One year ago (see this post for details of the 2007 Solar UMPC tour kit,) I was using the setup below for my mobile blogging and tracking. This year, its a lot simpler. And a lot more powerful. Notice how the phone, GPS tracker and Camera have merged into one device. Yes, the N82 is […]
It looks like Voltaic will be releasing a 14w solar panel bag, a huge step up from their, largely useless, at least for UMPCs, 4W bad. I hope its not a typo as the three-panel setup look exactly the same as before. If it really is 14W then I’m interested. Well almost. The design is […]
Last Thursday I spent a lot of time analyzing exactly how efficient my charging solution was with a real-life test. What dropped out was a rather poor picture of how inefficient the whole solar charging setup was. From over 1.2KW hitting the area of my solar panel I managed to use about 19W. That’s a […]
The 102 (good) photos that I took on the Solar UMPC tour have now been posted in the UMPCPortal Gallery.
Wooooooohoooooooo! Total distance covered: 450km over 10 days. UMPC, Phone, Camera, GPS and Torch all topped up from Solar energy. I made it! Distance since last post: 65km Weather: Dark and cloudy. Notes: Don’t drink two beers at the finish line without having something to eat first!!! Today at about 1700 (UTC+2) I […]
Frank, another UMPC blogger found this… He blogged about it here and called it a ‘European solution.’ He might be right because this year has been a terrible summer. My BBQ rate is down to once a week when it should be at least three times per week! A wind solution would need to be a lot […]
I took a long lunch break today for a solar UMPC picnic! The Q1b was really difficult to see in the sunlight (as are all UMPCs) there but after a while, my eyes actually adjusted a bit and it was useable. The only problem is that you have to wind up the backlight which kills […]
It was an early start yesterday. 0445 rise and bus at 0530. 5 hours later after three trains and another bus I arrived at InterSolar 2007 in Freiburg, Germany hoping to find out how I could improve the UMPC Solar kit at Europe’s biggest solar expo. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much there for consumers at all. It was […]
I have been looking all over for a lightweight table that I can use on the Solar UMPC tour (which is at risk of being pushed back by another week due to weather and PR organizational activities unfortunately) but I realised at the weekend that I already have a table. Its a heavy bike but it […]
I’m quite lucky to have been able to test a lot of UMPCs out over the last year. Most have been good in their own target markets but only some have been good for me. One of my favorites, the Kohjinsha SA1, an AMD based device is also one of the most-power efficient too and I […]