Outdoor Power

How much do you use your phone? Is a spare battery not enough?

>>1066760
while using GPS and Maps on a phone can easyly exceed battery capacity, I'm more interessted in recharging a radio. no problem if you have a car (12V) but innawoods...

>>1066733

Anker is a brand with a good reputation. The idea is that you charge a battery by day and then charge your gear by night from the battery.

Problem being that these rigs aren't really ready for prime time. You'll stretch the life of your battery a bit but never keep up with what these devices demand. You'll do better investing the lbs in a bigger battery and charging in town every few days.

It's a great idea but the technology just isn't there yet.

Now, one scenario I haven't tried is turning off everything, especially the radios: Bluetooth, wifi, cell, and GPS. I mean, I keep wifi and Bluetooth off unless I'm using them, but /out/ is when you need GPS.

The Kindles have incredible battery life. Obviously, they don't do all that much compared to a smartphone but they might be efficient enough for solar to be viable.

Otherwise you'll have to do what the rest of us are doing: pack a battery, be sparing about your usage, and wait for the technology to get better.

>>1066793
Samsung galaxys have two power saving modes, ultra power saving can keep you going for a good week or so no recharge needed.

Also turn your brightness down, that eats up alot of battery.

File: 4X2[1].jpg (112KB, 500x500px) Image search: [Google]

112KB, 500x500px

What is wrong with power banks? Even if you have to use so much shit for some reason that your phone keeps draining, two of these will see you through a few days easy.

>>1066958

Good advice about the screen. I'd love to see more stock android tablets/phones with ePaper screens. Those things are insane with their battery life, even if you use a frontlight to view it at night.

The problem is that apparently a lot of Android apps misbehave on ePaper screens because they are programmed with the wrong contrast settings and so parts aren't visible and others are too grey.

Actually, frankly I'd love to see an /out/ oriented smartphone. It would be very different from the Apple urban fashionista tech chic look that dominates today.

File: s60-front[1].png (246KB, 550x550px) Image search: [Google]

246KB, 550x550px

>>1067232
>I'd love to see an /out/ oriented smartphone

They have them but according to a few anons who have owned them before, they are all cheap chinese shit that fail within a year. Shame because one with an infrared camera would be sweet.

>>1067232
>>1067283
You really just need to make your own from quality parts. It is costly, but if you know electronics enough to put together legos you can do it. Regardless, whatever you do or get use a Pelican brand case: http://www.pelican.com/mobile/

you can get a panel for pretty cheap. rechargeable batteries. Got a solar phone charger.haven't tried it yet. But I bet it sorta charges it.

>>1067291

Well now that eInk sells the kits, sure.... But you'd have to be able to write appropriate drivers and firmware. By default, andoid apps have a long list of issues with epaper. Nothing a good manufacturer can't fix, but not really hobbyist friendly.

>>1067435
I guess I spend too much time on /diy/ and diying things myself. There's stuff like, "Open Source DIY Cellphone", "Re-phone", and several Arduino-based ones.

>>1067445
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eaiNsFhtI8

>>1067445
>>1067447

Yeah I've seen that but it's a huge jump from that to a usable phone that would work in the outdoors and have all the features. Remember we're doing this eInk for battery life. If you jury rig a kind-of phone from a raspberry pi and it works, great, and if it has eInk, then super. But it'll lack the optimizations of a commercial phone and so it'll be one step forward, three steps back even on the one thing (battery life) that you wanted the epaper in the first place to fix.

I use a 7W folding solar charger. It was my only power for three months at one time last year.

For all of you saying that you can just recharge off 120VAC every couple days, some of us don't want to limit ourselves to being that close to cities and towns.

>>1066793
Another trick is to buy an old phone with a smaller screen and slower processor.

Protip: $20 prepaids work great for this and even if you don't activate them, you still get 911 service (which means you don't get bothered by anyone else).

>>1067952
I did this on my last backpacking trip and between the solar panels and keeping my phone in airplane mode when not in use it never went below 80%

>>1066733
For me a solarpanel (probaply a square feet or so) and an anker 16 Ah powerbank works. The panel attached to the top of the backpack charges the whole powerbank on a sunny day while walking. This is easily enough juice for 3 smartphone charges or some fancy-ass rechargeable headtorch or gps

File: DSC06438-L.jpg (197KB, 800x600px) Image search: [Google]

197KB, 800x600px

One of >pic related
with a flywheel driven off a crankshaft
through a rectifier/voltage regulator
to a battery

power for daaaays