Powering the Adventurous Geek? 84
Xochi77 asks: "As a Geek and a Backpacker, my laptop travels where ever I go, but now that I'm planning a trip through remote regions of South America and Africa, I'm starting to wonder where I'm going to get my power from. How has the Slashdot community dealt with powering high-tech gear in third world countries? I'm especially interested in alternative power sources, like solar cells and wind-up generators etc, but they will have to fit in my backpack!"
What's your idea of south america? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's your idea of south america? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What's your idea of south america? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What's your idea of south america? (Score:2)
Re:What's your idea of south america? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What's your idea of south america? (Score:2)
Re:Why the hell are you backpacking with a laptop? (Score:2)
Re:Why the hell are you backpacking with a laptop? (Score:4, Insightful)
On the other hand, doing a 'whirlwind tour' of South America seeing all these supposed 'ancient ruins' is a lot worse than what he's trying to do. It's stupid to compress your 'cultural experience' into a couple days, you will get much less out of it than if you actually tried to live there for awhile instead of just 'visiting'. And that's exactly what he's doing by going backpacking through the rainforest. He will no doubt get up close and personal with what the 'experience' is actually like, instead of just a snapshot of what it sometimes is like.
I mean, look at it this way: He wants to bring a part of his own culture that he enjoys, because it would be nice, but is not letting it get in the way of his 'cultural experience'. If he wanted to check his email, he would spend his trip in Rio de Janeiro, or better yet, not go to South America in the first place. Instead, he is going backpacking, and looking for a way to include his laptop in the equation if possible.
So why does this bother you so much? Sitting at his campsite at night writing up a few entries on his laptop and reviewing where he's already been, and uploading some digital pictures, shouldn't do anything but add to his experience. Unless a laptop somehow emanates "cannot appreciate the trip" radiation or something.
Re:Why the hell are you backpacking with a laptop? (Score:2)
Yeah... if by "add to his experience" you mean "weigh more than your sleeping pad, sleeping bag, and tent combined."
Obviously you don't backpack... (Score:1)
And your idea of needing a laptop to tour South America is ludicrous. A freaking pencil and notebook weighs 1/10 of the weight of one laptop.
NO ONE NEEDS A LAPTOP WHILE BACKPACKING! NOT ONE PERSON.
The whole reason to backpack into the wilderness is to escape your stupid pointless existence of phones, laptops and pointless office conversation, not to bring it with you.
What nauseates me is that people like you think this is a way to live: Go on a wilderness vacation and bring your cellphone nad laptop with you.
I'm so glad that in my travels I never met anyone so unappreciative of the earth's secrets.
c.
Go without it (Score:5, Insightful)
Man! That's just what I said and they gave me -1! (Score:1)
You rock and deserve not to pushed off a mountainside by another backpacker because you're using your laptop on the summit.
c.
Why in your backpack? (Score:2)
Powered by the sun, but we'll stuff it in the darkest place we have -- brilliant!
Re:Why in your backpack? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why in your backpack? (Score:1)
Man, it's BRUNTON, not Burton...
Here's a page with a listing of 'em...
http://www.egeology.com/brunsolpow.html [egeology.com]
However, I think the Unisolar flexible "panels" are the best plan, and they can put out one hell of a wollop, for a "tie it to the backpack so charging's going on while we're walking" solution.../ flex.html [e-marine-inc.com]
Note that the middle-sized one will wrap 'round a backpack nicely, and it's got the internal diodes so it doesn't matter if it's partially shaded ( like by one's sleeping-roll, or something )...
Dig these people: they've got 'em, and prices, too - $148 for the 11-watt version! ( that's the middle one, I'd mentioned )...
http://www.e-marine-inc.com/products/solar_panels
*sigh*
Brunton are professional dolts:
Their site requires scripting, or you can't navigate the thing sanely, and
their little rigid solar-panels are aimed at the yuppie crowd ( rigid, corporate dinky-toy look, anemic ), and
they appear to not bother keeping up with the ones who really innovate...
http://www.brunton.com/catalog.php [brunton.com]
Here's an idea-- (Score:3, Informative)
wtf are you going to do with a laptop in the middle of a jungle?
if you want to keep a journal, go buy a notepad for $0.69 at Wal-Mart or Staples.
if you need a map, they sell them for a couple of bucks.
dragging a laptop through a primitive country without a real need is just plain dumb. you will either get robbed, drop the laptop, burn the thing out in the tropical climate, or just get shot for being an obnoxious tourist.
Re:Here's an idea-- (Score:5, Funny)
If we could IM to the animals, just imagine it,
Chattin' to a chimp in chimpan-C++,
Imagine finger(1) to a tiger, wall(1) to a cheetah,
What a neat hack it would be!
If we could fopen(3) to the animals, learn their logical formalism,
We could take an animal degree,
We'd study elephant and BASIC, buffalo and TCL,
Alligator, guinea pig, and C!
We would converse in polar bear and python,
And we would curse in fluent kangaroo,
If people ask us "can you speak rhinocerous?"
We'd say "of courserous! Can't you?"
If we conferred with our furry friends, geek to Alan Cox,
Think of all the things we could discuss
If we could socket(3) with animals, write(1) with the animals,
Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals,
And they could BitchX to us!
Re:Here's an idea-- (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Here's an idea-- (Score:2)
Re:Here's an idea-- (Score:2)
I'm sure if you look, you will find hundreds or thousands of people who have had their stuff stolen.
I don't mean like in the movies, where they grab your stuff the second you turn around...
but if you leave something out it WILL get stolen in many places, don't kid yourself. These countries are poor by comparison, and petty crime is HUGE.
Re:Here's an idea-- (Score:1)
and you act like its only a problem in the poor countries.
Try any big city, there is petty crime run amuck.
try France, Spain, the US, etc, all of these places have crime,
it is just the idea that it is sooooo much worse in these countries that stop people from visiting them
I do? (Score:2)
I never said there was no crime in the US, or that central america was a bad place to go.
I was only concerned that the original post seemed to be saying your stuff would be safe.
I live in central america, and I can *definately* say that of all the places I've lived in (including Spain), i've seen more robbery here than anywhere else, by a longshot.
I'm not knocking it, I love it here, the people are nice, I generally feel safe.. but there is far more petty crime here than many places in the world.
And I live in the most wealthy and peaceful nation in the area.
Re:I do? (Score:2)
Of course, I agree with the sentiment that carrying a laptop along for this type of travel would be rather ridiculous. Cybercafes abound, though not in "remote" areas.
> And I live in the most wealthy and peaceful nation in the area.
Cool, that would be Costa Rica? Or Panama?
*insert get a life tagline* (Score:2, Funny)
As if anyone here does that. That's worse than claiming you have a girlfriend(almost).
Re:*insert get a life tagline* (Score:2)
I know you're just giving shit, but for the record I spent the weekend after Thanksgiving hiking and camping primitive-style. Our only concession to the 21st century was a hand-held GPS device, just in case. But we also carried a compass in case the batteries died.
Being a geek doesn't necessarily always mean looking for the highest-technology electronic solution. Primitive camping-- figuring out how to carry everything you need to survive on your back-- appeals to the geek nature just as much as anything else.
Never did get GPS (Score:2)
I've been solo cross county hiking over 30 years in everything from alpine whiteouts to deserts to rain forrests to an arctic ice cap and I've never been lost because I was taught early how to read a topo map. After you get really used to reading a top map the toys really end up being left in the pack and you can track right where you are with the map alone.
Re:Never did get GPS (Score:1)
Try strolling around Fort Polk Lousiana for a couple of days, with little sleep, and other people out there trying to set off your MILES gear. GPS telling you exactly where you are can be nice. Of course, you need enough Satellights...
However, I agree with the need to be able to read a Topo map. Nothing more dangerous than a LT with a Map...I should know, I was one once.
Re:Never did get GPS (Score:2)
Re:*insert get a life tagline* (Score:2)
Right.
And she's a model, right?
No, she's just out of medical school. She's a surgeon. Well, a surgical resident, anyway.
Re:*insert get a life tagline* (Score:1)
Re:*insert get a life tagline* (Score:1)
Being a geek helps me do my _job_ immensely, but I certainly don't live to be a geek.
Rather, I work as a geet to live.
The end in my case is more often than not to get out into nature, totally sans geek.
Geekdom doesn't have to be your _whole_ life, actually you'll deffinately get laid more if you put down the geek when you leave the office.
seriously... (Score:3, Insightful)
unplug for awhile. it won't kill you, i promise. You do realize of course that there are several thousand years of recorded human history that predate the invention of the laptop, right? And that means--perish the thought!--they were recorded without the use of the laptop! That's right, that antiquated device used by our forebears for hundreds of years, THE PENCIL!
easy (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, sorry, I thought you wanted to power Greeks.
Laptop? Laptop? (Score:4, Funny)
-Sean
Out of luck (Score:3, Insightful)
A hand-crank generator would require so much effort to put out enough juice to charge your battery that you'll have little time for hiking, and by the time you're done parts of you will resemble Arnold Schwarzenneger depnding on your handedness.
The pedal crank generator might do it, but it'll be upwards of 50 pounds, and way bigger than your backpack. Since you'll be hiking, I'm not so sure wearing out your legs charging batteries is a good idea.
Fuel-powered generators are out. You can't carry that much fuel, and the generator is quite bulky and heavy.
That leaves solar power.
Either to charge your batteries or run your Linux-based laptop [snicker], I figure it'd take two panels of decent quality convertors, each measuring 4' x 6'. So much for the backpack.
So, buy 10 batteries, charge them all up, and plan your trip to be near civilization every 9 batteries, or hire a porter to lug your $9000 solar panels around.
Or better yet, leave the laptop at home and worry about having a good time.
Mike
Ok, I'll be good. Gimme back my karma.
Re:Out of luck (Score:1)
Re:Out of luck (Score:1)
Cheap and easy solution: (Score:3, Informative)
Hook the laptop to the battery through a car adaptor (specific to your laptop) and use the laptop for ~15minutes.
Rinse, repeat.
If you want to use it more than 15 minutes every eight hours, buy a more expensive solar cell, or more of them, but the weight/time you get might not be attractive enough to work with.
Were I you, I'd look into getting a very power conservative laptop, palmtop, or even PDA and use it instead. A PDA with a folding keyboard can do pretty much anything you'd want to do with your laptop out in the middle of nowhere, and consumes significantly less energy.
-Adam
Re:Cheap and easy solution: (Score:1)
Re:Cheap and easy solution: (Score:1)
But, in the end, it's not what you or I think, it's what you or I mean. I mean Price to performance. I don't know what you mean, only what you've expressed, but I'm pretty sure you didn't understand the relationship between the first and second lines of the tag.
-Adam
I'll bite (Score:1)
Please enlighten me(us).
Re:Cheap and easy solution: (Score:2)
A ratio of X to Y means X/Y, not Y/X. These are clearly different things when X and Y are not equal. There simply isn't room for interpretation here. You can flip the fraction mentally if you want but then you're dealing with a different number.
While it may be possible to deduce what you're really getting at when you say something ambiguous, why not just say the right thing in the first place and remove all possibility of confusion.
Re:Cheap and easy solution: (Score:1)
Price to Performance = Price / Performance. You are EXPRESSING that linux has both no price and "0" performance. Then you go on to say thhat "Pedants" should think about it on a different "level". Pedants are those people in school who do 10 hours of homework and never grasp what they are taking in (For those of you who ARENT pedantic
Good luck with that.
Re:Cheap and easy solution: (Score:1)
-Adam
Bring everything... (Score:5, Funny)
We third worlders can sure use some of your high tech gadgets. Promise we wont hurt you, we just like your stuff.
we run on solar here... (Score:5, Informative)
I primarily have mine to recharge nicad radio and flashlight batts as I wouldn't plan on really humping a laptop in any emergency, but electric is electric, they'll charge batteries if you adjust the voltage output accordingly, ie, adjust charge controller to approximately 14 volts to charge a 12 volt batt, etc. Right now I use them to trickle charge/top off various equipment batteris we have occassionally
My vendor is Four-Winds-Energy
http://www.four-winds-energy.com
The owner Roy is a personal meatworld friend of mine, he has a form on his mainpage you can request any info you might want. He carries these flexible panels, three sizes. Good luck on your trip!
If you want to see some pics of the main solar rig bragger here, goto this other link
http://www.four-winds-energy.com/about.html
scroll down to middle of page see a few pics of "mountaintop in georgia". Nifty stuff!
Re:we run on solar here... (Score:2)
The owner Roy is a personal meatworld friend of mine
I'm as open-minded as the next guy but, *please*, there is room for a little 'don't ask; don't tell', huh? What you two do with your meat is your own business. Leave us all out of it.
InitZero
realistically though... (Score:5, Insightful)
try to make do with less in the third world. be a considerate visitor, too.
two cents.
Old Tech (Score:1, Offtopic)
-Peter
Alternative energy (Score:1, Informative)
Use a PDA (Score:5, Informative)
I've been equipping people for field data collection for a number of years now, and I've been using PalmOS because of battery life considerations, as well as low cost. PocketPC machines are more ambitious, and it shows in their battery life; generally, I have not seen any field worthy pocketPC except for trimble's unit, which has good battery life, integrated DGPS, is built like a brick, weighs like a brick, and costs like a brick (if the brick is made of precious metal).
If you are not going to be away from civilization for more than a week at a time, you could get a new palm, such as the m500. Get a new one so the battery is fresh, and you probably won't have to charge it. Also get the backup card so you can backup your data in case you are gone so long you hard reset. Get a vehicle charger and bum a charge off a friendly native once in a while. Or you could rig a solar charger to a small storage battery and juice up your PDA every few days. The advantage is that you don't have to deliver as much energy as with a laptop, so the battery can be smaller and lighter, and charge times for the storage battery less.
The same strategy could be used for a PocketPC PDA, but you'd have to juice up a lot more frequently. PocketPCs are just a bit bulkier and heavier though.
Another PDA solution would be a used Newton. Again, these are a bit bulky and heavy, but they are good for several weeks solid on 4AAs, and provide a flash card backup option. They're also quite rugged, discounting the possibilty of the glass being smashed, which is the achilles heel of any PDA. I heard about a mining company engineer who lost one in a river, fished it out a week later, and simply opened all the compartments and let it dry by the fire for a day. Popped in fresh batteries and it started right up.
Speaking of which, there are armored, waterproof, floating cases available for the most popular PDA models including palms.
Re:Use a PDA (Score:2)
Re:Use a PDA (Score:2)
Honestly, I get by without my laptop fairly often, but it's nice as a portable HotSync station and a decent way of getting online when I absolutely need to, thanks to the wireless modem and WiFi cards.
Expansys [expansys.com] carries the 9V adapter, for those who are interested. They claim it works with just about any rechargable with a Universal Connector.
Insane (Score:1)
If you take a laptop into places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somolia, or Kenya, powering it will be the least of your problems. You'll find yourself in a shallow grave in no time. And your laptop will be sold for about $1.34 to the nearest warlord.
I agree with both sides here... (Score:1)
Leave the laptop at home, or at least in the hotel. But can I see that the laptop would give you some niceties: storage of digital photos (assuming you have a digital camera on the trip), email for family members so they know you've not been taken by FARC [navy.mil] (or any other regional militants), a journal, and of course porn =)
One good way for you to power your laptop would be with a Auto AC Inverter. Course this requires a car with a cigarette lighter, but they are cheap ($20 at Frys), small (mine's a tank at 2"x5"x1") and light (less then a pound).
So in summary... don't take the laptop on the trail and get a Auto AC Inverter (and good luck avoiding FARC [navy.mil] =).
Sad Story (Score:2, Informative)
robbed and murdered while traveling in remote parts of Peru a few months ago. Be careful while travling in remote parts of the world, especially while carrying expensive toys.
Two Years in Africa and Fiji (Score:5, Informative)
NiMH batteries and a charger (Score:2)
It's dangerous to have expensive equipment.
For small items carry NiMH batteries and a charger, or just buy batteries locally.
It's possible to make a simple charger with a single capacitor and a bridge rectifier and a wall power plug. But there is no line isolation, so be sure not to touch the wires.
Low power devices (Score:4, Interesting)
A laptop? Forget it. Get a PDA.
In fact, get an old PDA. New ones tend to eat batteries with things like colour screens and backlights. Also, they use built-in rechargable batteries that require special equipment to charge.
The ideal travel computer is something like an early Palm Pilot. Mono screen, no backlight. No moving parts. Runs off AAA batteries; you can get new disposables practically everywhere, and you can take some rechargables and a solar panel for those times when you can't get them. You can even get keyboards for them. One of these plus a cell phone or sat phone will give you (slow, expensive) 'net access everywhere. Also, they're cheap; drop one in a river and you're not watching a thousand currency units of your choice bubble gently.
I'm rather tempted by the AlphaSmart Dana [alphasmart.com]. Palm device with a real keyboard, 560x160 screen, ports, runs of AA batteries (which are even easier to come by than AAA)... Disclaimer: I've never seen one. They might be crap.
Re:Low power devices (Score:1)
It's for real. Palm sells it themselves for $400.00. Not bad, actually... Look here. [palm.com]
hrm... I just realized that you are not doubting its existence, but rather its quality... that I cannot comment on.
Apple Newton (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, and when people tell you that you're "missing the point" by bringing a computer, tell them to fuck off and eat it. Your point is your point, so you'll never miss it. What they really mean is that you're missing their point, which is one that should be of nobody's concern but theirs.
-Waldo Jaquith
One Word: Solar (Score:4, Interesting)
Laptops are tougher. Get a handful of power adapters [rei.com] and recharge every chance you get (e.g. restaurants, exterior outlets on houses, DC-AC inverter in cars, bare wires in bases of lamp posts, etc). Also take a long some extra laptop batteries.
And don't forget your Iridium phone [iridium.com] so you can check your email any where,any time.
surviving without power.-.. (Score:2)
Fuel Cells? (Score:2)
I just did it. (Score:1)
My laptop did handle well and i mostly used without adaptor.
But frankly it's a pain to travel with a laptop if i was going to do it again i would go travel with nothing of geekies stuff just to appreciate more the come back to technologies (and appreciate to stay away from there).
Good luck traveling is fun as coding
Re:I just did it. (Score:1)