Anyone have a battery-powered USB charger I could borrow?

blorg

Looking at a long cycle on Saturday and it would be nice to be able to keep my GPS going for the whole thing.

Alternatively if anyone knows where I could pick one up in a shop without spending a fortune?

Caroline_ie

blorg wrote: »

Looking at a long cycle on Saturday and it would be nice to be able to keep my GPS going for the whole thing.

Alternatively if anyone knows where I could pick one up in a shop without spending a fortune?

... you're not bringing the blorg-puter in the paniers??

blorg

Caroline_ie wrote: »

... you're not bringing the blorg-puter in the paniers??

Er... No.

There will be no panniers for that matter.

BTW what I am looking for is something like this, some also take normal AAs rather than having a built-in battery.

'68 Fastback

Can't help I'm afraid but wouldn't it be deadly if you could get a dynamo type doo-hickey to charge stuff? We could run a small town off your commute Blorg:D

kenmc

You need to go to maplin and get the bits to make this

blorg

I have seen that; will be a bit beyond me to get done before Saturday though!

Ghost Rider

That raises another question: are there such things as dynamo cycle computers?

'68 wrote:

Can't help I'm afraid but wouldn't it be deadly if you could get a dynamo type doo-hickey to charge stuff? We could run a small town off your commute Blorg:D

blorg

Ghost Rider wrote: »

That raises another question: are there such things as dynamo cycle computers?

There were old-school mechanical odometers that simply counted wheel revolutions- they were attached down the bottom of the fork. I rented a bike in Spain with one of these once. Most simple modern cycle computers will go 5 years+ on a single battery so a dynamo to power one wouldn't really make sense.

TinyExplosions

I'd try Maplin to see if they have one already.... or Peats?

penexpers

'68 wrote:

Can't help I'm afraid but wouldn't it be deadly if you could get a dynamo type doo-hickey to charge stuff? We could run a small town off your commute Blorg:D

A dynamo hub with either one of these

http://www.jawetec.de/index.php?content=bikecharger&framing=radsport
http://www.shop.isdn-stollberg.de/xtcommerce/product_info.php?products_id=44

Caroline_ie

'68 wrote:

Can't help I'm afraid but wouldn't it be deadly if you could get a dynamo type doo-hickey to charge stuff? We could run a small town off your commute Blorg:D

YES WE CAN!!!!!

scottreynolds

Amazon wrote:

Most people by this for their cell phones. I bought it for my Garmin Edge GPS and it works great! The GPS uses a USB charging port so it was a direct fit and charge.
One reviewer mentioned it didn't take rechargeable batteries. I put Energizer rechargeables in and they fit and worked fine. No modifications needed.
The changes I'd recommend: 1) do something about the short and easily loseable adapter cables, 2) change the location of the battery diagrams from inside the case to outside, they're hard to read on the inside.

Oh yes - you can get this from B&Q. I saw this in SWORDS.

http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-Energi-Instant-Phone-Charger/dp/B000JD09P4

Chips Lovell

blorg wrote: »

Looking at a long cycle on Saturday and it would be nice to be able to keep my GPS going for the whole thing.

Alternatively if anyone knows where I could pick one up in a shop without spending a fortune?

Or, you could always get a bike computer whose batteries last longer than five minutes.

Two years and counting on mine.

scottreynolds

el tonto wrote: »

Or, you could always get a bike computer whose batteries last longer than five minutes.

Two years and counting on mine.

+1 as well --- GPS sucks for things like this.

16hill16

Not of any use to you immediately but might be of interest long term

http://shop.tangogroup.net/tango.asp?Mid=28

Your very own wind turbine , can even be mounted on your handlebars
Plus its very green etc (can also be charged up in advance via mains !)

blorg

scottreynolds wrote: »

+1 as well --- GPS sucks for things like this.

Given that I specifically want it to give me turn by turn directions I hardly think it "sucks for things like this."

@tonto- I have a Cateye on all my bikes, battery lasts 5 years or more. But it isn't going to give me directions!

EDIT: Many thanks for that link Scott, exactly what we needed. We had since found a PowerMonkey in Maplin which Tiny is on a mission to buy a pair of.

Chips Lovell

blorg wrote: »

@tonto- I have a Cateye on all my bikes, battery lasts 5 years or more. But it isn't going to give me directions!

Some of us don't need our computers to give us directions:D

blorg

el tonto wrote: »

Some of us don't need our computers to give us directions:D

Some of ye don't cycle routes you haven't cycled before either :pac: I've done several long rides both here and in France using this thing and it can route you very well avoiding main roads where you wouldn't have a chance with a map, you would be stopping every five minutes (not great in the dark either.)

Chips Lovell

I for one have never cycled a route I've never cycled before. Never.

TinyExplosions

el tonto wrote: »

I for one have never cycled a route I've never cycled before. Never.

And that is why me and Blorg are better than you

The powermonkeys are nice yokes, and should work a treat

Gavin

Powermonkey is 2200mAh. I deride this product.

TinyExplosions

Verb wrote: »

Powermonkey is 2200mAh. I deride this product.

Why?

Not being smart, I just don't understand all this electrical stuff...

Gavin

Doesn't seem like a huge amount. Although it should be grand for what yee want, probably. USB usually runs at 5v and around 500ma. So the monkey should handle around 4 hours of charging. Depends how long the GPS takes to charge I suppose !

Lumen

blorg,

I have a PowerChimp and it's fine.

However, I think your plan is fatally flawed by the fact that the Garmin 705 turns itself off when being charged.

TinyExplosions

Lumen wrote: »

blorg,

I have a PowerChimp and it's fine.

However, I think your plan is fatally flawed by the fact that the Garmin 705 turns itself off when being charged.

We checked last night, and it doesn't when being powered by the PowerMonkey!

Lumen

TinyExplosions wrote: »

We checked last night, and it doesn't when being powered by the PowerMonkey!

OK, that's useful to know. Though I have no idea how it knows!

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

However, I think your plan is fatally flawed by the fact that the Garmin 705 turns itself off when being charged.

I was worried about that but double checked and it actually only turns itself off when plugged into the computer for charging, it will stay on while being charged from the AC or indeed the pair of charging yolks we got. Whether it turns itself off or not seems to depend on whether it has a data connection.

From the looks of it I reckon the Powermonkey uses a single 18650 cell, would be very nice if it was user swappable but unfortunately it is not. As the Powermonkey is 3.7v it should be roughly equivalent to 3x 1.2v NiMh AAs at the same capacity.

Powermonkey:


Camelion:

Capt'n Midnight

Pound shops have car cigarette lighter USB chargers for €2

Haven't taken one apart but if they use the same chip as their Nokia chargers they will have a switched mode converter so would be resonably efficient with an input voltage of from about 9V ( PP3 batter ) to maybe 24V

if you can find out the wattage of the UPS, mAh in the battery / hours it lasts you might be able to figure out solar panel size

usb is 5V, the original TTL standard was +/- 0.25 V
Four NiCAD / NIMH rechargable batteries give about 5-4.8V so should be ok
I'd avoid using non rechargables as they'd be up to 6V or slightly more and not worth the risk,

Freewheeling Ed

great stuff in this thread. Love the techie stuff...

Did'nt some Irish kid do something like this for "the young scientist" ..
mm, think maybe it was a phone charger.
I thought I heard it went into production... if anyone knows whats its called??, would appreciate if you could post it up...