While not an "on the ride" charging option, portable solar panel rigs are becoming close to interesting for situations where sunlight can be tapped for charging devices or bricks. An NYT take on panels and banks: NYT Wirecutter review <https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-portable-solar-battery-pack/>
I hope development soon reaches a point where a bag top solar panel might have utilitarian output more than a dynamo hub for maintaining a smartphone and a brick/power bank, not just an array that can be opened up when stopped. Powering a bank is the key, it buffers devices from fluctuating outputs. That function in a bicycle light was just too much as Peter described. Even if not used while riding, an easily deployed solar panel charging system that you could pop out when stopping could scavenge powering opportunitiees as you go. Lunchtime, time at destination before sunset. As the military relies increasingly on devices carried by individuals a performance balance between carrying charged batteries/bricks and recharging options is evolving and offering greater independence. My wife's neice and engineer husband finished out their Transit van for living at the onset of the pandemic. He was knew to let someone with knowledge and skills install a solar roof panel and power bank specified to their living and working from the van. While the he grasped the concept of a charging, storing and use draw of electricity, he did not appreciate the same for the water system and used the tiny transfer pump's output directly to faucet or shower instead of employing an accumulator/point of use reservoir. It was the intolerable issue that ended their van life period in the western National Parks. Andy Cheatham Pittsburgh On Monday, March 25, 2024 at 8:41:26 PM UTC-4 divis...@gmail.com wrote: > Essentially, this was what Busch & Muller did with the Luxos U, which > everyone but me seems to have disliked. It's one of the heaviest LED > headlights of the last 15 years, specifically because there's a lithium > battery inside the headlight enclosure. The dynamo charges up the battery, > and then the battery allows a steady-level filtered power to the USB device > and (I believe) both the head and tail lights. The headlight's stand light > definitely comes off the internal battery, rather than from a capacitor; > when I come into the house with my headlight on and wander away without > switching it pff, it will sometimes stay lit for a few hours - which I > often only notice when I'm switching off all the ceiling lights as I go to > bed. > > "Hey! That damn headlight's still on!" > > The steady power supply eliminates the risk of damage to USB-chargeable > computerish devices, or at least reduces the risk. It's the same as any > other USB storage battery, although it's smaller than most external > charging bricks. > > I got a lot of experience using the charger in February-April 2020, just > before and going into the pandemic. The Bay Area had a horrendous windstorm > on February 9, with winds approaching 70 MPH near the Bay and 110-120 on > the crest of the Berkeley Hills. Among other damage at my house (two large > branches torn off a giant incense cedar in my backyard which came crashing > down on my neighbor's elaborately maintained garden, just as my neighbor > and his wife were looking out the back window to see what the storm was > doing - resulting in nearly a year of financial drama), the storm made the > city-owned street tree in my parking strip sway wildly, finally ripping the > power drop cable from PG&E out of my wall, cutting off all electricity. > After PG&E capped the live line and told me that the location of the break > meant that it was my financial responsibility to fix, I restored the > connection and then got into a two-month pissing match with PG&E (every > Northern Californian's most hated utility) before they reconnected it after > I pulled strings with then-Berkeley City Councilmember Kate Harrison, who > called up a midlevel exec at the utility and did a little yelling. My power > was restarted before the end of that day. > > In the meantime, my life sort of stopped. I was roaming around the city > with power strips, charging bricks, and chargers for a laptop and phone > trying to collect enough juice each day from libraries and cafes to limp > through the night and do it all again the next day. The generator+USB > charger on the Luxos U came into play, both to incrementally recharge my > phone and to charge charger bricks, which I could then use to recharge > other gadgets. The experience taught me a lot of survivalist skills, and it > also taught me where there are uncontrolled publicly accessible wall > sockets and WiFi (East Bay tidbit: There are tons of open AC outlets on > Lower Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley, presumably for prospective > students/parents on campus tours, and the open WiFi network from the ASUC > student union is crazy fast. A lot of the Telegraph Avenue street people > take advantage of what's essentially a public resource). > > To the best of my knowledge, no current USB-charger headlight includes an > internal battery. This makes sense; the extra weight of the Luxos U was a > factor in breaking two front mounting bolts for MAFAC centerpulls, as I had > mounted the headlight at the end of one of those little TA handlebar bag > racks that attach to the mounting bolt and the pivot bolts of MAFAC brakes. > I believe the extra weight plus the vibration of the rack while moving > stressed weak points in the 50-70 year old brake mounting bolt that opened > up micro-cracks that wouldn't have expanded much without the stress. > > If you're really nervous about the risk of an irregular power supply to > recharge sensitive gadgets, then using the charger to recharge a brick is a > natural, especially if you're using a front rack and/or front/handlebar > bag: Stick the brick in the bag (or strap it to the rack), run an > appropriate cable from the charger to the brick, and ride on. Then you can > use the brick to charge whatever USB thing you've got once you're off the > bike. > > Peter "unwilling survivalist" Adler > Berkeley, California > > > On Friday, March 22, 2024 at 9:08:28 PM UTC-7 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! > wrote: > > I’m glad everyone knows all these things and then shares because I’m in > need of it. I didn’t know you could damage your phone charging it in dyno. > Will this be true even of the German master engineers at Schmidt when their > new edelux hits the market? They say it charges 10 volts… Max, is that a > better thing? > > https://nabendynamo.de/en/new-edelux-headlight-with-high-beam-function-2/ > > I wouldn’t be opposed to the charging brick, either; I just hadn’t thought > of it. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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