Battery pack for long term solar and dyno hub

[pimpbot]

Hi all,

Maybe this was asked and answered already, but available gear is always changing, especially in the electronics world.

I'm mostly doing overnights to learn to use the gear and such, but I would like to graduate to longer rides, week long, month long, etc.

In the past, I've used a Dragon Tech 20W foldable solar panel. This worked great, as long as the sun was shinning, as with anything solar. I found that it was actually killing my iPhone faster than it was charging, because every time I hit a shadow, rode, under trees, etc, it would wake my phone up, and when the sun hit again, it would wake it up again.

I also have since bought a Shutter Precision dyno front hub and BioLogic charge regulator with a small cache battery, which does an okay job charging the phone. But, it charges pretty slowly.

I have to wonder; are any of those bigger batteries (like 20,000 mAh advertised) with dual inputs useful for this? Can one port be charged from the solar, and one form the dyno? ... with or without pass-through? Seems to me the solar can push a lot of current in ideal conditions, but shadows kill it fast, so it's not reliable.... not to mention cloudy days. Dyno is more steady (when riding the flats or downhills, at least) but puts out a lot less current. It would be great to be able to capture as much as possible.

I typically ride with:

iPhone 6 (not plus)
Niterider Lumina 650 headlight (flashlight style bar light)
Garmin Edge 1000 GPS
Kindle (but I'm not too worried about this. It can go for a month without being charged).
Olympus TG-5 Rugged camera, charges with micro USB.

Maybe I just need two batteries, I dunno.... but as an electrical engineer, I can't imagine this is that hard a feat to pull off.

[bakerjw]

My first year on the TD, I rode with a SP dynamo hub combined with a USBSerx adapter and a Romoss battery bank that had pass through capabilities. It did ok on flats and downhills but the uneven charging ended up killing the battery bank. It didn't like going into ond out of charge mode quickly. After the battery bank died, I hooked my phone up directly with about 20% charge when leaving Eureka. It also didn't like the on and off charge cycle at all and went to dead real quick.

The next year, I scrapped the dyno altogether and went with an Anker 13000 MAH battery bank and carry a dual port 2A capable charger.
For my gear, I run...
Motorola Droid Turbo Maxx. <- Good for a few days when running BlueTooth mode. Used to communicate with the DeLorme.
Delorme InReach tracker. <- Good for a few days.
Garmin eTrex which uses AA batteries.
Headlight that uses 18650 Li batteries. <- Will last 10 hours on low setting which is enough on most trails. I also carry 2 or 3 fully charged 18650 batteries.
Garmin Edge 500 <- Will last perhaps 16 hours between charges.
Sony HD Action Cam <- Lasts about 3 hours of continuous recording.
Olympus TG-4 <- Lasts a long time on a single charge.

The Anker battery bank can charge my phone, Garmin and Sony at least 3 times. I can probably make it 4 or 5 days before important things go dead. In between, there are motels, gas stations and restaurants where I can find a spare outlet. It is just a matter offinding what works best for you.

[pimpbot]

Yeah, I'm starting to think that way... Like, I should rely on mains power and charge my stuff up at cafes and such. Let's face it, I'm never going to be that far from civilization. If I am, I deal with the logistics at that time. Any power I generate myself is gravy, but I shouldn't rely on it 100%.

It seems to get that extra step of totally self-sufficient for power is costly and unnecessary in my case. I'll just carry two batteries. One for solar, one for the dyno, and charge up my stuff when I stop for rest breaks or to pitch camp.

Oh, I did find my BioLogic charge cable. That seems to be a decent system. It has a small cache battery that seems to be good for about a 20% charge on my iPhone by itself, but it's mostly there to keep the power to the phone or whatever from dipping when I go slow or stop. I was worried I would have to replace it with the cable lost. I got it off eBay as an open box but new item for $35 around 3 years ago. Can't beat that! It's actually rated for a 1A charge output.

My battery is a 20,000 mAh size (and yes, I know those numbers are totally fudged), but one issue I had with it is that it basically shuts down below around 45F degrees. I had to keep it in my sleeping bag with me at night.

I'm kinda surprised some enterprising company hasn't made a battery that can do this yet. Dual independent charge inputs, and the smarts to regulate it. I'll bet if they did, and marketed it to outdoorsy folks like us, they'd make a killing. Well, I guess the market isn't that big.