Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

What do you guys think of this?

Has anyone found a portable charger that works well with the n8x0?

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

I think you'd be cranking, blowing, or shining for many hours before getting enough juice to drink.

http://www.brunton.com/
http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/ You can buy roll-up or fold-up solar chargers but the larger ones get pretty pricey.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

I use a Solio. It will fully charge an N800 twice from a fully charged battery or will charge continuously if left out in the sun (as I did when I drove from Miami).

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

The supplied tips fits? (I quickly checked the company's compatability page and didn't see N800 under Nokia, but got the feeling that it had to be one of the two standard Nokia tips)

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

I had to purchase the Nokia tip. That was 2 years ago so they may include the smaller Nokia tip now. Worth it.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Icetech I-9005 Portable Solar Charger/Battery
Solar Charger for Portable Electronics - Green Power
Deluxe Solar Charger - Green Power for Portable Electronics

Those are three I've looked into as well. I also have two others, which would be perfect for camping, but darned if I can find the bloody links. Not sure where they went, but they were literally designed for use by people either camping, our out in the middle of nowhere and had zero power, but just happened to have cellular as they're designed to charge phones. Go figure that one out. hehe.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

I use the solio charger also, for my N800. It came in a package at Costco with 8 tips, including the Nokia that fits the N800. There are others available on their web site as Sondjata mentions, but they're $10 each.
http://store.solio.com/s.nl/sc.7/category.119/.f
but they also sell packs of several common tips to reduce the price.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Yes but how long does it take to power your n8x0 to full from dead?

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Well, it's still a 5 volt source. I haven't timed it, but it didn't -feel- like it took longer that using the wall charger.

But -- what does take time is charging the solio device. The solio has it's own battery that charges from the sun, this battery is what charges the N800. That's why it's not slow to charge the N800. But it takes 24 hours (*) of light to charge the solio, from dead to full. (And it can be charged from the USB port of a computer, that's much faster.)

(* I don't have the manual in front of me, I'm typing from memory.)

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Well, with the standard charger, about 2.5 hours. With the USB charger, about 4-5. The stock Nokia charger for the n810 (the standard Nokia AC-4 travel charger) outputs 5v at 890mA. Standard USB outputs 5v at 500ma. If you're trying to charge with a solar or crank charger, it has to output a regulated 5v at no more than 1amp (1000mA) maximum. Preferably no more than 900mA.

On a side note, I did find the company who had that pull charger I mentioned:

http://www.potenco.com/products/

That page shows two devices they have. There's a smaller "pull" version, and a larger two handed "rocker" style. The nice part of these is that you don't need to be pulling on them the whole time your device is charging. They hold a small charge in an internal capacitor so you don't have to be pulling the entire time your device is charging. Just pull for a minute or so, then stop, do something else, then come back and pull some more. :)

You'll want to be careful of the bigger one though, as that outputs 12v, so you'll need a step down transformer like a car adapter or something. The smaller one is 5v and nearly the same mA as the Nokia travel charger.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Thanks for the input, I think I am going to keep my eyes open for a good deal on a solio.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

@LordRaiden: Thanks for letting me know about that pull-charger. I've been hoping for something just like that. I hope they get their funding and start making them soon.

Solio owners: The Solio has a 1800 mAh battery, and the Nokia N810 has a 1500 mAh battery. So does the Solio have enough juice to fully charge an N810 with a dead battery? In other places, I have read that emergency cell chargers that take 2 AA batteries can't fully charge an N810 from dead, even though AA batteries range from 1700-3000 mAh (according to Wikipedia). This makes it seem like the Solio's battery shouldn't be big enough... or is there something that I don't understand about the way this all works?

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

The battery capacity issue is always a problem, but I used a solio for an entire summer to charge a phone (it was an experiment), but worked wonderfully. I would certainly recommend it for anyone. When I travel I charge mine up prior to leaving (not in the sun) and make sure it is fully charged. It will stay that way for many weeks, and is "always available" and can be topped off quite easily.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

So what exactly are the requirements of any given charging device to charge an n800/810? It doesn't necessarily have to fully charge but what is the minimum power requirements to start charging?

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Minimum power requirements are 5v @ 300ma. The charger circuits won't kick over below that, and if they do, you risk damaging them. 500ma is standard usb current. 890ma is the output of the travel charger by Nokia. All are @5v. You really don't want to go beyond 900ma when charging the NITs since you could damage the charging circuits.

What I've found very useful for charging devices while traveling is the Tekkeon MP1550 as it can use either rechargable AA's, or it can charge them from a usb port on another device. So it can charge your nit, or your batteries. :D And on the odd chance you can't get anywhere and charge your rechargeables, you can just buy a pack of batteries from the local 7-11 and use those instead. So it's very flexible.

It's not as compact as the Solio or some other battery pack systems, but for 90% of situations it's perfect. Now if you're going out camping away from civilization, or you'll be traveling for long periods with little hope of finding AC power to recharge your batteries, then I highly recommend the Solio. For everything else, the Tekkeon MP1550. :)

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

AFAIK the chargers are about 5.2V, so slightly above 5V. If you keep your voltage at that level there's no reason to worry about the current, the charging circuitry in the tablet will take care of that. The way to damage the device is to crank up the voltage beyond what the charging circuit can handle.

EDIT: The idea about a hand-cranked charger isn't bad in itself, as you should only have to provide an output of a few watts to charge with the maximum current the device can handle. The problem is really that you can't charge it directly like that, it would take two hours.. so, what you want is a hand- (or foot-)cranked charger with a built-in _big_ battery which can take being charged with several amps. Then get on your pedals and give it 50 watts for a while, it'll be demanding but still just a tenth of what a pro biker puts out! :) Then charge your NIT from that battery over the next couple of hours.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Actually, the travel charger is spek'ed out at 5v. ;)
The ones that have an internal capacitor also work very well. The advantage of the capacitor version, although slightly more expensive and harder to find is that you don't have to work as hard to get your final charge as the amount of wasted power on a capacitor based model is nearly zero whereas you loose some voltage to heat and other issues when using a battery based unit. Plus capacitor based models don't loose their charge. ;)

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Umm no. I can fully charge my Solio on less than 1 day's direct sunlight. yes the Wall charger is faster but then we expect that.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

I don't have an 810 so I can't speak on that battery but my N800 it will take 2 "blinks" (out of 4) of the charge to top off my tablet starting from the low battery warning.

Therefore you're looking at 2 "full" charges from one fully charged solio. That's the Solio "sunflower" classic design and not that new flat plate design.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

I have the little Freeplay radio with a hand-crank. I've tried using it to charge my N800 directly (using the adapter tip from my Power Monkey Explorer). It does seem to work, but for short-ish cranking sessions, the fact that the N800 kept waking up and displaying popups about charging status made me think the net gains weren't too high. For sustained bouts of charging directly, it is probably OK. I assume that charging the N800 whilst it is on is the optimal solution to avoid wasted power during a boot phase.

Instead of charging directly, I've resorted to charging the Power Monkey battery directly from the Freeplay crank, and topping it up with what passes for sunshine in the UK using the Power Monkey's solar panel. I can then charge the N800 from the Power Monkey battery when it needs it.

My experiments at self sufficiency haven't been that extensive though. I could only be bothered to keep the N800 going in this way for about 10 days, with perhaps 30 minutes web browsing, periodic email transfers and downloading and listening to a couple of podcasts each day. With a bit more sun, and a better positioned solar-cell, and some top up charging with a crank, I reckon this would be sustainable, but I suspect that hitting the battery hard with daily viewing of streaming video or other heavy/continuous processing would be would give you RSI trying to keep up with the hand crank. The wind turbine might be better suited to the UK climate, so I am tempted to try one out.

fnord

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

I've been thinking about picking up this device. It has a 6000 mAh battery in it, which I certainly hope would be enough for at least one full charge from empty for my N810.

Edit: I had previously picked up a solar battery pack that *claimed* to have a 3000 mAh battery in it, and I was not able to get it to fully charge my N810. When I say "fully charge", I mean from completely dead. I would run the N810 until it shut off, plug in the charger, start up the N810 and then charge the N810 in sleep mode until the battery pack ran out of juice.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Well, I can take my n810 from dead to full with a set of 4 2500mah rechargables (5000mah once you combine the four batteries into 2 sets to get 4.8v) without much problem, so a 6000mah should do just fine and have juice to spare.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Are you sure about that math ? If those are AA batteries, 4x1.2 = 4.8, but that's still 2500 mAh. If you happen to have some strange 2.4V batteries, disregard this post :) I'm one of those who think mAh can be misleading to write on batteries, would be happier with mWh :)

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Bah, my math sucks. You're right. lol. But yes, I can take a nit from zero to full with a set of four of those. It dies at the end, but it gets there. :)

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

People are running their batteries down to shut down? Wow. Once I get the warning it's off to the charger for me.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Well, some of us can't get to a charger right away and ultimate use the device until it does. Then again, sometimes it's a good idea to run a battery dead periodically to help keep it healthy.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Actually, I have (or had) a solio and it took three full sunny SoCal summer days to fully charge the battery. Perhaps I had a faulty one, but if you can charge it in less than one day...that's amazing.

Plus, I found that the solio could not completely charge my N800 from being dead to full battery. Once again, perhaps I had a faulty one...

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

perhaps. I can leave mine in a car window and get a whole blink. and that's nowhere near optimal. Is your behind a pane of glass? Is it angled right? 3 days really sounds long.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Ahhh the very reason I carry the solio.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

I agree, it does seem absurdly long. However, I had it on my patio table facing south and it took a couple of days. I even tried turning it east in the morning and then west in the afternoon...to no avail.

I did notice that it would get extremely hot, which made me wonder about how long the lithium-ion battery would last under those brutal conditions... Now, I don't even use it anymore as it has become essentially useless to me.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Reading up a bit more on http://sw.nokia.com/id/3378ff2b-4016...on_v1_2_en.pdf there are actually two specifications. The device measures the voltage, and if it's between 5.5V and 9.3V the charger is identified as a standardard charger, if the voltage is between 4.65V and 5.2V it identifies the charger as a 'Special charger', which I think means the travel chargers and the car chargers.

Ah yes, a capacitor would work great also because it can suck in a lot of current quickly, unlike a battery.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Yeah, I think you have a bum battery or something. I drove from Savanah Georgia to NY with my solio out on the dash (convertible) in direct sunlight for 12 hours and it ran my iPod the whole time which had maybe an hours worth of charge left in it's battery. You should replace the battery and see what happens.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

You know, one of these days I'm going to have to learn more about electricity. Watts, amps and volts... anyone know a good tutorial for beginners?

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Well in that case would you consider selling it to me?

I think I am in the same boat

It's good to know that I have that option but I just hate buying batteries.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Well, with rechargeable batteries, you only need to buy them once and they're typically good for 500-1000 charges. Plus $17 for a pack of 8 sure as heck beats $60 for a device with equivalent power. Plus you can swap and go or use store bought in a pinch with the rechargable AA's. ;)

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

@LR: Ah, but for the rechargeable AA batteries, you also have to buy the Tekkeon MP1550 to put them in to order to charge an N810. Of course, I'm also considering purchasing an MP1550 as well, but one of the things that I like about the 6000 mAh device I linked above is that it has a little solar port that I could plug a battery-less solar panel into to charge it. That would work even when there aren't any stores from which to buy AA's.

I've even seen some little solar panels for sale that can be plugged in as a series, one panel plugged into the next, eventually plugged into the device. That could be a cheap way of dealing with the movement of the sun a little bit, which is something that solar-panel-using people often complain about. I'm going to go bankrupt! :)

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

lol. Don't feel bad. I'm such a tech junkie I'm surprised I haven't bankrupted myself too! ^_^;;

On a side note, I already had enough items in my electronics portfolio that made use of AA's, that the MP1550 was a logical next step. Especially since I already had the batteries. Also, my NIT isn't the only thing that gets charged by the mp1550. I also charge my mp3 players and at least one or two other devices via usb as well, so a AA battery powered solution was perfect for me. :)

Of course, if you don't use a lot of AA's, the other choice may work better for you.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

Well, there's always wikipedia. but a physics textbook will present the material (electrons, current, charge, watts, amperes, volts, coulombs, farads) in a more homogenous, continuous, intuitive manner/sequence. check your local library. :)

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

OK, so I thought I would drop another post in this thread and give an update on what I am doing for "mobile charging" solutions. I recently got a new job and am now living in Japan so for one that means that I don;t have a car. But I do have a bicycle and I end up doing all my daily traveling by it; about 14 kilometers a day. Anyways, on the bike that I have there is a little dynamo that spins off the wheel and powers a little light in the front. I thought to myself, "Why can't that charge my n800?" Anyways, I am doing a little research to find the best dynamo with the proper power output. At the moment it looks like the best option is going to be a one that mounts on the hub of the wheel. I think I am going to pick one up this weekend and see what I can do with it. I will post some pictures later on how this comes along.

Re: Solar/Wind/Crank charger?
 

You're...in...Japan!? Dude, I am so epically jealous of you. I've wanted to go to Japan for ages. :(