Originally Posted by hikingshoes
Its like anything else you have to know what you are doing... a lot of stuff out there doesn't work.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Yeah,I'm sure. I'm not up on all the items out there that's light weight or even works. I seen this and liked it .
I bought 3800mah extended battery for my Galaxy Nexus. I have never had my battery die before I reached town.
My idea was more difficult and less effective than I thought it would be. I'll try another way soon.
Wow, that's a ******* thing to do.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.
Didn't use the phone enough to ever need it but the power pack I have weighs 2.5 oz, should give about two full charges.
I guess the idea of leaving the phone off when not needed , and minimizing its use never occurred?
You can charge it in town ever few days.
roam around with a spare batter and the data off, then when you would like to, i do it at night, turn it on and do your thing.
Base weight: 8lbs
Pack: Gossamer Gear Murmur
Hangin' with my homemade M50 hammock!!!
"Laying and swaying in a hammock is like a steady morphine drip without the risk
of renal failure" - Dale Gribble
Last edited by Sly; 08-15-2013 at 16:02.
Pretty slick!
The lightest option is always to not bring something! Instead of a charger, you can keep your phone off until you need it and it will last 5+ days. But you will need a charger if you do a lot of calling, blogging, internet browsing, or use your phone as a camera or MP3 player. If you only use it to call your family once a day, then a charger isn't necessary. So it depends on how often you use your phone and what you use it for.
Consider leaving the charger at home for a test run, and see how much battery you have left when you get to town. Then you'll know if you really need it or not. Some people prefer to carry the physical weight, rather than the mental weight of worrying about running out of battery which I totally understand!!
One of the most brilliant(and easiest) things I've done this year was to replace my cell phone battery. iPhone 4 or 4S battery replacement kits cost 6-12 bucks on ebay. The one I decided on was 8.99 with free shipping and after changing it out my battery life doubled. All cell phone batteries begin to degrade after approximately 1 year.
I bought an external battery charger from Amazon called an EasyAcc its a 7000mah. On my scales it came in at 5.4ounces. I'm able to get about 2 1/2 to 3 charges on my Samsung SIII with it. If I were to carry 3 extra batteries it would weight the same. I also carry a blackdiamond revolt headlamp and so my powerbank also serves as a back-up charger to my headlamp pulling double duty so I don't have to cary extra batteries with me. As everyone else mentioned also make sure you keep you phone in airplane mode and your brightness all the way down. Whenever I see an electrical outlet I'm able to charged my powerbank and use two usb adaptors from it and charge my headlamp and phone at the same time preventing me from having to carry extra chargers. The weight savings on carrying extra batteries, chargers, and versatility make up for its weight. I also plan o carrying a small pocket camera so it can be used to charge that as well.
The WakaWaka solar powered charger and lamp is what I have. It's my light and a backup charger for my phone.
http://us.waka-waka.com/products/
Never have to buy batteries for it. The light has three brightness levels and an SOS function. You can hang it off your pack and have it charge during the day.
Todd
There's a very light direct solar charger out there called the Suntactics sCharger-5, it only weighs 1/2 lb, and is about the size of a cd case. There are lots of hikers using this thing because its extremely light, durable, water-proof, and their customer service is fantastic. I remember in a forum some hiker said that he dropped his panel off a steep rocky hill and it broke and the people at Suntactics rushed him a new one.
Here's what some PCT'ers are saying:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...hread_id=79495
The sCharger-5 the scharger-5 can fully charge my iphone in about 2 hours from 0% to 100%, which is damn cool considering you're out in the middle of nowhere, it also charges my go pro in about 1.5 hours. I recommend it to all who want to backpack light, and reduce the need to carry extra weight, yet charge your stuff fast.
http://www.suntactics.com/shop/usb-scharger-5/
Here's what they said to me in an email:
"We only use high-quality parts for our products. We manufacture each solar charger by hand in the U.S., we make sure every solar charger meets our quality standards before selling them. We rarely have any customers send back products due to faulty units, but if they do they can send it back and we will ship them out a new one, even if the 2 year warranty expires because we care about our customers. If you need anything at all hit the reply button and we will answer your questions as soon as possible.
Sincerely
Dean Sala (CEO)
Suntactics.com"
I have used a GoalZero solar system on my thru hike to keep my iPhone and camera battery charged this year. I started out with a 4500mah battery back up but quickly moved to the solar system (within 2 weeks) of hiking. I found that unless I was zeroing in a town, that trying to charge my camera, my phone and my battery backup tended to take hours to fully charge them so I invested in the solar panels. It allowed me to get rid of my chargers for my camera and phone and netted out about 14 oz of additional weight carried.
The trick to this is to strap the solar panel on the back of your pack as it will "trickle charge" the storage battery even in fairly heavy forests. Once I moved to solar, I never worried about battery management for the phone, where I kept my PDF maps as well as my ebooks and GPS and I never missed out on a good photograph because my camera battery failed.
I am a fairly lightweight hiker with a pack weight with 5 days food, gear and water and after adding the solar system to my pack I was still under 26 lbs. It is something to consider..
What phone are you using?
Smile, Smile, Smile.... Mile after Mile
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