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Charge Your Mobile Device With Fire
Iddo Genuth writes "If you love to go on camping trips and want to charge your mobile phone, tablet or even camera there is a new solution on the way which can do that anywhere day or night and all you need to do is light a little fire and have a few drops of water. The FlameStower efficiently captures excess heat from a gas burner or campfire to charge almost any USB-powered device: cell phones, GPS units and even cameras by using the thermal deferential between the fire and water and the whole thing is already collecting money on Kickstarter (and if you are really handy you can even make a DIY version yourself)."
Guessing it uses the peltier effect. Well, I see three problems here, which is probably why it's on Kickstarter and not in a t-mobile store. First, if you overheat it, your goose is cooked. Second, it looks like the solution to the overheating problem is to use water. Third... fire + water + electronics generally end badly. Usually because water causes fire which kills electronics, but really, any combination of the three usually ends badly.
Just buy a solar panel like a normal person; Don't risk it tipping over and killing your (likely) only means of communication in the wilderness. And while you're at it... buy a shortwave radio. They're cheap, low power, have long range, and you can easily run/charge them with a hand crank in minutes. And unlike a cell phone... many models are made to be waterproof and the simplicity of the design means they likely could even survive an EMP from a nuclear weapon. I'd rather have one of those in my "oh shit" bag than some complex contraption like this...
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
There's at least one similar product out that has been available for well over a year: BioLite Camp Stove - http://www.mec.ca/product/5031-449/biolite-campstove/?f=10&q=USB%2Bstove
Not sure why someone would back this rather than support BioLite, who have already gone to market: http://www.biolitestove.com/
You can purchase a BioLite camping stove that has USB charging today. We have one at our office for emergency off the grid charging. In our test we recharged an iPad and and iPhone.
...Of how many iPhone charges you could get out of those pesky rainforests...
This will make it more convenient than ever to leave civilisation behind when I go camping.
Where is moderation: -1 False?
using the thermal deferential between the fire and water
News for nerds, homophones that matter?
Peltiers are terribly inefficient in the best case. The only one I've seen that makes sense is a wood-stove heat circulating fan, since the fan does double-duty.
If you want to recharge your batteries or phone off-grid, you really can't do better than solar. Here's a $20 charger that'll charge batteries from and to USB, or from solar. Only thing it's missing is a tiny white LED for backup flashlight use:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042Z14FO/
Or you can go a little cheaper if you don't want the USB functionality, and prefer more flexibility:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0098SWJUE/
Both will give 4 AA batteries an 80% charge in a day of sunlight, which is enough to charge your phone from zero. If you need faster charging than that, you'll need to spend a bit more. Something like this 7 watt panel should suffice:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CJJ4OUW/
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Microturbines have been researched for years, I don't think there has been one (known, quite a bit of the research has been military) design that wasn't horribly inefficient, maintenance intensive, and prone to failures. If they can ever do it I'm sure they will replace many applications, but despite many claims to have achieved it there have never been any production runs that I am aware of.
Does it need to be? True sitting there and running a torch/burner or having a campfire specifically for this device would be idiotic. But fire in one form or another is pretty normal in a camping setting. Simply setting this device next to an already active heat source isn't going to effect what it is already doing, and your going to get a little extra use out of that heatsource at the same time. Seems to be a win/win to me. Though I do think it needs a bit of a redesign, having an open water source next to electronics is a bad idea. Enclosing it somehow (similar to a cloths iron?) and maybe getting the USB connector a little further from the heat source would seem prudent.
The BioLite is 2 lbs 1 oz; the FlameStower is 7 oz. Using most canister stoves, you could carry stove, over a week of fuel, and the FlameStower for 8oz less than the BioLite.
You can use the Flamestower where you're not allowed to gather fuel, when there's nothing to burn, or when everything is too wet to burn. One or more of those things is true in tons of national parks, wetlands, deserts, mountains, etc.
The FlameStower is starting at $80 and could still come down; the BioLite is $129.
I've seen at least 3 posts that just said: "Why, you could just get a BioLite?", 1 that pointed out the advantages of the BioLite, and none that pointed out advantages of the FlameStower.
I'm quite disappointed that a group of people who laud critical thinking and informed opinion are so unimaginative about this device's usefulness, and speak as if quite uninformed about the practical necessities of backpacking / survival equipment.
www.thepowerpot.com
It may cost more ($149) but it provides twice the power and is already commercially available.
I'm sure there are more around, but that was the first one google found.
Cooking using the biolite leaves a lot to be desired, IMHO. It's a nice novelty product, but it's not as practical as thought it would be.
Well, I used Biolite for 6 weeks (total), drawbacks are :
- need *dry* wood (using not so dry wood pieces needs full power position and dry pieces mix)
- need *small* pieces of wood (set up a workshop aside the kitchen to cut wood)
- need to be fed constantly, 30s-45s intervals is a good timing, each time lift the saucepan to drop the wood
- can't simmer, power is medium or high, not low
- efficient mobile phone charging can be optimized but this is tricky
However I'm fine with that and I continue to use it, it's still fun and usefull.
We already talked about that on /. a few weeks ago.
Although you're posting as AC, you make a decent point to which I would like to see a riposte.
Have you ever climbed Denali or Everest or Chimborazo? I can bet that the folks who do today will love having longer-term charging power.
The folks who do it today have things like this: http://www.amazon.com/Innovative-Digital-Hand-Crank-Emergency-Charger/dp/B0089QB2KY/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_0_2
They're more reliable than fire in a strong wind (strong winds occasionally happen on Everest, and I should know, I've climbed it 16 times).
No sig today...
Except you can't actually call anybody from the world's tallest mountains...they don't have a cell tower on Everest, do they?
Apparently, there is coverage