Life Alternate » Gadgets

nPower Kinetic Charger For your Gadgets

Wispa — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:53:52 +0000

A charger with a difference here. The nPower PEG Kinetic charger virtually powers up by itself, the sun is not needed.

Most battery charger devices on the market use solar energy to get those little electrons captured ready to power our mobile phones or MP3 Players. The PEG, which stands for Personal Energy Generator, uses Kinetic energy to juice itself up.

Kinetic Energy to you and me is movement and the PEG is designed to use the movement of walking. Have this packed away in your rucksack and it doesn’t matter if the sun is behind a cloud and start moving. The tiny movements up and down generate the power gradually as you walk and after about a nice 5 minute stroll the gadget will have generated enough power to give you a quick 1 minute call on your cell phone.

Not a lot of time there, but over the length of a day, 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon would give over an hours worth of mobile phone use. Different devices have varying power requirements and the charge in the PEG will last longer or shorter accordingly.

Like all charging devices that use some form of cleaner renewable energy the power generation is low compared to the 100’s of volts coming out the wall sockets. The comparison should not be made, like solar chargers, the PEG is aims to charge devices from with renewable energy and more importantly portability. Try finding a wall socket when your are 5,000 feet up a mountain or simply just having a walk in the park.

It would be silly for any modern charging device to restrict the types of devices it can power up. The nPower PEG is versatile in this aspect and can energize over 3,000 devices. If you already have a MP3 player, Camera, Mobile phone the most likely the PEG will be a good charging partner to your device.

It should not just be restricted to walking. Possibly any movement where some form of oscillation occurs should provide some energy. Don’t expect to pack it in your suitcase and have a full charge after a transatlantic flight. That is really the wrong type of movement, he journey would be too smooth. But the baggage handlers might add some energy as they toss your luggage around. Bike riding, especially off road action would generate more action as the rider navigates the turns and bumps of the track.

The casing is made from the space age material, Titanium, with is has the property of being light weight but still strong. Cylindrical in shape like a relay baton with a length of 9 inches and a 1 inch diameter, (230 mm x 25 mm). Internally it has a lithium battery which when fully charged has a capacity of 1000 mHa. That would be enough to keep most devices working for more than a days normal use.

Using Titanium help the PEG shed some weight but it still come in at 12 oz, that us just under a pound (500 grams). This is about the same weight as my midsize digital camera and about 3 times as heavy as an iPhone4.

We think this is a good alternative to a solar charger and ideal for those who are are a little more active and green.

Xpal Egg Solar Charger

Wispa — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 06:25:11 +0000

Yep, Another Solar Charger, but not all chargers are created equally. The Xpal Solar Egg comes in as one of the lightweights with a specific purpose.

The egg name needs no explanation once you have seen the shape of the device. It features technology called SunBoost, developed by Intivation , that allows the solar charger to perform better in lower light levels.

Using the new charging technology lets the Xpal perform adequately without the actual need to deliberately place the egg out in direct sunlight an wait for a full charge.

Look at this more as an accessory to be carried on perhaps your keychain or bag and capturing solar energy whenever it can. It’s a reserve tank of energy with just enough power to get you to the next station.

This has advantages, you do not need to carry much larger and bulkier solar chargers around when your just popping down for some shopping or commuting home after work. These are times when we might use our phone,music player or any other portable device and it just happens to run out of energy. The Egg will come to your rescue and juice your device up with more then enough energy to get you home.

The stated specifications say that with just 4 hours of sunlight the device can be charged up to 90% of capacity. This is stored in an inbuilt 500mAh battery which while quite a low capacity should give a boost to any portable device hungry for some energy.

Making the batteries have more capacity would add to the weight of the egg and make it more obtrusive and less useful as a light weight energy backup.

You might ask why not carry an extra battery? Many of us might have more than one portable device and this mean lots of spare batteries in our pockets. In addition each of those batteries are not continually charged with solar energy as we walk around. The Xpal Egg removed all that unnecessary extra weigh in something that is quite usable.

Solar Powered Speakers From Japan

Wispa — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:54:50 +0000

This is what every “green” party needs, A set of solar powered speakers to blast out those tunes while trying the save the world.

For the rest of use who just want to save a little bit of energy and cash and have a good time then these solar powered speakers could be a nice accessory. Most of us have some sort of personal portable music player and sometimes we just want to take the plugs out of our ears or maybe share a bit of soft music while sitting on the beach with friends.

The “Solar Sound” from Landport allows you to just do that. Extension speakers are not new but this set is totally solar powered. The now familiar pairing of photovoltaic solar panel and Lithium Ion rechargeable battery are present here. With the device fully charged you can enjoy up to 8 hours of stereo sound blasting out at 2 watts from each speaker.

Small enough to slip in your bag measuring just 19.5×11.2×5cm and weighing a light weighing 290g. On the rear side are the controls., including the on off switch and socket for plugging in your music source.

In these sort of devices I always thing that a FM radio would be a nice extra. Sure it would add a little bit to the cost but that would make the unit more useful and self contained.

As it stands the Solar Sound is another nice free energy powered device that can constantly recharge itself just buy the power of the sun.

Mobile Phone Chargers have become Novelties

Wispa — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:11:07 +0000

We are gradually moving away from having our mobile phones being charged by plugging in to the mains power with alternate forms of topping up the batteries.

Using solar energy is the obvious and most practical choice for getting that extra bit of talk time. Solar Powered Chargers are not quite common and can happily sit on a window or attached to a rucksack and suck up the energy from the sun ready for when ever you need it. These chargers and be used to power all manner of portable electronic devices not just your cell phone. The next generation chargers will be part of the device themselves and this will remove the need to carry around anything extra in your pockets.

In the meantime, there are other forms of charging to keep you occupied while you wait. These can sometimes fall into novelty or specialist devices. Shoes are a good example. Every step taken can be converted into a thousands of tiny electrical impulses that over the length of a day can amount to something usable in the evening.

If walking is not your thing then how about playing with a YoYo. Having some fun and producing energy at the same time or if your really lazy, let the kids play all day and you can steal the stored energy at once they have fell asleep.

These ideas do work but you will get bored attempting tricks with your Yo-Yo and you’ll occasionally want to wear a different pair of shoes. They do use movement rather than solar power and this idea has not gone unnoticed for more sustainable energy production.

The phone maker Nokia has already patented the idea of powering a mobile phone with energy produced by movement. More scientifically called Kinetic Energy and using Piezoelectric Crystals. When pressure is applied to the crystals they emit a burst of electricity. Nokia plans to use the movement of your mobile phone as you carry it around all day to gently put pressure on the crystals and keep your phone charged. I`m not sure it would be a good idea to give your phone a hood hard shake to power it up.

The novelty toys are just that but the concept behind them, like in Nokia’s phone, can only bring the totally self powered device a step closer.

Solar Charger Freeloader Pico

Wispa — Fri, 21 May 2010 03:37:55 +0000

Freeloader come out again with another solar energy powered device, The Pico is enables you to keep your mobile devices powered up without the restrictions of having to be near a utility outlet.

The Freeloader Pico is essentially a Lithium Ion battery that is charged up with a photovoltaic solar panel add in a few connectors and wrap it all up in a nice portable hand sized case. This could be something the more technically minded could knock up in the garage but with the Pico coming in at around US$20 you`d be hard pressed to match it on price.

The down side of all solar chargers is the length of time needed to convert the suns energy in to usable power. We could use a larger area of solar panels but this would add to the cost and it wouldn’t be as portable. The convenience of the small size which is just 10.5cm x 4.5cm x 1.2cm and weighing just 49 grams is the appealing factor here.

Charging the Pico using the sun will take around 10 hours to full capacity and this will depend on location and cloud cover. So some times it might take a little longer to achieve maximum charge. The internal batter is a Li-ion battery rated at 800mAh and should have a lifespan of around 2 years depending on use.

A fully charged Pico could transfer its power over to your mobile device in around 30 minutes and this could give your around 35 hours use of a mobile phone and about 15 hours if your are an avid music fan on your iPod.

An additional form of charging is via a USB port, this should be somewhat faster than direct solar. USB charging should be really used as a backup and its quite hard to find a suitable USB port when you are miles from home.

The time needed to get these backup energy storage devices powered up may seem too long but this is just something we need to get our mindset accustomed too. Remembering to expose our chargers to sunlight long before we need to use them is just like going shopping and having some groceries in the cupboard. We do have to pay for our food but the energy stored in Pico is free.

Oasis Solar LED Lantern

Wispa — Tue, 11 May 2010 06:43:55 +0000

The idea of using sunlight to make light is nearly as easy as capturing some of that day light in a bottle and releasing it at night. The development of the wonderful Light Emitting Diodes as a illuminating device has made the phrase “let there be light” become much easier and cheaper for everybody.

Light Emitting Diodes (LED) that produce the light have made the task so much simpler that before. There little bulbs are much more efficient converting electrical energy in to light and this means that our energy capturing solar panels and batteries for storage can be a lot smaller and lighter than without them. It’s just another little step in energy efficiency that opens up new possibilities in our lives.

The solar powered lantern from Oasis is a natural implantation of these ideas and it does come with a few extras thrown in. Constructed from ABS plastic and stainless steel the lantern is capable of shining light for up to 12 hours on a full charge. This can be extended to last 24 hours when the lantern is used in economy mode. While speaking of charging the light comes with a main adapter for taking the energy from the grid but as it is solar we should use that to our advantage. The Oasis has the function of automatically unfolding is photovoltaic solar panels like a newly launched satellite to gather the suns rays and charge itself up ready for use.

Also included is the ability for Remote Controlled operation, Emergency flashing beacon and can act as a red night light. Ever watched those wartime movies when the submarines change the lights to red! This allows the eyes to be adjusted to darkness more easily. Having a red light on your lantern makes those little trips away from the campsite a little less scary when you can see better.

Some of the features in the Oasis light might seem a little bit too extra and as the cost is around US$100 it might be a little too pricy for some. The life span of the LED’s are around 10 years so you could say this costs about 3 cents a day which is not that much when you look at it that way. This is just the cost of the lantern, remember you don’t have to spend extra of fuel with solar energy. It is all completely free for you to use for as long as you want.

Vodafone 247 Solar Powered Cell Phone

Wispa — Mon, 03 May 2010 06:23:34 +0000

Over in the United Kingdom, Vodafone have added a new model to their Ultra Low Cost Hand set (ULCH) range with the Vodafone 247. Thee striking feature for this model is the onboard solar panel.

Feature wise it is limited compared to some other flashy models on the market that can do everything from turn on your washing machine to walk your dog but it does have the basics of what people expect from a modern mobile phone. The 247 comes with a 1.44 inch 65k color screen as well as an onboard FM radio with RDS. Messaging is just by SMS which suits us. WE always found Email on a mobile phone to be too fiddly to work with.

The lack of extra features should bring down the power requirement to a suitable level that will the allow the phone to operate on solar energy for a longer period of time. Having to constantly expose your phone to the sun for every 3 minute call is not very practical.

If your away from home for more than a day then you can see the benefits here. Without being able to recharge your phone every night the solar panel will keep the phone working for extended periods when other phones just run out of juice.

Vodafone, based in the United Kingdom, is the worlds largest mobile telecommunications network company.

These self powered devices are things we just love here. The idea of being totally free and independent from the need to plug-in sometimes makes us go a little bit weak at the knees. In reality this concept does give us more freedom and not only from mobile phones. Lots of other small personal devices are having the solar powered option and soon the uptake in both users and development will improve their functionality.

Exposing your phone to sunlight for one hour will give you 20 minutes of free energy powered talk time. For anybody that spends more than 1/3 of their waking life on the phone then this might be a problem. For the other 99.9% of us this should be more than adequate.

The actual specification of the Vodafone 247 are not available yet but most likely the device will be appreciating a level of usability that will allow it to be charged and ready for use as we carry it around with us. Most of us will not care if the device is solar powered. What is exciting is practically never having the need to run and find the nearest charging point. That is something to think about when your are on the top of a mountain.

The Vodafone should be availing in June 2010 in the United Kingdom just in time for the summer holidays.

Solar Lantern Water Bottle Thingy

Wispa — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:10:31 +0000

The range of solar gadgets coming on to the market never seem to end and this design stands out a little bit. A water bottle that also doubles as a lantern to light your way.

The LightCap 300 combines ideas is something we love, dual use gadgets combining elements of great ideas in to one practical unit. BPA or Bisphenol A is a nasty additive that is used to make plastics and this bottle is BPA free to add that extra bit of ensuring safety.

The light weight water bottle can securely keep liquids safe from leaking out and can double act as a waterproof container. This second use is something we need and like. Too often we are out on the beach and the water seems inviting. With this water proof container we can empty our maps, money or even candy bar in to the waterproof container. Hanging by a strap around our neck or wrist we can enjoy a little cooling off in the sea and keep out belongings safe and dry.

But the primary purpose is a water bottle and it does that well, having a 1 llitre capacity is enough to quench any thirst. In dual purpose mode acting as a lantern this will keep illuminating your camp for up to 10 hours when using white light. Switching this to red light can nearly double the time between charges to 18 hours.

Why Red Light, using red light at night helps to protect your night vision mode. You may have noticed when you enter a dark space such as a cave your eyes take some time to adjust. Red light helps prevent this should you need to wander a little from the lantern then you will still be able to see.

The light source is our favourite, LED. Low energy consumption and bright illumination cut down on the need for larger means of producing the energy. This as you may already have guessed is solar energy. LED lighting and solar energy are a great combination and work well in this water bottle. So out camping or trekking for the adults or as a safe night light for kids this multiuse water bottle might fit your needs.

Mitaki WindUp Radio and FlashLight

Wispa — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:13:01 +0000

Ever wanted a radio that never runs out of batteries or a flashlight that will always give you a shine. The design here from Mitaki Japan combines both these in one unit.

Windup or Clockwork just like those old clocks and watches is making its way in to electronic goods. This radio or is it a torch just needs about one minutes winding and that will let you blast out the tunes or news on your radio for at least 10 minutes. For light power the same amount of winding will last for half and hour. These are not great times, but remember the energy does not come from batteries and as emergency equipments they have an ideal slot.

Having one in your car for that rare event like a flat tyre in the darkness or for those trecking in the outback without the need to carry masses of spare batteries.

Ideally we would want the device to be smaller and perhaps the addition of solar charging and longer lasting between windups.

Currently Haiti is in the mid of an earthquake crisis and reveals how hard is it to get suitable lines of supply and communications to those that need help. In these situations an emergency kit could be airdropped over areas comprising of ration of meals-ready-to-eat, water and including a device such as this combining lighting and a source of information. Each with their own little parachute that could double as a quick shelter or one or two people.

While LA hopes no-one will have to endure such a disaster the windup radio and torch can help us to endure our own little emergencies that may come our way or just as a zero-energy (apart from arm power for winding) radio that frees us from the need of batteries.

Solar Digital Window Thermometer

Wispa — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:43:41 +0000

Still stuck for that idea of a last minute environmentally friend gift. A Solar Powered Digital window thermometer could just be ideal to help you decide what to wear in the mornings.

No installation here, the digital thermometer just sticks on your window and happily juices itself up from the sunlight. While the sun shines it might not always be warm and while sitting inside a glance at this device will let you know instantly if you need a scarf or t-shirt today.

The large LCD display indicates the current temperature and also the Max and Min ranges. Made from recycled plastic and measuring 114mm by 25mm by 97mm the solar digital thermometer should cost around US$25.

The integrated rechargeable battery also means this little device will still work in low light condition and even at night.

This won’t save you any energy but it is a nice self powering gadget that will add a little enhancement to your life. Once you start using it you’ll know exactly the weather conditions outside without opening the door.