Mobile Power

[Dafink]

Hi guys. 1st Post woot !
Im going on a 26 day bushwalking trip in NSW soon. I love my photography and will be snapping away madly. I dont think we will come close to any 240v power so was needing a way to recharge my camera battery.
Camera is a little Panasonic Lumix DMC FT1. The battery is only a 3.6v, 3.4 Wh (watt hrs ?).
Is there a common portable solar unit ppl use ?
Or maybe a wind up unit ?
Cheers
Dafink

[rsser]

Consider buying a 2nd battery - plenty on ebay but don't opt for the cheapest.

I have 2 Lumix's and 2 for both.

[Dafink]

Yeah will def be getting a 2nd battery but dont think they will last the whole trip.

[tastrax]

If you have the $$ then Brunton gear is certainly one way to go but you need to check if they have the fittings for your type of camera. Are you just charging AA's or what - does it charge by USB?

http://www.brunton.com/catalog2.php?subcat=500

[flatfoot]

I have a Lumix and recently bought some cheapie clone batteries via eBay. For 7 days on the Overland I'm going to carry the original battery and two of the cheapies just in case.

Apparently the camera manufacturers are starting to take technical measures to make it harder to clone batteries. My Lumix is about 3 years old. You may not be able to find cheapies if you have a recent camera.

[rsser]

FWIW I tried one of those small $25 solar panels with connectors for various mobiles. It was said to have an inbuilt battery that the panel charged which then fed the phone. It worked once.

There are universal battery chargers around that run off a 12v cig lighter socket. I've used one with the old Lumix when I forgot the original charger on holiday. It cost about $60 from a camera store. It outputs 700mA which is prob less than you're going to need.

So then you need a panel that'll output at least 12v

[dancier]

I bought two extra batteries and a little Usb charger for my Canon Ixus 80. I'll be cycling around NZ for 20 days at Christmas and won't be taking the camera charger. I still need to test the Usb charger with the Iphone battery extender but I'll probably get 1000 shots from the three batteries that I have without a recharge.

[rsser]

Good call dancier.

Hope NZ gets some sunshine at Xmas!

[matthias]

I'm also interested in solar chargers for camera batteries. I did a quick search and found a couple of devices like this one
http://www.todae.com.au/Products/campin ... /camcaddy/
But I don't really get how it's meant to work. With all that solar boom over the last years I was hoping someone had developed some sort of simple 'mobile solar power point' where you plug in your normal camera charger. But I guess I'm too optimistic.

[rsser]

Looks like what I had only well made. The solar panel is part of a unit with a battery; the panel charges the battery which then provides juice for your phone. The battery can also power the 'cam caddy' which looks to be a universal camera battery charger.

'Normal chargers' on cameras need 240v and a transformer. It's too much to expect a small panel and inverter to supply 240v.

[DaveNoble]

Recently whilst trekking in Nepal - I used one of these -

http://www.batteriesdirect.com.au/shop/ ... 2-421.html

to charge my iPod (which worked very well), but it would be hard to adapt it to charge particular camera batteries. In Nepal - it was easy to get camera batteries recharged in the tea-houses (for a fee) as long as you had the right plug for your charger. The camcaddy may be OK - but for a 26 day trip, it may be cheaper and lighter to take a few spare batteries with you. See how long it takes the first one to go flat - and then adjust your shooting accordingly.

Dave

[rsser]

You can get 'universal' camera battery chargers in camera shops that IIRC run off both 240 and 12v - the 12v plug intended for car cig lighter sockets. The one I got needs a 500 mA input and outputs 700mA max. So if you can get a photovoltaic film that outputs 12v and is rated at about an amp output, you could fix it to the pack top and charge a spare battery while walking. But it'd prob be no cheaper than the camcaddy. The charger was $60.

[shazcol]

Check out this new device I just read about in online paper here:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digi ... 19gjp.html

The ultimate bush walking charger powered from 'bush walking'????

[shazcol]

All the info available here:
http://www.npowerpeg.com/personalenergy

[rsser]

Cool. Like wave power. Only rockin along the ridge power ;-}

[Son of a Beach]

See also: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5676#p67679 (where one member has purchased one of these, but yet to try it out in the field).

[anne3]

I used a solar panel to suit my phone while doing the AAWT, found that it only worked in full midday sun shine and once the phone was completly flat it was useless. Also on a walking trip it wouldn't trickle charge while rigged up on my pack, due to the angle of the unit changing and we didn't have the luxury of a three hour lunch break to sit and charge the phone. Would like to hear if someone has had a good experience with solar........

[rsser]

Well, I'm starting in on solar trickle charging of 2 x 100 aH batteries so the scale is different but I've learned that

* panels are rated in watts but discount the advertised figure by about a third
* there are diff technologies in panels and you need to choose the one that will work best with the prevailing sun conditions in your area
* panels work best when facing the sun directly; if you can't manage that you have to go larger
* in hot conditions efficiency drops off
* obviously the voltage and amperage need to match the battery and often a regulator is needed to achieve this (and while I'm charging nominal 12v batteries, given their type they need about a 15v input)
* it can take a lot of juice to bring back a battery from flat; best not to run them down that far

HTH

[flatfoot]

See also: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=5676#p67679 (where one member has purchased one of these, but yet to try it out in the field).

My shipping agent gave up on this order and refunded my money back in June.



It seems they have a large number on backorder.

http://www.npowerpeg.com/index.php/reserve-your-peg

The nPower® PEG is currently backordered. We began shipping the first nPower® PEG units in Sept 2010; however, we accumulated a back log of orders that we are currently working to fulfill.

You need to be fairly patient (or optimistic) if you decide to place an order