Didn't think this belonged in Bushcraft and Survival, and we don't have camping section, so I dropped it here.

Just wanted to open a discussion on power options when you're out and about. I have an Anker solar panel I've used for charging my iPhone or iPad (back when I had my Stearman) but it was a straight panel, no battery for power storage. Anker and Goal Zero have quite a few options, just wondering what y'all use or look at.

The larger power stations will have 110v AC available but the only upside I see to that is to maybe run a battery tender or a small fan if it's warm at night. Of course there are plenty of USB powered options for fans. And something like a minifridge will only run about 7-8 hours on the smaller battery packs, plus you're carrying a mini fridge with you so......weight. Smaller USB only options are pretty tiny, and light, and some are still 21Ah batteries, plenty for phone, tablet, GoPro. And with the option to charge that battery via solar, seems like it's perfect for back country use.

What say you?

I have carried a folding solar panel for years. It is good for charging a number of things such as rechargeable AA batteries and if need be the plane battery.

I just got a new folding one (Anker I think) that has a direct USB charger connection which is really convenient for charging iPad, Garmin GLO GPS, and phone.

I was given a solar rig w/ a battery for storage which works but is pretty heavy. If you are going to charge something with a battery I am not too sure why you need to lug another battery.

Refrigeration takes so much power, packing a solar charger big enough to generate sufficient Kw is not practical.

My $0.02

I'm curious, how do you charge the aircraft's battery with the solar panel and a USB outlet? I haven't been able to crack that one yet.

Battery tech has gotten better. Anker has a battery that's 26.8Ah, 7"x3"x1" and weighs 1lb 4.8oz (590grams). I like the idea of being able to charge stuff up at night is all.

I carry a Honda 1000 watt generator. It has a 10A 12 V charger built in.

Cheers...Rob

This has come up often before, and as a more or less long time solar professional I am fully aware of what solar can do. BUT.......along with what solar can do, what someone needs to design and market, is a super small lightweight gas generator, using something like the miniature 4 stroke Honda engines like this one: https://engines.honda.com/models/model- ... erformance. Then couple it to a purpose built alternator, specially wound for the engine torque curve and of course for the power needed. And this is where it gets tricky, get greedy and try and put too much juice out, and the motor will lug down. Like choosing a prop actually, you want the engine happy, in it's sweet spot, and then you load it down with whatever electrical power draw it can handle for long periods of time.

Here is why I've been cogitating on this.......sure there would be a market for camping pilots, but also there is a large pent up demand by the new and growing throng of e bikers, I am in both camps of course. Don't bother to post here on the currently available small gen sets on the market, they are all too damn big and heavy! Ideally I'd want something that could put out about 250 to 500 watts. It could be 12 VDC, to keep it real simple, and then a small inverter could be used to produce 120 VAC. Or in my case, a 12 VDC to 58 VDC converter to charge my 52 VDC bike batteries. IF the weight could come in around 10 to 12 lbs.....it could be marketed at a premium. I'd be willing to pay up to around $1,000.00 for one. Sure, you can buy a 1000 watt Honda for $799.00, but it's TOO DAMN HEAVY. Not to mention bulky. Someone, please bring such a gen set to the market, before I take it upon myself, seriously. I'd draw upon my airplane connections (a cool looking carbon fiber enclosure, AN hardware where appropriate, and anything else I could think of to push a pilot's buttons), plus my renewable energy contacts (I know a few outfits that can easily handle the engineering on the electrical side of things, making a custom wound alternator for any purpose), the remaining design trick would be the all important interface between the engine and the alternator. Direct drive? Reduction system? Each would have advantages and disadvantages, and when you combine the choices there along with the marketing considerations ( like what if direct drive turned out to be by far the most efficient, but required a alternator that cost three times as much, or weighed more) it all makes my head hurt and I forget about going into production of this theoretical gen set and I just go to work running my crane, making money and waiting for some else to figure it all out so I can just buy one.

Just saw Rob's post, 28 lbs for the littlest Honda, the smallest and equally well regarded Yamaha is 27. Some POS imports of unknown quality are around 21 or 22. That market is already covered, Half the power, 500 watts, at half the weight, there is nothing out there. Before others mention the newer power packs that contain a lot of energy, nothing beats good old gasoline for energy for pound of weight. Anybody who lives in a off grid home knows this, 1 gallon of gas, when converted into electrical power, is an awesome thing and why we all use the damn stuff.

StampCreek wrote:Didn't think this belonged in Bushcraft and Survival, and we don't have camping section, so I dropped it here.

Just wanted to open a discussion on power options when you're out and about. I have an Anker solar panel I've used for charging my iPhone or iPad (back when I had my Stearman) but it was a straight panel, no battery for power storage. Anker and Goal Zero have quite a few options, just wondering what y'all use or look at.

The larger power stations will have 110v AC available but the only upside I see to that is to maybe run a battery tender or a small fan if it's warm at night. Of course there are plenty of USB powered options for fans. And something like a minifridge will only run about 7-8 hours on the smaller battery packs, plus you're carrying a mini fridge with you so......weight. Smaller USB only options are pretty tiny, and light, and some are still 21Ah batteries, plenty for phone, tablet, GoPro. And with the option to charge that battery via solar, seems like it's perfect for back country use.

What say you?

Although I have a cigarette package size battery as a backup to charge iPhone and iPad, I've not used it yet. I can camp for about 10 days and keep everything charged, including my VHF handheld, off the airplane's battery, without reducing its reserve so much that it won't start the engine. My airplane's battery is a Concord AGM. My adapter goes straight to the battery, so it's not necessary to turn on the master to use it.

I have seen some pretty elaborate set-ups to charge things, but my simple adapter has served me well for several years. Perhaps if I carried a laptop or had more electronics to charge, my system wouldn't be sufficient.

Cary

I don't own one, but here's a Powerhouse 500W (450w continuous) inverter/generator for $215 that weighs under 22 lbs. Has a 12V DC (2.5A) outlet as well as a 110V. That's about the smallest, lightest one I've ever seen. Chinese made, so read the reviews before you buy. Some of the reviewers are clearly idiots, but there do appear to be some issues... On the other hand, a couple of folks have over 400 hours on theirs...

Here is a brand new USB charging device. Works with gas lighter fluid.

http://hellokraftwerk.com

JP256 wrote:I don't own one, but here's a Powerhouse 500W (450w continuous) inverter/generator for $215 that weighs under 22 lbs. Has a 12V DC (2.5A) outlet as well as a 110V. That's about the smallest, lightest one I've ever seen. Chinese made, so read the reviews before you buy. Some of the reviewers are clearly idiots, but there do appear to be some issues... On the other hand, a couple of folks have over 400 hours on theirs...

Yeah I saw one at the local farm supply store, lightest out there but low/unknown quality. And still too heavy for a lot of users to want to pack around, I'd want a Honda powered one, I trust their stuff. 500 watts @ 10 or 12 lbs and I'd be all over it. I've come very close to buying a 1000 watt Honda or Yamaha several times but they are not quite what i want, but short of making my own may still go that route. Crane guys use them to run small AC units for their operator cabs, and if I got one for that purpose I could borrow it for the plane.

I don't know anyone who flies to the backcountry looking forward to listening to an internal combustion engine drone on and on.

A lot of people, (myself included) find the noise of a generator fantastically irritating and obnoxious, even at a distance. They're sort of the epitome of the "I don't care how my actions affect anyone else" mentality.

Given the array of batteries currently available, it's hard to see what place generators have as a backcountry power source in any but the most extreme circumstances.

Hammer wrote:I don't know anyone who flies to the backcountry looking forward to listening to an internal combustion engine drone on and on.

A lot of people, (myself included) find the noise of a generator fantastically irritating and obnoxious, even at a distance. They're sort of the epitome of the "I don't care how my actions affect anyone else" mentality.

Given the array of batteries currently available, it's hard to see what place generators have as a backcountry power source in any but the most extreme circumstances.

I couldn't agree more. Drives me nuts. I moved my tent at HSF because a big RV set up moved next to me and ran generators late at night and early in the morning. NOT why I go camping.

I think with the newer backup batteries there are enough options without a generator for most needs.

I'm a petroleum engineer to drills, fracks and produces oil and gas wells....so I technically have a huge carbon footprint. I like to think that I can offset that in a small amount by not running a generator when I'm out in the wilderness. I like solar for these types of applications and the small wind turbines.

From Cory's trip report:
Even have power in camp at Beaver Creek!

One time at OSH, some yokel ran his little Honda all day and all night--I wondered if he had his tent air-conditioned. I didn't do anything about it, but if he hadn't left the next day, I think I would have complained--there's a no-generator policy in the North 40. During the day, it was inaudible due to airplane noise, but at night, although he was 2 rows away from me, it was darned annoying.

Three weeks ago when I was at the Meredith Lake splash-in, somebody came in, in a humongous motorhome and ran the generator all night. It was almost as annoying as the jerk who ran his stereo into the wee hours of the morning!

When I camp, I try to be a good neighbor by being quiet, picking up my trash, etc. I may run a radio at times during the day, and I may listen to tunes on my iPad Mini at night for a little while, but it's not loud enough for anyone to hear unless they're inside my tent. With the old motorhome, I often ran its generator during the day to keep the air-conditioner going, but at night, the windows were all open, so it wouldn't bother anyone else.

There's enough noise in our everyday lives that we don't need it when we're camped out somewhere.

Cary

If we're using tablets and cell phones in our aircraft, we are endorsing the use of lithium chemistry batteries. I say that since there seems to be much dread in the aviation world to using lithium chemistry batteries on aircraft. Getting that out of the way, solar panels and lithium chemistry storage batteries have opened up incredible convenience for back country camping. It provides all the power we need for our devices silently and is very easy to include in our weight calculations. Thin film and flexible solar panels are on the market and can easily be configured to store and deploy in power rates to charge a 500 watt ebike, small 12VDC cooler, or aircraft battery. There's no need to beat up the aircraft battery with the solar options we are using.

Reviving this thread I started 5 years ago under a long dead email account. Technology has come a long way. Honda still making awesome tiny quiet gensets but the battery power stations from the likes of Goal Zero and Anker and pretty awesome and pound for pound over the same power at the same weight. You just need to charge them vs add gas.

Anyone using one in the field yet? Bought my 170 last spring and camped a few times this summer, more next year. cheers

I carry a couple of "jump packs" in the plane and an Anker folding solar panel. I spend the week at OSH without ever needing more than that, and I'm using phone and iPad a lot there.

One added point regarding generators (which I absolutely despise in the back country), is that if you go to airstrips in Wilderness, generators are illegal to operate. Not trying to start a good or bad thing....just a point.

Me, a couple of lithium jump packs and a solar panel can last for a looooong time.

MTV

Thing I like about the electric generators (whatever you want to call them) is AC power options and the newer tech is switching to lithium iron batteries which is safer.

redacted wrote:Reviving this thread I started 5 years ago under a long dead email account.

If you need to recover your account just email support 7700@

The email address with that account is long gone, no big deal, was away for a while and came back when I got the 170. It's all good, but thanks.