Power for a trip with a lot of waiting & no charging

[wizardragon]

I am going on a flight in two parts with an 8 hour wait in the middle - then onto a train for another four hours which is 5 hours after my flight arrives.

When I am waiting I am intending to access the net, and also use the phone to play films on the flights/train.

I had thought about getting a high capacity battery to use with the standard one, but I guess run times would go beyond their capacities as the total usage runs to over 24 hours even without delays.

I had seen solar chargers on ebay - but although I could probably use it on a train - i doubt if it could be used on a flight - but guess it could be fairly useful for camping etc.

I also saw a "powerpack" that charged USB devices by using 4 standard AA batteries, and thought this would be a better bet, as I am likely to be able to buy them at airports and stations etc so I can keep the phone running.

Any suggestions of the best way to do this - or errors in my idea?

[kevino]

With an 8 hour stopover, I'm sure you can find somewhere in the airport to re-charge without worrying about batteries.

How long are the flights ?

[vijay555]

Maybe your flight will have power ports as well? I know some do, although typically not in economy, where I travel, whence one must "jack" into the bio-electrical discharges of our own thought processes to merely heat "dinner".

You can also get those new fangled ipod charging things as well. Charge em up overnight, then use them to recharge the ipod or any other usb/firewire device on the go. Might help. Can't remember where I saw it.

V

[jbn]

1) Can you be specific about the airport(s) and train services involved?

2) How much power-related gear are you prepared to carry?

[wizardragon]

It is an ex soviet asian and eastern european air services and an ex soviet asian train.

It is likely there will be people carrying chickens with them on the asian ones before you start thinking technology!!

Everything needs to fit in a rucksack and hand luggage that gets carried in the rucksack once i come off the planes.

I start in heathrow - so everything should be OK there.

[kevino]

I start in heathrow - so everything should be OK there.

Possibly with JFK the worst premier airport in the world.

Perhaps you should look at renewable energy sources. I haven't heard anything about power from chicken guano but I'm sure someone has a theory ;-)

(sorry tough day watching the football)

[futuresbright]

here you go wizardragon is this what you are looking for?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/O2-XDA-MINI-S-PRO-XDA-EXEC-BATTERY-EXTENDER_W0QQitemZ8825475934QQcategoryZ48674QQssPa geNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

havent used one on my wizard but my dad uses one on his mitac and gets 2 full charges out of a set of batteries.

have a look on ebay for xda battery extender there are some more.

[kiru]

I use the AA Battery method when I travel to china. On a good set of batteries, I get about 3-4 full charges. But I usually only use it to top off my battery when I am on the bus or train. It's nice and small, and the batteries you can buy anywhere, it's awsome..... :)

[sskarlatos]

I reviewed Gomadic's road warrior kit on pocketnow.com here (http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=821). It has a battery extender, which can also be purchased separately for $19.95. It works very well and with their swappable tips (TipExchange) can be used with many mobile devices.[/url]

[dimushor]

It is an ex soviet asian and eastern european air services and an ex soviet asian train.

It is likely there will be people carrying chickens with them on the asian ones before you start thinking technology!!

Everything needs to fit in a rucksack and hand luggage that gets carried in the rucksack once i come off the planes.

I start in heathrow - so everything should be OK there.
are you coming to Moldova?

[wizardragon]

Further over - "Chernozhopayalandii" - I always though the station in Kishinev looked pretty modern for one where you need to walk over the rails.

I heard the train no longer runs to Tiraspol now though, or is it all of Transnistria?

[wizardragon]

I got a 4x AA battery extender on Ebay. It works pretty well and I guess the batteries are available almost anywhere.

Does anyone know if there is a USB extension cable that would match the charger and the phone?

Also I got a 6v rechargeable battery out a burgar alarm I was removing (from a friends house- honest!!!) which is about 7cm x 10cm x 15cm and was rated in double figures Ah. I guess this could be the start of the ultimate travel charger/extender.

[kevino]

Has anyone tried this http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/3169 ?

[orahm]

The solution here is a solar charger. I got one of a ebay that is strong enough on a sunny day that you can run the device without the battery depleting. It's about as big as a CD case with 2 cd's next to eachother. It has a zigarette lighter jack so you can use your car charger.

[wizardragon]

The charger worked unbelievably well. It had a small LED that got dimmer as the power was used up, which without there was no way of saying if it was still putting power into the phone.

I never used it to charge the phone as such as the phone was in my belt pouch - but plugged it in when I was using it so the power was kept at full all the time.

The solar charger someone mentioned would not really have been useful due to the low light levels inside the airport and after dark on the train, and I think the airline staff would have been looking a bit worried when someone tried to attach something against a window on a flying plane, but obviously would have been good for something like camping in the middle of nowhere where there were no power supply or shops.

Regarding the airline headset charger - I would guess these would run on a lowish voltage (3v i would guess without checking) so may not give the phone that good a charge.

I got it here...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Battery-Extender-Charger-MDA-Vario-Imate-Jamin_W0QQitemZ270009145355QQihZ017QQcategoryZ4867 4QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

but for anyone not wanting the UK government to receive the tax on it try here...

http://search.stores.ebay.co.uk/ADDONSWORLD_battery-extender_W0QQfcdZ2QQfciZ0QQfclZ3QQfsnZADDONSWORLDQ QfsooZ1QQfsopZ3QQftsZ2QQsaselZ36214385QQsofpZ0

and if you are not in a rush and are broke they tend to reduce individual models to about £1.50 + p&p every now and again.