Duracell Mobile Charger
I'm officially registered for TOSRV. I'm number 895! So, the second weekend in May, I'm riding 200 miles...why do I do this again?
Anyway, I'm in the process of getting all my gear in order--new chain for the bike, for instance. The one new problem for me this year is charging electronics. The Garmin Edge probably has the juice for one day, but not both. If I don't have a cyclecomputer, the ride doesn't count! If all I did was have the two or three conversations I would likely have, the iPhone would have enough juice. However, I know I will be updating this blog, checking the weather, and the million and one things I do with my phone. I'd still probably be OK, but I don't want to risk it.
The catch is that, at TOSRV, I'm sleeping on a gym floor (again, why do I do this?). I can't count on an outlet to charge with. However, both gadgets can be charged from a USB port. This is one thing I dig about USB--instead of having to take several different chargers on a tip, I can just take a couple of cables, and use my laptop. For that matter, I rarely plug either the Edge or the iPhone into the wall at home. But the laptop isn't going on TOSRV.
The portable chargers that came out seemed like the way to go. These would take standard batteries (AA, AAA, etc.), and connect to a specific device ("For Nokia," or "For Motorola"). There are options for USB, but I'm not good at soldering. I did see one online, but it was some random no-name thing from a no-name site. I was ready to go with it, when I saw the Duracell Mobile Charger at Staples.
The kit includes the charger, a pair each of NiMH AA and AAA rechargeable batteries, the charger, and a car adaptor. The charger can recharge the batteries from a car or the wall. What makes it cool is that it has a USB port on the bottom. It can charge USB devices from the wall, car, or a set of batteries. This is particularly nice, as it can act as a single charger for different devices from different sources.
Last night, my iPhone was at 20% charge. The default batteries with the included charge got the phone up to about 50-60%. The manual suggests that 4 AA would be optimal, so I might have done better. Since the batteries can be swapped out, I should be OK with an extra set for TOSRV.
The one downside is that, for charging via USB, the manual only recommends NiMH batteries. I'm not too bugged by that (I should be moving to rechargeables), but it limits my options if I were to run out and wanted to just get replacements from a random location.
It's a kinda geeky thing to get excited about, but when something can do what you need it to do in a very flexible fashion, it's understandable.
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