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How many extra batteries will I need for my laptop?
Seeing as this is the UL forum.
Depends on whether you take it and if you turn it on.
In all seriousness 2-6 hours seems to be what the range of new batteries are. Just running the screen eats a lot of power. Look at the settings and adjust the sceen brightness down and make sure the processer is not doing unnecessary background things. I am sure there are more but at home one is enough.
Actually for a week or more on the trail I thought I could put a couple of small car batteries, (UL content) in one of those bag lady grocery carts.Maybe even rig a bicycle headlight generator to the wheels so it would charge as I pull it. (light weight generator, another UL reference)
bigcranky
11-21-2009, 20:26
Just one:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-10043-10273
This ought to keep your laptop running for the whole hike.
WalkingStick75
11-21-2009, 20:45
I just take my car battery out at the trailhead :)
around here, UL stands for Ultra Light... not Underwriters Laboratories:D
Inasmuch as this is the ultralight forum, with respect, I suggest, zero.
ShelterLeopard
11-21-2009, 23:32
Um, you're going ultra light, and carrying a couple car batteries???
MikenSalem
11-22-2009, 00:14
At least two.
Take a UMPC, or even the email device PocketMail (http://www.pocketmail.com/us/products/composer/).
PocketMail is useful for trail journals. It is held near the earpiece of an analogue telehone, like most pay phones.
Lightweight.
Wise Old Owl
11-22-2009, 06:27
Ok I looked this isn't the humor section, so I will try to answer this question.... You would have to carry a second Li battery designed for your laptop. The idea of carrying motorcycle or alarm batteries is very impractical because few laptops are 12 volt anymore. The Laptop needs a 12 volt to 125 volt inverter (100 watt or better) to run the charger/ power supply that was included with the laptop.
Honest Connies Pocketmail or a Palm/ or a Phone with a qwerty keyboard with an extra MB chip in it is far more practical for trail journals.
Consider a redundant system- pen and pad.
ShelterLeopard
11-22-2009, 10:33
Consider a redundant system- pen and pad.
That's what I use- never had to change the batteries yet!
How many extra batteries will I need for my laptop?
better bring 2, just in case...
ShelterLeopard
11-22-2009, 10:48
PS- You would've gotten less flack from everyone if you hadn't put this in a UL hiker forum then suggested carrying a laptop and several car batteries.
Slo-go'en
11-22-2009, 13:51
PS- You would've gotten less flack from everyone if you hadn't put this in a UL hiker forum then suggested carrying a laptop and several car batteries.
Indeed, the humor section would be more approperate.
I meet one guy who was shipping his laptop mail drop to mail drop. Never meet anyone actually lugging one around. Even the new, little netbooks would be a bit much to carry. Besides the wieght, keeping if from getting wet or otherwise damaged would be difficult.
I carry a PDA, about 8 oz with an AC charger and small solar panel to help keep it alive on longer streaches between towns. A smart phone (Iphone, Blackberry, MotoQ, etc) would do the same thing, but I don't need the phone.
Bags4266
11-22-2009, 14:02
Long extension cord :eek:
You know come to think of it, a desktop would work much better on the shelves inside all the shelters.
ShelterLeopard
11-22-2009, 15:23
With your external hard-drive, of course.
ShelterLeopard
11-22-2009, 15:24
This should be part of Buzz's ultra-heavy thread!!!
atraildreamer
11-22-2009, 17:37
You know come to think of it, a desktop would work much better on the shelves inside all the shelters.
...and you can plug it into the electrical outlets that have been recently installed in every shelter. The shelter mice have been trained to run in modified hamster wheels that spin a generator that powers an inverter to provide ac electrical power.
(If you believe this...pm for my recipe for making dehydrated water! :D )
:banana
get something like a blackberry. you can use it as a phone, camera, gps, email, text, E911 and to surf the internet. weight under 4 ounces. talk time 4.5 hours, stand by time 17 days.
Panzer
How many extra batteries will I need for my laptop?
I don't recommend anyone bring a laptop on the trail because I don't think that they are engineered to withstand all the rigors of trail life. On the trail they will be exposed to the cold/heat, rain/humidity and all the vibration they will receive from being carried on your back for 20 miles a day and the shock that they will receive as you take off your pack and put your pack down hard. Laptops weren't made to do that.
Panzer
XCskiNYC
11-23-2009, 18:18
Ok I looked this isn't the humor section, so I will try to answer this question.... You would have to carry a second Li battery designed for your laptop. The idea of carrying motorcycle or alarm batteries is very impractical because few laptops are 12 volt anymore. The Laptop needs a 12 volt to 125 volt inverter (100 watt or better) to run the charger/ power supply that was included with the laptop.
Honest Connies Pocketmail or a Palm/ or a Phone with a qwerty keyboard with an extra MB chip in it is far more practical for trail journals.
An inverter, in converting the energy from DC to AC, turns a percentage of it into heat so, on top of the weight of hauling around a car battery or two, plus the weight of the inverter, you'll suffer from a penalty due to the device's inefficiency.
If it really pains the OP to disconnect from the Internet (and this can be a very shocking withdrawal process for those of us who have cable modems and other high-bandwidth connections), I would agree with WOO that a Smart Phone might be be the lightest option and carrying an extra battery or two for one of these, while nose-bleedingly expensive, might make the most sense weightwise.