It was that time of the year again. When I got ready to head out into the wilds. Armed with nothing more than my trusty smartphone (in years past, a Nokia 9500, an E61i and an E90, this year it was the E75's turn), the aim was to keep in touch with the world even when camped miles from anywhere with my family. But what about power? How did I keep my smartphone supplied with juice? Not mention the barrage of 'Daddy, my xxxx's battery is flat' complaints, all of which needed to be handled quickly if a peaceful atmosphere was to be maintained!
Read on in the full article.
My 'backwoods power' setup is similar. I have the Power Monkey (Power Gorilla is on my xmas list), with its bag of tips (LOADS of tips in there) and the retractable USB lead. I have an inverter for the laptop.
As i have an estate (station wagon) i also pack an Optima red top car battery in the boot with a ciggie lighter socket on crocodile leads, plus a power splitter. This has more than enough juice to power just about everything we have for days on end (E90, Viewty, generic SE, LG GW520, Qtek 8100, Holux 240, laptop, PSP, etc) .
Surely the reason you go camping is to get away from it all... 😃
Take a basic simple small cheap phone with a 5 day standby.
Leave it switched off until you need it.
Job done.
Surely the reason you go camping is to get away from it all... 😃
Well yes. But what about one's partner's phone? What about your daughter's phone. And games console? Etc.
If it was just me, then maybe I'd switch off. But have you tried asking a ten year old to switch off and read a book for a week? 8-)
Just recently Toshiba announced to introduce a fuel-cell charger . Just fill it with some alcohol - I have seen lots of it on many holidays , so some spare shouldn't be a problem - and there you go !
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/16/tosh_fuel_cell_timeline/
😊 Regards jApi NL
slitchfield wrote:Well yes. But what about one's partner's phone? What about your daughter's phone. And games console? Etc.If it was just me, then maybe I'd switch off. But have you tried asking a ten year old to switch off and read a book for a week? 8-)
Yep, mine all leave theirs off. They don't do much reading though, we are mostly out and about. Pretty sad if kids are getting so gadget-dependent.
I have a Solio Classic which sits behind the map window of my tank bag when on motorcycle trips. Even in the UK a full day with an uninerupted view of the sky is enough to keep the iPod Touch and E90 going.
I also have an inverter that lives in the car and takes care laptop duties.
MotorSportsFan
There won't be alot of time for reading once you've collected your firewood and prepared your fire, cooked your breakfast and washed up. Washed yourself and dressed in the shower block / water fall, then had site inspection by Bagira or Baloo then gone for a bit of ginganggoolie. 😊.
I just carry my car charger and Nokia DC-8.
It requires your normal standard AA batteries so I just buy 10 batteries and for a week I am done. Yes, since both me and my wife use Nokia so it sees me thru. If I have multiple devices, I would NEED to buy the proporta 😊
celios wrote:Surely the reason you go camping is to get away from it all... 😃
Dynite wrote:You lot need to unplug.
The E90 has Viewranger, the Qtek has Memory Map (and uses the Holux).
Getting away from it all,and unplugging is one thing, finding your way back is just as important.
Also, want to get the kids off their butts and fool them into thinking they're still 'plugged in' to tech? Introduce them to geo-caching. It's like 3D Lara Croft.
("Who's Lara Croft, Dad?!?!"
"sigh"....)
Whenever I've been mountain walking before I've always had my mobile with me but i've not used it. Its just something I carry because I always carry it.
Wallet, Phone, Keys, Train Ticket. 😊.
The comment about viewranger and "coming back" is daft as no one in the right mind would go anywhere such as mountain walking without a real map.
Dynite wrote:The comment about viewranger and "coming back" is daft as no one in the right mind would go anywhere such as mountain walking without a real map.
If you're going 'serious back of beyond' then yes, you will be taking paper maps, and probably a 'proper' GPS. Apologies to anyone who may have thought i meant any different.
However as I'm only a mild walker (40 - 50 miles a week) along the ROW's around my county, I find that carrying two totally separate phone based mapping solutions works fine for me. I used to carry a 1:50 000 too for these walks, but found it un-needed.
In two years I've only had Viewranger crap out on me once. The memory card decided to corrupt itself and the maps went bye-bye. Fortunately i was able to format the card via the phone and simply re-download the section of map i needed to get back via 3g.
I'm a motorcyclist - which means serious space restrictions - with an N95 that can't go a day without recharging, if actually used for anything.
I attached a 12V lighter socket to my bike, straight to the battery so it has power when the bike is turned off, and take a car charger which plugs into it.
I also have a cheap portable charger which takes two AA batteries. I take four high-capacity rechargeables and a big packet of normal AAs because we have other torches etc which need them. That will do for a three day rally or camp, even with mega camera usage and music. The one hole is the digital camera my partner uses, which chews up its battery.
The Proporta recharger has been extremely useful for us. I also have an inverter, I got from Maplins, which is useful for things like digital cameras and netbooks.
MP4 players, Nintendos, etc are invaluable for keeping children occupied on the 8hr journey to the Highlands. As a family, we also listen to a lot of audiobooks on car journeys. The Spring Bank holiday drive to the West Coast of Ireland was made much better by listening to most of the Alex Rider series.
Ian.
OK, we're going to spend this weekend walking the Essex Way. we'll have 4 phones (3 of which double as Satnav's), plus a Holox GPS unit. Looking for portable power options. I'm on a budget, so as nice as the Power Gorilla is, its out of my reach. I was considering using one of those small 12v UPS batteries, the kind you can get from Maplin:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=27088
With a cigaretter power socket attached. What size should i be looking at?