainly don't weigh 3 times as much.
Problem is it makes shopping for electronic gadgets a bit harder. See how many AA head torches are out there now? Not many at all...

tasadam wrote: See how many AA head torches are out there now? Not many at all...

Mine is. And it takes 1 battery. And all my walking buddies comment on how bright my light is.

I take 3 AAA's only for the torch.
If phone runs out so what?

Must admit, have got used to using lithium, they simply last so much longer. Let's see:
headlight 2xAAA
transistor 2xAAA
GPS 3xAA
That's it, 7 spares. Have been leaving steripen at home lately, just not enough use!

Headlight takes 3 x AAA. Make sure they're OK before the walk, don't carry spares.
GPS: 2 x AA. Spares depend on the length of the walk. But always carry at least one set except daywalks where I know there's enough juice in the loaded set.
Camera: Lion batts. Have 3 spares and they always come with me, needed or not. It's just easier than packing/unpacking them every walk.

The PLB battery is built in, so it doesn't really count. Ditto the Kindle. And I don't usually carry the phone. No point, really.

I start my trips with new lithium batteries in each gadget & 1 packet of new spares. The lithium AAA & AA batteries last a lot longer and weigh a lot less - with the downside of being more expensive.