Wilderness POWER ideas

[tas-man]

G'day CORVUS and all other techno gear freaks,

My eBay explorations in recent weeks for lightweight "wilderness power" options for my long Easter trip, turned up this item from Hong Kong, which arrived yesterday.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/EMERGENCY-RECHAR ... dZViewItem

The unit fits into the palm of your hand and weighs in at 85 grams plus 15 grams for the connecting leads. The three LED's give ample light for night walking and run off a capacitor charged by the hand cranked dynamo. Its small enough that I might look at designing a head strap to use it also as a head torch. The phone charging certainly works and takes some effort! I checked the output voltage and with a reasonable winding speed generates a stable 8 volts, and as soon as the phone senses the correct current, the winding effort suddenly requires "EFFORT!" I have experimented with how long I can keep up a constant charge and 3 - 4 minutes is all you want to try in one session. I haven't yet tried it on a discharged phone to see how much effort will be required to make a call, but will update this thread when I have done that. I have also tried to charge my digital camera which requires a 9v 1 amp current, but as the dynamo output has been regulated to 8 volts for mobile phones, it does not even trigger the charging LED on the camera, so no luck there with this particular item. There are bigger and more robust units out there such as here http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/detai ... ge-12v.php at 310grams + car charger sub units, which will probably do the job but its all a matter of balancing the weight with the extra battery options.

Has anyone else tried light weight solutions to generate power in the wild? An obvious one is a compact solar panel, but SW Tassie is more likely than not to have a limited supply of strong sunlight just when you need it!

[Joe]

Allgoods sell these...as do bunnings. different packaging. I have a straight torch (no phone charge) which works really well...3 led with big lens to intensify light. Are you sure its a cap in there? most of them have NIMH cells...which do die down over time from the dirty charge they get. Im on my 2nd torch...the first one broke when i got drunk and opened it up to see how it worked. before i got around to fixing it I found the replacement in chickenfeed for $4.50 which was too cheap to not buy. The chickenfeed one is great but i havent seen them in there since.

[Son of a Beach]

This looks pretty cool if you have the need.

It's kind of borderline, but I've moved this topic to "Techno-Babble" as it is a little more technical than the usual bushwalking equipment.

[tas-man]

Just found another contender for a lightweight portable wilderness power system. http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/b1a6/
Supplied with a computer USB charging cable and a power master cable with 11 adapter tips. Freeloaders solar panels can charge its internal battery in as little as 8 hours or 3 hours when using the supplied USB charging cable.
Takes power from the Sun and stores it to power your portable devices
Can store a battery charge for up to 3 months
Impact resistant, rust free aluminium body
1000mAh Li-ion battery
Dimensions: (120mm x 60 x 17mm)
Weight: 185g
Note: Li-ion rechargeable battery requires 3-4 full charges before optimum capacity is reached - suggested to initially charge via USB

The only problem in Tassie's south west is the ratio of sunny days to rainy days probably not making it practical Great for Freycinet, etc.

FreeLoader.png (112.71 KiB) Viewed 41391 times

Specs are:
Freeloader is supplied with adapter tips to power the following.
Nokia phones old 3.5mm jack and the new 2mm jack
LG Chocolate, LG shine and Prada phones
Samsung A288 and D800 current series phones
Sony Ericsson K750 and K800i current series phones
Nintendo DS Lite
iPod (compatible with most iPod devices including iPhone and iPhone 3G)
4mm jack for Sony PSP, Tom Tom, most digital cameras, PDAs, 2-way radios
Mini USB for Motorola, Blackberry, Qtec, Smartphone, iMate, most digital cameras and Bluetooth headsets
USB female for PDAs, mp3 players, most digital cameras and most devices which can be charged through USB

[Robbo]

Just found another contender for a lightweight portable wilderness power system.

I came across this a while ago. While I haven't seen one on a bushwalking pack, there is some possibilities...

http://www.neco.com.au/product.asp?pID=666&c=11932


Tony Robinson

[james cav]

I just bought a nokia n95. Its a great phone with built in GPS that i have loaded Goole maps onto for an upcoming walk in the WA's. The only problem is the very short battery life. approx. 1 day. I have however just called around and managed to find a portabale solar phone charger to suit and at the low cost of $50. Thats cheaper and better than a spare battery. Yay to me. Hope this helps the techno heads. Ill be watching Foxtel on the western arthurs. Blasphemere. Ill pick it up tommorow and let the forum know how it performs. Better hope for some sunny days!

I guess this post got moved to this thread to let me know what others already knew. cheers. i hadnt realy searched before posting but one of the units pictured is the one im writing about. Im suprised this thread isnt bigger somehow.

[james cav]

Well, I have tried 2 different cheap solar phone chargers and both of them sucked including the one above wich didnt even have the right cable for my phone, In the end i was left with two options either a silva solar charger at around $240 or a little set up using lithium aa batteries to recharge costing around $30. hmmmm hard choice. But still some regret that i havent splashed the cash. I also have a little hand cranker as a back up but that looks a fair pain in the *&%$#!. Silva 's phone charger weighs in at about 300 gms for those interested and maybe down the road ill go that way. Im testing the aa recharger at the mo. and will let the forum know how it goes. ie no. of batteries used x wieght x life of phone. for those that might be interested. I do understand the consesus that this kind of defeats the "getting away from it" feeling but as a technical exercise it seems worth pursuing. Im king of boring myself with this thread. hmmmm

[tasadam]

Im king of boring myself with this thread. hmmmm

LOL

[kramster]

Stumbled across these via a Paddy Pallin newsletter
And thought they were kinda neat

http://powertraveller.com.au/index.php?cPath=1

The “R and D” section is interesting too... especially where they mention hydrogen fuel-cell chargers and wind / water turbines for your laptop

[tastrax]

Also check out the Brunton gear for some new developments for small scale recharging - solid and reliable but a tad on the expensive side

http://www.brunton.com/catalog.php?cat=8

[tas-man]

I purchased "MotionX GPS" software for my iPhone and have played with it on recent trips to Long Marsh Dam and Cradle Mt. I am impressed with its user friendliness and usefulness, but the battery life would barely last a day's walking if you are continually tracking your journey. It is fantastic when you have network coverage and can use Google base maps, but for out of range areas, will need to try Nik's BIT MAP with loaded maps. To get extended power capacity I have got off eBay an iPhone solar charger/lithium battery pack 800mAh weighing 63 grams, so will see how it performs and report back. Here are some photos of the setup.

Solar power collector side

P1090350.jpg (95.47 KiB) Viewed 40866 times

IPhone and power pack

iPhone with power pack attached

[Son of a Beach]

I'd be very interested to hear about how the solar charger performs. Please let me know (eg, how long to fully charge, how much sun required, etc).

I was just testing a beta version of Bit Map's new route tracking feature and it chewed through the battery in about 1 full day of walking up on the central plateau yesterday and the day before (even with the screen disabled using the proximity sensor). It lasts for a week or so for occasional map/position checks and for just manually adding a waypoint here and there (wake up iPhone, add waypoint manually, sleep iPhone again), but it's the automatic always-awake tracking that is the serious battery drainer.

[frank_in_oz]

Great thread tas-man. Battery life is always a pain...

[flatfoot]

I purchased "MotionX GPS" software for my iPhone and have played with it on recent trips to Long Marsh Dam and Cradle Mt. I am impressed with its user friendliness and usefulness, but the battery life would barely last a day's walking if you are continually tracking your journey. It is fantastic when you have network coverage and can use Google base maps, but for out of range areas, will need to try Nik's BIT MAP with loaded maps.

I use MotionX GPS on my bicycle for tracking my performance over my regular riding route. Motion-X GPS has the facility to cache maps. That means you can browse through the map on your phone for the area you are intending to go to. It will then store the maps in memory for recall. It will only cache the Motion-X road and Motion-X terrain maps.

[flatfoot]

I was able to enter a waypoint for Cradle Mountain and then view the location on the Terrain Map. I think the map quality is quite good and it's free!

So the upshot is you could use this mechanism to pre-browse the maps in the vicinity of the area you are intending to go to and have Motion-X cache the maps for you.

To save power, make sure you turn off WiFi, adjust the brightness settings and turn off 3G. I have an iPhone 3G and when going on a 4 hour bike ride I could just make the phone battery last for the duration of the ride (that's with the display off). The Motion-X website also suggests you turn off bluetooth and disable accelerometer-assistance for the GPS (Motion-X Global Settings).

You can also import waypoints and tracks via .GPX files. This works by an e-mail being sent to Motion-X so you need to be connected to the internet to import waypoints.

Due to the battery-life issues I am not sure that you would rely on using this as your primary method of navigation.

[tas-man]

<SNIP> To get extended power capacity I have got off eBay an iPhone solar charger/lithium battery pack 800mAh weighing 63 grams, so will see how it performs and report back. Here are some photos of the setup.

P1090350.jpg

After some extended testing to average out the results, I can report that -
1. As a rechargable battery backup pack, charged from a USB port, or via a mains power charger, it works fine and will charge my iPhone from 40% to 100%( or close to). Its capacity is stated as 800ma, and the iPhone battery I believe is around 1200 ma. So two packs will fully charge a flat iPhone battery.
2. As a solar charger, I have charged it from flat, in full sunlight, for around 8 hours. All I then get after a day's sunlight is the iPhone's charge go up around 5% maximum, meanint that the solar charging capability is a bit of a novelty, and not a serious power source. Shure if you were in the SW with a flat battery and needed to send and SMS or check the weather once a day, this might save your bacon . . . if the sun shines for a full day!

[Jellybean]

I don't mean to sound negative but I've yet to see a solar charger such as the ones described above successfully charge anything (phone, IPOD) in the great outdoors, despite the marketing blurbs that accompany them suggesting otherwise.

Would be great to hear of one that really does provide a reliable re-charge.

Cheers,

JB

[photohiker]

This one is not Solar - I thought I had posted it already, but apparently not.

iWalk 5400Mah USB portable power pack

I bought one of these from gpsforless in the UK for about the same money. On full charge it will recharge the iPhone 3+ times in my experience, and it will charge anything that supports USB charging as well as common mobile phones etc. Bonus is it has a LED light built in. Weight of mine is 145g. I haven't seen them on sale here in Aus - the local sellers seem to think we only need a single charge here, doesn't make sense really.

Any of the Solar units that get reasonable reviews seem to do well because they have a decent battery that is charged fully before leaving civilisation. The solar looks to be a nice idea, but the panel area is small and the amperage requirements are great...

[Ent]

I don't mean to sound negative but I've yet to see a solar charger such as the ones described above successfully charge anything (phone, IPOD) in the great outdoors, despite the marketing blurbs that accompany them suggesting otherwise.

Would be great to hear of one that really does provide a reliable re-charge.

Cheers,

JB

And you are surprise that marketing hype does not stack up

I have used one but forget the name that can be charged from the USB, mains, Car, etc and the sun and then reverse to charge a device. It uses two rechargeable AA batteries and works well apart from the solar aspect. Bit too much to expect from a screen about 100mm long and 60mm wide. Also a guarantee failure for the patented and much hated bucket of water test

Seriously it would be great to have something that was weather resistant and gets enough power to charge two 2650mm AA batteries in an hour or two. Oh well such things do not exist outside the overly creative marketing copywriters' claims.

Cheers Brett

[Jellybean]

I don't mean to sound negative but I've yet to see a solar charger such as the ones described above successfully charge anything (phone, IPOD) in the great outdoors, despite the marketing blurbs that accompany them suggesting otherwise.

Would be great to hear of one that really does provide a reliable re-charge.

Cheers,

JB

And you are surprise that marketing hype does not stack up

I have used one but forget the name that can be charged from the USB, mains, Car, etc and the sun and then reverse to charge a device. It uses two rechargeable AA batteries and works well apart from the solar aspect. Bit too much to expect from a screen about 100mm long and 60mm wide. Also a guarantee failure for the patented and much hated bucket of water test

Seriously it would be great to have something that was weather resistant and gets enough power to charge two 2650mm AA batteries in an hour or two. Oh well such things do not exist outside the overly creative marketing copywriters' claims.

Cheers Brett

Hi Brett,

I haven't ever tried them myself, just my observations of some trials by some of my techno-dependent ( ) male friends!! They have ended up disappointed on each occasion!

Cheers,

JB

[flatfoot]

This looks like an ideal solution! It's kinetic and would hence be ideal for bushwalking. It will begin shipping in June if you live in the US.

Specs are here:
http://greennpower.com/personalenergy/specs
(no details about weight yet)

Pricing is here: http://greennpower.com/index.php?option=com_ixxocart&Itemid=74&p=catalog&parent=1&pg=1

[Ent]

I got feed up of the torch in my car not working due to batteries not liking the extreme heat a car gets up to so brought a shaker torch. Not very bright and very heavy but at least it works when fumbling around gates and locks. I would say the weight would not be light.

Cheers Brett

[photohiker]

Hopefully it will be better than the various solar gadgets about.

Nowhere do they mention the milli-amp-hours in the included battery. It seems to me that the solar devices win or fail based on their battery capacity because in reality they cannot add much to it on the trail so the biggest pre-charge delivers a useful device. Perhaps this will be different?

[flatfoot]

I was wondering if one way of using this device would be to charge a second portable battery (that's if the battery capacity of the inbuilt battery is not great).

[Ent]

I brought one of the solar chargers from Jaycar that uses two AA batteries and can be charged from USB. It came with adaptors for a few phone and the cord meant any USB port could act as a charger. As for the solar panel charging batteries well yes but four hours in bright sunlight and barely enough to move a bar on the phone. Basically great for using AA batteries to charge different device wih the small ability to top up batteries.

Cheers Brett

[flatfoot]

Hopefully it will be better than the various solar gadgets about.

Nowhere do they mention the milli-amp-hours in the included battery. It seems to me that the solar devices win or fail based on their battery capacity because in reality they cannot add much to it on the trail so the biggest pre-charge delivers a useful device. Perhaps this will be different?

I found this review. The device does not have an internal battery.

Another unique trait of the PEG is that rather than charging a battery that will then charge a device, it relies on being directly connected to a device, performing on-demand charging through kinetic conversion. This has it’s upsides (less hardware means a smaller design; gratification that your phone is being charged that very mo(ve)ment) and it’s downsides (devices would have to be stored together, so you’d have to keep your phone in your backpack, rather than your pocket).

My preference would be to carry a battery that remains connected to the charger. I could then use that battery to top-up the charge of any devices that need it.

Maybe on a windy night at camp you could hang it (and your device) in a waterproof bag for charging over night.

[tas-man]

Five years have passed since I started this thread, and I can now finally say that I am getting closer to a workable solution to powering my iPhone and digital camera when off the grid for an extended period. I spent ten days on Tasman Island over Easter and was able to use my iPhone as normal and top it up each night from the solar cell and lithium battery pack that charged during the day. Over the ten days only four were mostly sunny, but the solar panel was able to substantially charge the battery pack from what light the cloudy and overcast skies had available. This test was NOT a through walking situation - how this setup would work while on the go attached to the top of a backpack is something I hope to test in the future.

Details of the setup are:
1. Solar Panel : 200 x 162mm Monocrystalline with USB socket; Maximum output 1.03 amps @ 5V (5.15W); efficiency 16.5% - weight 155 grams (It will charge the iPhone's 1432 mAh battery directly in 4 hours in full sunlight but not at all in overcast conditions where the battery pack will still accept charge) http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5V-1A-5-15W- ... 480wt_1165
2. Battery pack : Powertech Plus Powerbank Model MB3642. Input 5V 0.45-0.8 amps. Battery Li-Ion 3.7V 2600 mAh - weight 81 grams. http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=MB3642
3. USB lead and connectors supplied with Powerbank : weight 26 grams
4. USB NiMh battery charger for AA and AAA rechargable batteries : weight 26 grams (I was planning to recharge my headtorch AAA NiMh rechargable batteries if required but they lasted the ten days)

If anyone wants more details, feel free to ask.

[andrewa]

Tasman, was the USB NiMH AA/AAA charger like the one Franco posted on one of these forums - sold by Varta?

And a question from an electrical idiot, if you have a 2600mA battery pack, does this mean I could charge one 2500mA AA battery, or almost 3 900mA AAA batteries fromit, or does it work differently?

Andrew A

[neilmny]

You would probably not fully charge a 2500mah battery because of losses in the charging circuit.
A single 2000mah or 2 x 900mah would be more feasable.

[tas-man]

Tasman, was the USB NiMH AA/AAA charger like the one Franco posted on one of these forums - sold by Varta?
And a question from an electrical idiot, if you have a 2600mA battery pack, does this mean I could charge one 2500mA AA battery, or almost 3 900mA AAA batteries from it, or does it work differently?
Andrew A

Franco's Varta 4 battery charger (viewtopic.php?f=21&t=11636&p=154308) is more sophisticated with a LCD screen showing charging and possibly fancier charging circuit to manage charging current. The cheapie I got from eBay just supplies a fixed 160mA current which equates to about a 16 hour charge time to fully charge a 2600mA NiMh AA battery. I am still experimenting with its usefulness, trying direct feed from the solar panel, and top up from the Lithium 2600Ma Powerbank battery. I have monitored the output from the solar panel in varying conditions and in Tassie's autumn midday sun have got a max of 1.25A with the Powerbank still accepting charge in heavy overcast at only 0.08A. I have ordered a second panel and will see how it goes with a twin panel setup in overcast conditions.