USB Charger

[francobaresi]

Hi All- I'm trying to find a good off the peg USB charger to connect to my hub dynamo, to charge my lights, kindle and phone on tour. I'm considering Tout Terrain's Plug Version 1, does anyone have any experience of it? Or any other decent alternatives? All advice gratefully received!

[nmnm]

That plug thing looks great, though it's out of my budget I think. I made do in France with a french phone charger and wee 20g adapter for the kindle, charging at toothbrushing time.

[hufty]

Search the forum this comes up frequently. How do we request a sticky thread or "too good to lose"?

[nspire]

i purchased the e-werk charger with cache battery. Works well, but bot fully tested yet. When charging interefered with my cateye wireless computer, and the cache battery stoppped charging my iphone when apple changed their OS. Works well with everything else I've tried though. Do a google for e-werk bosch and muller. Best solution I can think of. Will be changing the cache battery though to an Apple compatible unit.

Good luck!

[b1ke]

Cash being an issue in my world, I looked at this device on ebay - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BICYCLE-DYNAMO-POWERED-PDA-USB-CHARGER-6VAC-5-2VDC-/180755890547?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item2a15e40173. Haven't bought one yet however.

I also looked into the Busch and Muller E Werk and in principle it seems great, since it's the only one I've come across that has the option to charge 12v. However, given that there's resistance when running 6v lights on a hub dynamo, I can only imagine that this resistance is amplified when you move up to 12v. Because of this, I choose to leave my netbook at home when touring and use an Ipod touch instead. Also the price of the B&M is prohibitive.

Currently I'm using the Solar Gorilla solar panel for USB charging and it's very good. I use the Power Monkey battery pack (compatible with the Ipod) and transfer the power to whichever device I'm using. The benefit of the Solar Gorilla is that you don't need to be pedalling to get energy. The downside is that it's a slightly seasonal charging device.

[stephenjubb]

Combine this with (as stated above) BICYCLE DYNAMO POWERED PDA USB CHARGER 6VAC To 5.2VDC


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BICYCLE-DYNAM ... 2a15e40173

with a dahon reecharge (70 pounds approx) and you have a switch where you can run dynamo lights if you want and switch it the othe way you charge the battery in the reecharge . You then charge your gadgets from the reecharge.

Directly charging from the BICYCLE DYNAMO POWERED PDA USB CHARGER 6VAC To 5.2VDC may not work with some gadgets as its voltage may drop with speed as some devices require a constant voltage (hence the recharge)

[francobaresi]

I've used a solar charger on tour recently, it was a solio device, can't remember the name. Unless the sun has really got it's hat on it charges very slowly, and it must also be directly facing the sun. I've toured some sunny spots this year, including California, so i feel fairly well qualified when it comes to solar chargers. My main gripe being that a fully charged Solio transferred a pitiful amount of charge to my HTC desire and Kindle, so even if you're in the full sun they're not that great.
I've seen the Brocott one on ebay, and some reviews that have panned it. People do seem to rate the ewerk however, but for the same price the Plug II looks a far more simplistic alternative. My main concern with these devices is generating enough speed- i'm not a speed demon at the best of times, so what kind of mph does one need to get the ewerk or plug to work?

[stephenjubb]

I usually find 10mph for three hours fully charges a 1300mamp battery on the dahon reecharge

[LANDSURFER74]

i have the solar panel and gubbins from 2 garden lights ... they charge up 4 AA cells during the day even in winter light; they where mounted on my kayak to provide back up power for my VHF radio but now are set in my panniers lids for touring...

[francobaresi]

Stephenjubb, I think I can manage 10 mph on tour, as long as I haven't had too good a time the night before! What kind of charge would the dahon transfer to a smartphone, or kindle do you know?

[stephenjubb]

well it appears I got it wrong, the reecharge is a 1600mah (thought it was 1300mah) battery and the one on the kindle is 1530mah from

http://www.batteryupgrade.co.uk/shopBro ... d/73162443

So fully charged the Dahon reecharge will fully charge the kindle.

Iphone batteries from http://www.iphonebatteryrepair.com/ are well under 1600mah (dahoo reecharge) so the same applies as for the kindle.

[stephenjubb]

this is in a perfect world of course and lithium batteries are never perfect so degredation may occur with age of batteries etc

[francobaresi]

Thanks Stephen, the reecharge is beginning to look like the answer. With 10% off at Evans it is half the price of the ewerk and the plug II, and if i can get a full phone/kindle charge off one cycle what more can you ask? Where's my credit card...

[vernon]

Cash being an issue in my world, I looked at this device on ebay - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BICYCLE-DYNAMO-POWERED-PDA-USB-CHARGER-6VAC-5-2VDC-/180755890547?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item2a15e40173. Haven't bought one yet however.

I also looked into the Busch and Muller E Werk and in principle it seems great, since it's the only one I've come across that has the option to charge 12v. However, given that there's resistance when running 6v lights on a hub dynamo, I can only imagine that this resistance is amplified when you move up to 12v. Because of this, I choose to leave my netbook at home when touring and use an Ipod touch instead. Also the price of the B&M is prohibitive.

Currently I'm using the Solar Gorilla solar panel for USB charging and it's very good. I use the Power Monkey battery pack (compatible with the Ipod) and transfer the power to whichever device I'm using. The benefit of the Solar Gorilla is that you don't need to be pedalling to get energy. The downside is that it's a slightly seasonal charging device.

The resistance of a hub dynamo is regularly quoted as being in the region of the equivalent of a gradient of 12cm ascent per kilometer. Delivering twelve volts will not materially affect the resistance to moving, the current will drop to compensate.

[vernon]

It's always worth looking to Europe for your equipment.

I bought my e-Werk from www.rose.de


Even after paying shipping it was considerably cheaper than UK sourced ones.