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Post by frontsight on Jul 6, 2016 13:38:42 GMT 10
Hi guys, apart from stocking up on the usual hardware/ food/ seed/ water treatment/gear/ radio, I have been pondering the idea of formating my old laptop and Ipad to upload some usual information such as maps, field manuals, scans of my engineering/ chemistry/ biology/ microbiology lecture notes from my uni days. Medical and botony books, Addresses and contact details of people I know, photos and stuff. Not as surefire as hard copies but I can carry for more information on a smart phone.
I will need a power source of some sort to run these things tho. Just enough to charge an ipad. Been looking at a small sloar panel and/or hand dynamo, something that will fit in my bob. Any suggestions?
Also thinking of picking up a broken microwave from curbside removal and store my stuff in it in case of EMP.
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Post by ziggysdad on Jul 6, 2016 18:20:58 GMT 10
Hey Frontsight - I just picked up a small 15,000 mAh solar panel (Solar Charger - Solar Power Bank GRDE) for charging phones and rechargeable batteries via USB recharger as well as an iRonsow IS-088 Dynamo Emergency Solar Hand Crank Radio (crank/solar and doubles as a smart phone charger power bank). Literally just received them, so haven't had a chance to try them yet, but they were well reviewed on Amazon.
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Post by ziggysdad on Jul 6, 2016 18:22:50 GMT 10
The USB battery charger is new too (PortaPow Intelligent USB Charger for AA & AAA) - looks really cool and means I don't have to worry about plugging into a wall...can plug directly into the solar panel or hand crank.
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Post by frontsight on Jul 6, 2016 20:38:24 GMT 10
Hey Frontsight - I just picked up a small 15,000 mAh solar panel (Solar Charger - Solar Power Bank GRDE) for charging phones and rechargeable batteries via USB recharger as well as an iRonsow IS-088 Dynamo Emergency Solar Hand Crank Radio (crank/solar and doubles as a smart phone charger power bank). Literally just received them, so haven't had a chance to try them yet, but they were well reviewed on Amazon. One like that then? www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-listingiRonsnow-IS-088-Dynamo-Emergency-Solar-Hand-Crank-Self-Powered-/252428259649?hash=item3ac5e59141:g:H7UAAOSwM4xXY6MaWould be good if you can post some review on how easy/difficult is it to charge a phone and the robustness etc Also, can you tell me if the radio sounds ok when you wind the handle? I had a hand dynamo radio job and it would create lots of back ground noise of I were to wind the handle and listen to radio at the same time...
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Post by ziggysdad on Jul 6, 2016 20:57:50 GMT 10
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shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Jul 6, 2016 21:16:44 GMT 10
I've done a few posts on solar charging and usage, such as radios and it's all much the same. I'll give you a quick run down though specific to this.
How many watts does the laptop use? [on back] - Mine is 40W How many hours a day would you want to be able to use that? - Lets say 3hrs
This is the 'watt-hours' you need to supply the power daily, in this example 120Wh [watt hours]. In middle of winter you'll get an average of 2.5hrs of full power in Victoria. We have losses, so lets call that 2hrs and so we would need a 60W panel to supply the power needed for my laptop for 3hrs a day. That same panel will make 'about' 360Wh during summer.
A system is fairly simple
panel -> regulator -> battery -> voltage converter/inverter -> supply
You can skip the battery if you don't want on demand power, in this case since you're charging the laptop, you don't really need a battery to save the power. If you use 12V, and your laptop had a car charger, you could skip the voltage converter too. Typically a system might want adaptability, so you might just use an inverter so you could run other items as well, though you're still limited by the amount of energy you generate per day as I've already illustrated above.
There's some other potentially efficiency losses, though the simple calculation should get you pretty close. It never hurts to add a few extra watts on the panel as you'll always find more use for them.
Another possible solution [and my preferred one] is to use an uninterrupted power supply [UPS] and wire the charger directly to the batteries of the unit. Whilst the battery back up is small [you can just wire larger batteries in parallel] it already includes an inverter and batteries in one package. I use them in my house for their intended use [computer power supply back up] along with lights and both of the units I have only cost $50, cheaper than the components.
Panel - > regulator -> UPS -> supply
In terms of dyno, the 'best' amount of power you can achieve is about 70W [120W if you're an athlete] and that's on a bike using your legs, so in effect very similar amounts of power as a 60W panel. Of course you have to eat more food for this. Aka, it's not a particularly efficient or useful means of power generation. Having said that I do myself have a scooter motor hooked up to my exercise bike in case I have no other choice. [redundancy]
Another question might also be, why not have some of these things in a reference book, second hand ones usually go for very little. Whilst I have a decent amount of off grid power, my priorities are comms, hygiene, food, lighting.
---- Oh and welcome to the forum bud.
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Post by frontsight on Jul 6, 2016 21:54:14 GMT 10
Thanks guys
Agrrr.... not as easy as I thought..... Will look up on the panel and UPS supply...... And I really should copy the contact details of people I know on a piece of paper.
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Post by frontsight on Jul 11, 2016 21:54:00 GMT 10
SO I gave up on the idea of using a full size lab top but will try to run a tablet. Ordered a solar Panel (about A4 size) and a power bank/Solar charger combo on FleaBay. I will see how well it works when I get them and report back.
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Post by frontsight on Aug 2, 2016 22:29:15 GMT 10
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Post by graynomad on Aug 2, 2016 22:47:52 GMT 10
Yikes that's cheap. Let us know how it goes, I might just get one.
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Post by frontsight on Aug 2, 2016 23:53:46 GMT 10
Will do, now I just need to drain the battery (will take like 14 recharges with my phone) and then I will know the time required to fully charge the powerbank on a good day.... been cloudy in NSW lately.....
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shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 3, 2016 6:58:41 GMT 10
1.2w Solar Panel as per the provided data. So, double that for winter as a rough approximation. 2.4Wh of power/day. My phone's [it's older] battery has 9Wh and runs for a day. I also hate to say it, those banks are given bullcrap ratings, 30,000mAh at 3.7v? [Watts = Amps x Volts] It could be 111Wh* this is what it 'should' be rated at as LiIon batteries are 3.7V, but it usually isn't. 30,000mAh at 1v? [Watts = Amps x Volts] It could be 30Wh 30,000mAh at 0.1v? [Watts = Amps x Volts] It could be 3Wh 30,000mAh at 0.01v? [Watts = Amps x Volts] It could be .3Wh Who knows what it actually is, certainly not 14 times. The easy way of knowing that is that it would have to be at 'least' as big as 14 batteries for the said phone. There are known brand battery banks that are reputable and you can pretty much assume the rest are BS figures, not sure how they get away with it though it's endemic in battery storage. The other way to do it is to get a battery bank that you can put your own batteries into. For me personally for the small stuff I just charge straight to the device from a USB solar panel. I do also have much larger systems also. There are USB in line capacity testers so you can determine the real capacities of batteries that can be had for fairly little. I did do a linky on my solar radio pages. There's also simple info for solar panels. USB type chargers. 6W solar panels, I got a few of these, if you only want to charge USB for say a phone, just plug and play. Approximately that's 12Wh of charge/day during winter [now] and should be how you calculate your minimum usage and 3 times that during summer. Another idea on this I've toyed with is heavier larger Ziplock bags so I could charge outside without worrying about the rain killing my gear. More than happy to point you in the right direction, if I understand what you want to do, there's differing solutions depending on what your aim is.
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Post by frontsight on Aug 3, 2016 9:55:29 GMT 10
Ah.... the penny just dropped... have been taught that at school and again at first year Uni to recap..... should have known better
Anyway I have charged that up and I will see how many times I can charge my phone and/or tablet and time it takes to charge it back up on solar power alone.
I am getting it for minor S that HTF... like grid down for a week or two. Say the local grid Is down and government says it may take a while. No enemy attacks, no rocks fall from the sky type of event, I may bunker in or BO but I will need to monitor the radio boardcast and have access to maps and addresses to extract love ones/ friendlies (yeah I should have hard copies). So at the moment it not for TEOTWAWKI gear but a mean to keep my small electronics running for 1-4 week. Will be investing on more long term gear as I go (after paying off my new 357sig project that is, slowly but surely)
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Post by frontsight on Aug 3, 2016 14:29:04 GMT 10
Yeah... I drained my phone by leaving it playing youtube stuff and then recharged. I could do just over 2 recharge. 3.7v rated 1700 mini-Amp hours so the power bank capacity is about 15 WH.
Still useful if the solar panel works but I am yet to test it our (raining all week here). Also lets see if it holds its charge over a weeks
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shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
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Post by shinester on Aug 3, 2016 17:28:39 GMT 10
Yep, good plan. I would have a use for a such device in normal day-2-day use myself as a battery backup. Just didn't want to see you in the lurch if you needed to rely on it with false info.
It should be lithium Iron so should last a few months between charging. I charge mine about once every 6 months to keep them from dying.
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Post by bushranger on Aug 4, 2016 17:06:38 GMT 10
I might've missed it but check your voltage also. Some laptops are 19v. The aldi 40w folding panel has a 19v port (as well as 12 and 5volts)
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Post by frontsight on Aug 4, 2016 17:20:07 GMT 10
Thanks. I have given up on charging laptops for now. Going to recommission my old tablet for now. Its has gps, takes pics, shows pdf. Everything I need for shtf and being tiny 7" I can wrap It In layers of al foil and bubble wrap and still fit it in my gun safe.
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shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
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Email: shiny@ausprep.org
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Post by shinester on Aug 5, 2016 3:57:11 GMT 10
I like your idea of using the gun safe as storage, it's a big metal Faraday cage. Having a second layer [foil] adds to the Faraday effect. If your plan is storing your item without charging, it is recommended that it's kept at about 40% capacity [and better still in the fridge]. See HERE and HERE I would also suggest that you charge them up to 40% [half] again every 6-12 months. Obviously it will be flat but the battery will come back if you store them like this.
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Post by frontsight on Aug 5, 2016 8:53:23 GMT 10
Might just store my tablet in the fridge my BOB is there now anyway. I wouldn't say it is as good a faraday cage but still offers significant protection.
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grumble
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Post by grumble on Aug 5, 2016 17:15:20 GMT 10
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