How to Power a UL Cyborg

I recall some trail journals describing NZ as having stretches with heavy tree cover and overcast skies being common.

There are sections with long exposed areas where solar could be a good option.

I'd supplement with some Lithium batteries as well. You never now how often you will get good sunlight.

Hey Serge, you could check out this MintyBoost gadget: http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/index.html.

It's just a mini Altoids tin that holds 2 AA batteries, and recharges almost any USB device. The downside is that it's actually a kit for amateur DIY electronics people, so you need basic soldering skills. The directions on this website are incredibly good though, so it should be no problem.

The empty weight is 35g / 1.2 oz, plus whatever 2 AA batteries weigh (~2oz?). It looks like it can get recharge 75% of an iPhone 4G battery, which is 1400 mAh. From what I found, the battery sizes on the stuff you listed are:

Petzl Core – 900 mAh

Olympus xz1 – 1000 mAh

Steripen Freedom – couldn't find for sure, but found something that said ~750 mAh?

Droid X – 1500 mAh

Not sure if this is useful for what you're doing, but it seems like a great thru-hiker type item. Maybe I'll repost it so other people can see it.

I took a Solio charger out with me on a distance hike, wound up ditching it at the earliest possible mail dropoff point. If you're hiking a lot, you're moving and not getting optimal charging conditions.

Instead consider spending that money on spare droidx batteries, I carried a blackberry plus two spares. The wafer batteries are light and relatively dense in terms of energy storage. If you can bring a usb wall block, you can recharge your phone batts x3, as well as your camera, and steripen, and use the steripen usb charge through feature to charge your stash of depleted AA batteries.

If you were going to one remote place with lots of sun, then it is practical to carry a solar recharger for your various devices. You lay out the solar recharger once, orient it to the sun, and then you can take turns charging the various devices from it. However, in many places, the sunlight is fickle, and it might take days to get one device charged.

If you are moving every day, then the solar recharger hanging off your backpack becomes less practical. Tiny solar rechargers hanging off your backpack are only practical for very low power devices.

For many trips, the practical solution is to cut down on the devices that require lots of power. For the remaining devices, you might carry replacement batteries or high-capacity batteries so that you don't have to recharge.

For a headlamp, for example, there are models with fairly low intensity light settings, and those are plenty bright enough for night hiking. That uses a lot less power than the bright settings.

–B.G.–