4 ms·

Or, you can just bring along a small USB battery pack, which can fully charge pretty much any modern smartphone. Personally, I carry an Instapark Novobeam 3000

by donw 10y ago

Or, you can just bring along a small USB battery pack, which can fully charge pretty much any modern smartphone. Personally, I carry an Instapark Novobeam 3000 in my backpack. It's about the size of a roll of breath mints or a small flashlight, is rechargable, has a waterproof cover, and costs about nine bucks on Amazon.

Spooky23 10y ago
Why? You can get primary lithium AA batteries with a 15 year shelf life. If you need something like this, you don't need to fiddle with USB chargers
- stephengillie 10y ago
  Anecdotally, it's much more difficult for me to find AA batteries than USB - AA batteries must be bought from stores, and fewer recent devices use them. USB is available from almost any computing device, a growing number of displays and other peripherals, and increasingly in common areas. And AC-USB adapters are easy to get, spreading the convenience to every wall plug too. As others have mentioned, AA-USB adapters exist too, spreading USB's coverage to everywhere you can find AA batteries. As I hinted earlier, most recent devices have switched from AA to USB-charged built-in batteries, so a USB battery may have more utility than AA batteries these days. Tangentially, there's a behavior pattern prevalent in the "Prepper" (aka Emergency Preparedness) community that confuses me. They take a logically-sound concept such as storing large amounts of food, and seem to separate the emergency food from every day food. Here, similarly, we have an emergency device that is not usually used. How do we know if it still works? Test it occasionally? The USB battery breaks this pattern in that you can use it frequently and it's still useful in an emergency. And using it regularly can build a habit of keeping it charged, and you'll know if it breaks or goes bad before an emergency. I'm not saying AA powered emergency devices are harmful, but rather our emergency devices and processes should be our every day devices and processes, whenever possible.
  - Spooky23 10y ago
    I'm not a "prepper" -- I just want a way to get help for medical emergencies when there's a power outage mostly. I get where you're coming from, but a primary cell Lithium-Iron AA like an Energizer L91 (http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/l91.pdf http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/l91.pdf) is up to 20 years -- probably more than the service life of the phone. I have a phone like this from about 10 years ago that we leave at a family camp (super rough cabin with no utilities). With the loss of quality, power-outage survivable POTS phone service, this type type of device fills an important niche. 20 years ago, NYNEX (now Verizon) would provide dial tone for 10-14 days in the event of a blizzard or other power outage. Now you get 24-72 hours from cable/internet providers at best. Another issue with conventional rechargeable batteries is they don't handle charging well when discharged completely. A cellphone left in a cabinet for 5 years is a brick in many cases.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - hga 10y ago
    Tangentially, there's a behavior pattern prevalent in the "Prepper" (aka Emergency Preparedness) community that confuses me. They take a logically-sound concept such as storing large amounts of food, and seem to separate the emergency food from every day food. Here, similarly, we have an emergency device that is not usually used. How do we know if it still works? Test it occasionally? In the same way. Test some, store the rest. When stored food nears it's life expectancy, test or just plain eat it. If you're really serious, you tape shut your fridge door, water taps and flush toilet if you live in the city, open most of the circuit breakers if you don't have a generator, etc. etc. for a few days and test everything for real (then again your electrical company is likely to give you occasional opportunities to test your generator :-). Any way you look at it, the more stuff you have that works or is edible, even if some of it fails, the better off you are, the less you have to expose yourself to whatever is out there, the more you can help your neighbors.
    - donw 10y ago
      Not sure if we're saying the same thing here, but my policy is to stock a large quantity of things we actually use, and keep topping up our supplies as we use them. Saves us both time and money to have a bunch of staple goods at home that get restocked every six months or so. And in an emergency, hey, we've got a bunch of the same kind of food that we eat anyway, and have more than enough to share with our neighbors. Outside of a supply of bottled water that gets rotated, we don't really have anything purchased purely for emergencies. Plenty of backpacking gear, but that gets used on the weekends, and we know that all of it works well. One thing I did start doing was leaving my backpack loaded and ready-to-go near the door. Our biggest threat in Japan is earthquakes, and if we have to evacuate, having the same kit that I would carry for a three-day backpacking trip would make things a lot more pleasant.
- gherkin0 10y ago
  A USB battery seems far more useful than some special-purpose device that runs off of AAs. Due to their versatility, I'd probably get way more value out of it than something with a 15 year shelf life that I never use.
- bubuga 10y ago
  > If you need something like this, you don't need to fiddle with USB chargers Between spending money on a gimmick mobile, and spend money on a USB charger to keep using your everyday smartphone, the path of least resistance always wins. Particularly when the USB charger costs a fraction of what the gimmick phone is sold for.
- donw 10y ago
  I regularly find myself needing to charge my phone and not having an outlet available. Having a spare battery in a single waterproof package is just more convenient for me. It lives in my backpack, and I don't need to care when the rainy season hits. Plus, since I use my phone as both a camera and a GPS, I can take the Novobeam with me while backpacking to keep my phone topped up.
kragen 10y ago
To be clear: are you talking about a USB battery pack that you can put disposable AA batteries into?
- donw 10y ago
  Nope -- it's a 3000 mAh LiPo power cell with standard USB connectors for recharging from a wall adapter, and for charging anything that can charge from USB.
  - kragen 10y ago
    That's not useful as a high-assurance backup for emergencies. If you don't use it, you won't notice when it gets discharged. If you leave it discharged for a few months, it will break and never recharge. On the other hand, if you do use it, it is by no means guaranteed that it will be full when you have an emergency. By contrast, regular disposable batteries have a shelf life of 8 or 10 years, and some have a shelf life of 15 years. But there are USB chargers that run off those, too, so you don't really need a special phone.

by donw 10y ago

Spooky23 10y ago

Why? You can get primary lithium AA batteries with a 15 year shelf life. If you need something like this, you don't need to fiddle with USB chargers

stephengillie 10y ago
Anecdotally, it's much more difficult for me to find AA batteries than USB - AA batteries must be bought from stores, and fewer recent devices use them. USB is available from almost any computing device, a growing number of displays and other peripherals, and increasingly in common areas. And AC-USB adapters are easy to get, spreading the convenience to every wall plug too. As others have mentioned, AA-USB adapters exist too, spreading USB's coverage to everywhere you can find AA batteries. As I hinted earlier, most recent devices have switched from AA to USB-charged built-in batteries, so a USB battery may have more utility than AA batteries these days. Tangentially, there's a behavior pattern prevalent in the "Prepper" (aka Emergency Preparedness) community that confuses me. They take a logically-sound concept such as storing large amounts of food, and seem to separate the emergency food from every day food. Here, similarly, we have an emergency device that is not usually used. How do we know if it still works? Test it occasionally? The USB battery breaks this pattern in that you can use it frequently and it's still useful in an emergency. And using it regularly can build a habit of keeping it charged, and you'll know if it breaks or goes bad before an emergency. I'm not saying AA powered emergency devices are harmful, but rather our emergency devices and processes should be our every day devices and processes, whenever possible.
- Spooky23 10y ago
  I'm not a "prepper" -- I just want a way to get help for medical emergencies when there's a power outage mostly. I get where you're coming from, but a primary cell Lithium-Iron AA like an Energizer L91 (http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/l91.pdf http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/l91.pdf) is up to 20 years -- probably more than the service life of the phone. I have a phone like this from about 10 years ago that we leave at a family camp (super rough cabin with no utilities). With the loss of quality, power-outage survivable POTS phone service, this type type of device fills an important niche. 20 years ago, NYNEX (now Verizon) would provide dial tone for 10-14 days in the event of a blizzard or other power outage. Now you get 24-72 hours from cable/internet providers at best. Another issue with conventional rechargeable batteries is they don't handle charging well when discharged completely. A cellphone left in a cabinet for 5 years is a brick in many cases.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- hga 10y ago
  Tangentially, there's a behavior pattern prevalent in the "Prepper" (aka Emergency Preparedness) community that confuses me. They take a logically-sound concept such as storing large amounts of food, and seem to separate the emergency food from every day food. Here, similarly, we have an emergency device that is not usually used. How do we know if it still works? Test it occasionally? In the same way. Test some, store the rest. When stored food nears it's life expectancy, test or just plain eat it. If you're really serious, you tape shut your fridge door, water taps and flush toilet if you live in the city, open most of the circuit breakers if you don't have a generator, etc. etc. for a few days and test everything for real (then again your electrical company is likely to give you occasional opportunities to test your generator :-). Any way you look at it, the more stuff you have that works or is edible, even if some of it fails, the better off you are, the less you have to expose yourself to whatever is out there, the more you can help your neighbors.
  - donw 10y ago
    Not sure if we're saying the same thing here, but my policy is to stock a large quantity of things we actually use, and keep topping up our supplies as we use them. Saves us both time and money to have a bunch of staple goods at home that get restocked every six months or so. And in an emergency, hey, we've got a bunch of the same kind of food that we eat anyway, and have more than enough to share with our neighbors. Outside of a supply of bottled water that gets rotated, we don't really have anything purchased purely for emergencies. Plenty of backpacking gear, but that gets used on the weekends, and we know that all of it works well. One thing I did start doing was leaving my backpack loaded and ready-to-go near the door. Our biggest threat in Japan is earthquakes, and if we have to evacuate, having the same kit that I would carry for a three-day backpacking trip would make things a lot more pleasant.
gherkin0 10y ago
A USB battery seems far more useful than some special-purpose device that runs off of AAs. Due to their versatility, I'd probably get way more value out of it than something with a 15 year shelf life that I never use.
bubuga 10y ago
> If you need something like this, you don't need to fiddle with USB chargers Between spending money on a gimmick mobile, and spend money on a USB charger to keep using your everyday smartphone, the path of least resistance always wins. Particularly when the USB charger costs a fraction of what the gimmick phone is sold for.
donw 10y ago
I regularly find myself needing to charge my phone and not having an outlet available. Having a spare battery in a single waterproof package is just more convenient for me. It lives in my backpack, and I don't need to care when the rainy season hits. Plus, since I use my phone as both a camera and a GPS, I can take the Novobeam with me while backpacking to keep my phone topped up.

kragen 10y ago

To be clear: are you talking about a USB battery pack that you can put disposable AA batteries into?

donw 10y ago
Nope -- it's a 3000 mAh LiPo power cell with standard USB connectors for recharging from a wall adapter, and for charging anything that can charge from USB.
- kragen 10y ago
  That's not useful as a high-assurance backup for emergencies. If you don't use it, you won't notice when it gets discharged. If you leave it discharged for a few months, it will break and never recharge. On the other hand, if you do use it, it is by no means guaranteed that it will be full when you have an emergency. By contrast, regular disposable batteries have a shelf life of 8 or 10 years, and some have a shelf life of 15 years. But there are USB chargers that run off those, too, so you don't really need a special phone.