Daft question, probably in the wrong place

waltho bum gravy

OK, I;ve just got hold of a GPs thingy and obviously I'm keen to try it out. Having looked through the manual, got confused and eventually worked a few things out, I'm thinking of taking it out tonight for a ride. I've got my spare batteries and various other things to make sure I'm not left high and dry, although I'm only going round the usual route. One thing I wondered though. Is there anything on the market that I can attach to my bike that will charge up batteries using the power of the cycling I'm doing. I know I'd have to cycle a long way to power a GPs receiver for any length of time, but just wondered. Or am I looking for a solar panel of some nature for rechargeable power supply whilst on tour?

Unknown

I expect someone with more experience will be along in a moment, but I believe some people have rigged their bikes with dynamos to do this (either bottle types or hub types). A solar charger is also a possibility, it may not necessarily keep up with consumption.

MartDavis

I made a unit for recharging AA batteries from my dynamo and a solar panel, but it deoes require a bit of electronics to regulate the voltage, and it is very unsophisticated. However, I don't think that matters as all it means is that you reduce the life of the batteries a bit.
Once the batteries are charged you can then just replace the batteries in the GPS. Unfortunately I've never seen a commercially available one though.
An interesting point is that the charge time from a solar cell is so long (14 hours-ish) that it's not worth the bother if you can charge from your dynamo(2 - 3 hours).
I have used mine on tour twice in the last couple of years and never bought any more batteries other than the original NiMH ones, and have never run out of power.
If you can't do electronics yourself, find a friend that can and ask him/her to build you a voltage regulator that will provide 1.42 volts times the number of cells you are charging and away you go. Of course you need to have all the connectors, swithes, battery holders etc.
It is a bit of a hassle, and I only did it because I could, and it felt good being more self contained on tour.

Tourist Tony

Saw a man with a Schmidt dynohub AND a bottle dynamo, for charging his gps...

If I had a stalker, I would hug it and kiss it and call it George...or Dick

Unknown

I use solar power, a panel connected to a battery charger. The panel folds up and I can spread it across my trailer, there is one on a backpack I believe, why exert power when it's there free?
I researched for ages trying to find a wind turbine that was small enough to fit on my bike or trailer.

the panel I use is a 12 watt SunlinQ

george

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psmiffy

The panel I use is a 12V silva

daviddd

have a look at my thread here..... http://www.aximsite.com/boards/x50-x51- ... -axim.html about solar charging etc.

Alpine Tour July 2006:
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=l ... =1914&v=9d
Forthcoming lap of Australia:http://www.davidddinoz.blogspot.com/

ut_o_cykla

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by waltho bum gravy</i>

OK, I;ve just got hold of a GPs thingy and obviously I'm keen to try it out. Having looked through the manual, got confused and eventually worked a few things out, I'm thinking of taking it out tonight for a ride. SNIP
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
It took my tired brain a few re-reads to understand that as GP's thingy (stethoscope? Blood pressure meter?) is actually a GPS - global positioning do-dah[:o)]

pousse moi s'il vous plait