Tuesday 7 January 2014

Go, go gadget.....power :)

I'll be taking a few gadgets with me on this trip - all of them essential obviously! ;)

The main problem with them is that, on an overnight adventure, they may run out of power before I'm finished. Some method of recharging is required...

Looking at the options I can rule out solar systems - January? Wales?

Solar is probably not the best option...
In a perfect world I'd have a front wheel built up with a dynamo hub. Things have moved on a bit since I last 'clicked' a dynamo against my tyre wall - that wonderful Catch 22 of having to go really fast in the dark to try and create enough light to see where you were going...

Now a dynamo hub can be rigged up to a USB charger so you can keep all of your gadgets charged as you go on your merry way.

Anyway, in the end I opted for a rechargeable battery pack (272g) which I'll charge up at home before I leave. This has 2 USB outputs that can be used for charging any device using USB - my mobile phone, my GPS and my GoPro camera.
Battery pack - 13000mAh - it even has a built-in torch :)

Now, I'll be using 3 gadgets and their battery capacities are:

Garmin Edge 800 - 1000mAh
Sony Xrepia Z1 - 3000mAh
GoPro camera - 1180mAh
Total = 5180mAh

So, assuming I don't run all 3 devices completely flat, I'll just use this figure as the recharge required and ignore charge efficiency :) This means I should be able to recharge all of these devices 2.5 times before running the power pack flat. For this trip I'm assuming the mobile won't need charging at all and the GoPro will probably only be used a few times. The GPS will probably need recharging - I'll plug it in when I go to bed (notice I didn't say "go to sleep"). I could have managed with a much smaller (lighter) battery pack but I'm hoping to disappear off on longer trips in the future...

I'll probably forget to take all the charging leads though......




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