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PostPosted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 4:51 pm 
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hey you lovely people,
i am planning a big trip next year and wonder if you guys have some
experience how to keep your gps units, phones and cameras charged up on longer trips.
first i thought solar but i am not 100% sold on the systems out there.
then i thought why not a mini-turbine on top of the mast...and found this http://www.gizmag.com/go/7576/
but seems like its only a prototype.

any thoughts welcome
cheers


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:30 am 
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I am not able to speak to overnight trips, however I added a "car adapter" plug for my 12v battery so that I am able to charge my cell phone, etc. I always bring spare AA batteries in the 8 battery holder from RadioShack as well with the same adapter just in case.

I saw some youtube videos out there with small solar powered battery charges for cell phones. I believe one was in an altoid box- very simple, cheap, & light weight.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 10:04 am 
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Location: South Florida
Depends on how long your trip is, but I simply bring extra batteries.

Keith

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 11:59 am 
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Thanks for the input so far, will look into it!

The trip from Ireland to the Baltic Sea will take roughly 2months.
being independent is very crucial, and a few spare batteries wont do for that length of a time.

keep the ideas coming!


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 12:08 pm 
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Location: Lake Macquarie NSW AUSTRALIA
I went down the same path FlyingNorthman about a year back when I was planning a 5 day trip to Tasmania. So I bought this......

Image

.........and set about designing a system. I have to agree that, for us, wind is something we are never really short of and would be the ideal power source. The plan was to use the wind turbine to power a 12v motorbike battery ( the grid ) and then, through an inverter, step up to 240v and use the individual devices chargers to charge their batteries. But then I did a Chekika and sat down and thought about it, and came to the conclusion to simply take more batteries. I'd still like to attempt it but I'd only do it for the sake of a fun project. Extra batteries are cheaper, less complex, lighter, less gear to take, and safer ( 240v and water don't mix real well ). Let us all know how you go with it though. That RC Chopper of yours will take a bit of charging !

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 1:11 pm 
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Hi There!

I have tried for some time to find a ways to make portable windpower effective… either making my own turbines or purchasing them… (I wanted to use them for camping)…
So far from all I have tried, solar is the way to go… Nothing I have been able to do with windpower at such a small scale (ideally under 10 lbs) has been particularly productive. In my experience the smaller turbines will only produce enough power to recharge a few AA batteries even after several hours and you will need relatively high sustained wind speeds. At low wind speeds you will generate next to nothing if you can get them to start spinning at all.

But with a good quality flexible/foldable solar panel (I have a 26 watt version) you can produce a lot more energy with almost nothing to haul\carry around and setup…
Check out GoalZero… There are pluses and minuses to buying a system instead of making your own (If you make it yourself and it breaks in the field you can probably fix it on your own if you bring spare parts and cost, are the two biggest things I can think of to making it yourself). The nice thing about buying a product form some place like GoalZero is that you can also pick up one of their batteries that has built in charge control and fuses and the like… It all comes in one nice package so it’s clean and easy to setup and haul around. I have had pretty good luck with their products so far and their customer service is pretty good.

Hope that helps!


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:02 pm 
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Hey - When did "Keith" become a verb? Guess we gotta update his wikipedia page now. :roll:

I like the solar panels approach.

Anyway, there are several other ways to generate small amounts of clean energy in the wilderness. Even using dry kindling.

http://www.biolitestove.com/campstove/c ... /features/

Just don't pull a "NOHUHU" out there.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:36 pm 
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Location: South Florida
My problem with re-chargeable batteries is that (1) they don't last as long as regular batteries, (2) they don't hold a charge as well as regular batteries, (3) you have to keep them charged, (4) the charging gear can be a pain to keep working, especially in a salt-water environment, and (5) if you are on a camping trip, that charging equipment takes up scarce room. Even if you are doing a 2-month trip, it is likely you will stop in a village every week or more often and can pick up alkaline or lithium batteries as you need them. For your cell phone, you can carry its charger (or 2) + an extra battery (or 2) to get you through to some place where you can charge all its batteries up. The same is true of your VHF marine radio. Most e-readers hold a charge pretty well (at least to the next motel.) I've found re-chargeables to be inconvenient at home. I like to keep things relatively simple on trips. There are enough other things to take your time, rather than fool around with re-chargeable batteries.

That has been my experience with these things.

NOHUHU, I may want to do a NOHUHU sometime, if I knew what it was. Please explain or define.

Keith

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 6:52 pm 
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Location: Lake Macquarie NSW AUSTRALIA
It's good to know someone else has tried this already Joe. ( the forum does it's job yet again ). I hadn't really done any calcs on what would be required as far as turbine size. ( lost interest and bought batteries. I like the idea of trickle charging a grid battery whilst on the move and thought a turbine would be much less cumbersome and more reliable than solar due to more wind than sun. This technology below, created at my work, would suit us down to the ground. With it we could cover the Island in a self adhesive flexible solar panel that is applied like a sticker. Efficiency is still way down but it's getting there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5evOIe4 ... e=youtu.be

I hadn't seen that BioLite before NOHUHU. Very clever design. May have to look into it further.

That's the conclusion I came to as well Keith. Extra batteries are definately the way to go. It won't be long though before our grandkids say 'Grandpa, what's a battery'.

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 8:32 pm 
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Hi There,

I have the Biolite too... I like it. But I might look at this is as well if I were buying something new...

http://www.thepowerpot.com/

This allows you to use an open flame or pack-able fuel... which is a nice option. You must have water available for the Powerpot to work though.

Sadly, both the Biolite and the Powerpot have rather small power outputs... under 5 watts @ 5v.

Some of the newer portable fuel cell technology (with portable cartridges) look really interesting but they also suffer from low power output at this point.

GoalZero has this new crankable/solar powered lantern (With usb charging capabilities) that looks interesting as well... I like the idea of the of being able to crank it if the sun is not cooperating. :)

Take a quick look at the Sherpa 50 Power Pack... small enough to fit in a dry bag but holds a fair amount of energy... 58Wh and you can chain more than one together...

Weight: 1.2 lbs (544 g)
Dimensions: 4.5 x 1.5 x 5.25 in (11.4 x 3.8 x 13.3 cm)

Have a great trip!!


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 8:39 am 
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Location: Lakeland and Anna Maria Island, FL
Not wind, but the solar powered charger I have used on two camping trips for my iPhone and iPad. It doesn't have any storage capacity but it did charge well during daylight. I am continually in search of light weight portable power!
Suntactics Solar Charger


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:00 am 
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Location: Long Island NY
just thinking off the cuff here, but with water density considerably greater than air, I would think a water turbine would be much more efficient, per unit size, than wind.

... for reference, just look/imagine the prop diameter difference from a 30' powerboat compared to your average 4 seat small aircraft

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Last edited by PassWind on Tue Nov 19, 2013 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:33 am 
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That is a great idea... Here is a micro hydro turbine I found via Google... Sadly, its pretty big, 22 lbs, and rather expensive... But the idea of some how attaching a scaled down version to the kayak would be incredible...

http://www.wire-wiz.com/id73.html


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 9:47 am 
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Looking through the Google results... It looks like there are a fair number of hydro turbine products out there for larger boats... They all look really cool but I am guessing that they do not scale down well just like their wind powered kin... If somebody finds a small one please post it! :)


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 3:25 pm 
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WOW that topic kicked something off, will take me a while to digest everything, thanks so far!!
still waiting for a response from gotwind.org but reckon it didnt proof to be successful for production
as this prototype was developed back in 2007...
A month ago i contacted http://www.modernoutpost.com/ for their solarpanel systems they told me:
In terms of what you'll need, I think your system should be fairly simple. I will ask you for your expected run times for each device (ie how many days do you get from a battery in each device?). I can then work out a power budget, and suggest products to keep up with your demand.

Trouble is that i have not all electrical gear together yet, to work out my powerbudget...a lot of homework ahead...

With the windpower i just found that it would harness a bit more potential power not relying only on daylight and the device would be out of the way(topmast) plus acting as a wind indicator. With the solarpanels i would be afraid to step on it or taking up valuable space.


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