Batteries that CHARGE: For travel, yakkin', campin'

[Mongo Johnson]

Hey all just a bit of tech info that might be useful.

There is a niche of battery products that you charge ahead of time and then use THAT battery to CHARGE phones, Kindles and even tablets when you're on the road or in the field.

I'd been looking for a battery alternative for traveling this holiday season . . . to avoid the cell phone dyin' off on a long plane ride or while diddyboppin' around out of town on back roads and always looking for an outlet.

I find I have the same issue when I'm on the water and have the GPS running on the phone, or taking lots of pix or vid. Lots of power gets sucked and I'm sitting in a lot loading my yak. (I use a free app called "SportPal" and it's a nice course plotter just to "see where you went." It logs avg speed and time. Intended for fitness used, but works nicely for a yak trip overview. Squirts out to a Facebook page with a map too that shows info with a mouse-over showing speed etc.)

I came across a range of add-on battery-like chargers. They tend to have a built-in LED flashlight too. They vary in amp hours per giving you 1, 2 or 3 full charges on a device and/or the ability to charge multiple devices.

I have NOT tried this stuff yet, but in theory, you might throw one in your dry bag on a three-day trip and not have to sweat finding an outlet. There are lots of postive reviews.

This first link pulls up the brand I think I'm getting called "PowerGen" and they have higher power units down to 2100 mah. I may go with the higher as it has a built-in cable and can do my phone. They'll also do Kindle's etc. It appears the higher mah units will even do a tablet.

I like the idea of charging the "charger" prior to a trip, stowing its compact self in my run-bag and having the built-in little tail available to keep stuff topped off.

"Mophie" is another popular brand. Seemed a little more costly, but fills same role.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_wi...EN&sort=-price

BATTERY IN CENTER


Sample of a mountain biker using one of these batteries with GPS device:

http://mountainmileage.blogspot.com/...uice-pack.html

SPORTPAL FACEBOOK DISPLAY

[smithers]

Cool.

I've used free Google MyTracks on a Droid to record trips with good results.

Seems on my droid you can run GPS in "airplane mode" which makes a huge difference to battery life. Strangely I don't get a GPS signal if I go into airplane mode first, so I get a lock, start recording, then switch to airplane mode.

Still don't have enough juice for a full day out though, so something like this would do the trick. Good stocking stuffer!