charging batteries

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
Tako
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charging batteries

Postby Tako » 6 Sep 2009, 4:29pm

B&M won the green award at Eurobike 2009 for this contraption:

http://www.bumm.de/index-e.html?docu/361e.htm

Sounds fantastic! A real plus for those with a dynamo hub. I want one, who else?!

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CREPELLO
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Re: charging batteries

Postby CREPELLO » 6 Sep 2009, 4:33pm

Ohh-yessssss! But ohhhhh, :o how much? 139euros? :?

Tako
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Re: charging batteries

Postby Tako » 6 Sep 2009, 5:23pm

Sigh.... I know. Trying to justify cost as it can charge a plethora of devices, major battery savings, accommodation costs including time saved from not being tied to a mains supply, getting the most out of your hub, etc.

just found this in my rss, a slightly cheaper Dahon offering but doesn't appear as multi-functional as the B&M:
http://bikehugger.com/2009/09/biologic- ... video.html

cost is US$99
http://bikehugger.com/2009/09/charge-yo ... r-bik.html

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andrew_s
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Re: charging batteries

Postby andrew_s » 7 Sep 2009, 12:29am

There's also the pedalpower from australia.
Someone did post somewhere a price list they had been sent, and iirc the cable to convert hub to stabilised USB (5v) was in the region of £60

[edit]
I think I'll probably stump up the 139 euro or whatever
Last edited by andrew_s on 7 Sep 2009, 2:42pm, edited 1 time in total.

TheBrick
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Re: charging batteries

Postby TheBrick » 7 Sep 2009, 10:57am

There have been a few DIY versions of this knocking around for a while. Good to see a product for people not interested in E.E. It's just a shame shimano no longer make the disc compatible dyno hub anymore as I was considering building a dyno hub wheel this winter ad could only justify it if the wheel was future proofed against my intended bike purchase.

AMC
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Re: charging batteries

Postby AMC » 7 Sep 2009, 12:03pm

I'd love one of these - wonder if the price will drop if we're patient?

Tako
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Re: charging batteries

Postby Tako » 7 Sep 2009, 9:17pm

That pedalpower looks interesting, especially if you can just rig the battery/electricity storage thing to your existing hub. Lots of variable attachments too.
Will email them and find out.

Tako
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Re: charging batteries

Postby Tako » 8 Sep 2009, 1:54pm

andrew_s wrote:There's also the pedalpower from australia.
Someone did post somewhere a price list they had been sent, and iirc the cable to convert hub to stabilised USB (5v) was in the region of £60

[edit]
I think I'll probably stump up the 139 euro or whatever



I received a very helpful reply from this company. However, you're right - €139 suddenly seems very cheap!

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andrew_s
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Re: charging batteries

Postby andrew_s » 8 Sep 2009, 2:19pm

What are their prices like?
If all you want is phone charging & AA batteries charging, all you really need is the universal cable, the adapter tip set, and the AA charger. The AA charger seems like an ordinary Uniross USB charger, and should only be about £10. However what I didn't like was that it may have a charge rate of only 150mA (like the uniross). If that's the case, I'd be struggling to keep my GPS batteries charged as fast as I was using them.

Tako
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Re: charging batteries

Postby Tako » 8 Sep 2009, 4:24pm

Andrew,

I was quoted nearly Aus$ 370 which is roughly UK£180! This included V4 battery pack (if you have an iPhone/iPod you have to wait for a V4i battery update), AC universal cable, bar holder (not essential), USB battery charger, shipping. Weight was over 700gr too, excluding USB adaptor.

Factor in no UK distributor/service centre, potential import charges, weak charge, and its a no-brainer. Don't know how the Dahon stacks up to the B&M, but as you say, worth stumping for the B&M which beats this hands-down.

Starfire
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Re: charging batteries

Postby Starfire » 8 Sep 2009, 8:43pm

Does anyone know if you can connect these gadgets up to a bottle dynamo or, does it have to be a hub dynamo? I've tried a few different devices to charge my mobile on tours, solar powered, battery etc and none of them worked, just a waste of money.

Tako
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Re: charging batteries

Postby Tako » 8 Sep 2009, 11:14pm

The Aussie Pedalpower do an AC bottle dynamo which would give you direct charge. I'm fairly certain nothing on the market exists to modify your existing dynamo to work. Maybe an electrical engineer may be able to devise something?

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andrew_s
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Re: charging batteries

Postby andrew_s » 9 Sep 2009, 2:17pm

Starfire wrote:Does anyone know if you can connect these gadgets up to a bottle dynamo or, does it have to be a hub dynamo? I've tried a few different devices to charge my mobile on tours, solar powered, battery etc and none of them worked, just a waste of money.

The pedalpower AC universal cable should be OK on its own, with a suitable adapter tip for your phone. I very much doubt that their bottle dynamo is anything particularly out of the ordinary. A bottle can't be provoked into giving more power than the nominal 3W like a hub can, but charging a phone won't need much.
They have been saying they are going to set up European distribution. The big bike show was the other week, so some announcement may be forthcoming.

pedalpower wrote:The PedalPower+ AC Universal dynamo cable is used to connect any third party 6V 3W hub or bottle dynamo such as Sram, Schmidt, Shimano, Suntour and Novatech, directly to you mobile phone, GPS or other device that requires a DC input of 5v up to 600mA to recharge it.

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syklist
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Re: charging batteries

Postby syklist » 24 Sep 2009, 9:07pm

Tako wrote:B&M won the green award at Eurobike 2009 for this contraption:

http://www.bumm.de/index-e.html?docu/361e.htm

Sounds fantastic! A real plus for those with a dynamo hub. I want one, who else?!

Looks nice. However if you want to just charge up AA batteries, an IXON IQ battery lamp and a (modified) Ride & Charge unit also from B&M works quite well. I cut the Ride and Charge cable (with a small electronic component in it) and connected it up to a small switch that allows me to either have the dynamo lights on or the IXON IQ charging. When going into a tunnel I switch the dynamo light on and can also turn on the IXON IQ at the same time doubling light output.

In flatter areas it takes a day's cycling to charge up four AA's, in Norway anything up to three days depending on the terrain. This set up also has the advantage that you have a very bright flashlight for campsites or in the tent. I do also take a mains AA charger but if I had not been using a GPS this summer it would probably not have needed to use the mains charger.
Cheers
Stan
So long and thanks for all the fish...

Will
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Re: charging batteries

Postby Will » 25 Sep 2009, 5:41pm

I also use the B&M Ixon / Ride & Charge setup to charge batteries, with a Lil Synch USB AA Battery adapter (http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=108719) to provide USB power output. I always have one set charging in the Ixon, and one set in the Lil Synch charging my GPS (Road Angel) via USB.

I fully charge the NIMH batteries before I go on tour. If I find that the NIMH batteries are not getting charged enough (slow day), then I can pop some Duracells into the Lil synch for a day and leave the set of batteries in the Ixon in for a 2nd day.

I also take the Ixon power lead that can be used to charge the batteries in the Ixon from the mains (if the opportunity arises).

I recently used this setup on a two week camping trip to power my (power hungry) Road Angel and it worked fine (I only had to use one set of Duracells over the two weeks).

Will