Lotsa devices these days charge through a USB-style plug. Handy for many applications, but I have a few devices that use the usual (and, I suppose, ‘old fashioned’) single-pin plug that has a polarized tip…you know the kind. Thing is, the small solar panel that I have for charging small devices has a USB outlet. So, what I’m looking for is a USB->cylindrical pin sort of cable. Now, yeah, I could fab one up, I suppose, but I’d rather have one purpose-made than something I rig outta Radio Shack parts.
While I’m on the subject, I also need to hunt down some sort of charger that lets you charge a USB device off of a couple D-batts or a few AA-batts.
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Was rummaging through our stash of silver the other day and although I try to keep the purchasing price low by buying whatever form of silver is cheapest (generic rounds, generic bars, etc) there is something to be said for uniformity of size. I like silver rounds because they fit in plastic tubes, which makes them easy to store. So, I traded out some 1 oz. silver bars for 1/10th gold Krugerrands….talk about space saving….it takes a little over 5 oz. of silver (at the time) to equal 1/10th of an ounce of gold. Thats about 50:1. But, I pick up silver more frequently than gold so it makes sense to keep buying the silver, wait until the silver:gold ratio is favorable and do a little swapping. My metal-dealing buddy does these sorts of swaps so it was pretty easy to just call him up and ask him how much silver it would take to trade for 1/10th Krugerrands. (The Kruges, by the way, had a lesser premium that the 1/10th US Eagles. I don’t care. I want the most metal for my money, so since the Kruges had less premium thats what I went with.)
If you’ve never handled a 1/10th oz. gold coin, its rather humbling. They’re the size of a dime but require about 1800 dimes to buy. And, oddly, they are rather heavy for their size. It’s kind of strange to hold this tiny, tiny coin in your hand and think about the amount of energy that is contained in such a tiny package. This little dime-sized bit of metal will fill a 55-gallon drum with gasoline, or buy human labor for three 8-hour shifts, or buy a Mosin Nagant and a spam can of ammo, or buy two weeks worth of groceries. That’s a lot of potential in a very tiny package. And, as the price of the metal goes up (or the value of the dollar goes down, however you prefer to look at it) that potential is just going to increase.
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I was reading a blog somewhere where someone posted a link to this blog and called it a ‘news site’. I don’t know what to say. I don’t think of it as a news site….I don’t think of it as an instructive how-to site, either. I never claimed to be either one. What I have said that this site is, is a website about one persons continuing foray into preparedness and the observations and experiences that accompany it. I suppose if it had to be ‘labeled’, I’d call it a lifestyle blog. But, really, it’s a mix of everything while trying (usually) to stay on-topic in regards to things that other people who are into preparedness would find interesting.
Sounds like you may want something like this.
For cheap, good quality cables you can’t go wrong with
http://www.monoprice.com/
I think of this site sort of like “Wilson” in the old Tim Allen show. Good advice without crazy stories like, “How to raise Goldfish for food when TSHTF”. Which I actually saw last month on another survival site.
Plus there is no insults flying, or rants for which ever guy your readers support for Pres. ( Newt Paul, Mitt Santorum, Rick Romney?) Anyway, good job.
You know, I really do try to keep the foaming and frothing stuff, as well as the real tinfoil-hat stuff, offa here.
I think you are going to find all or most of your devices that use a coaxial or phone plug/TR connector are going to be using a different voltage then the 5 volts coming from your usb plug, so it’s not as simple as wiring up a plug. A cell phone might use anywhere from 3 to 12 volts for charging, and a tablet or laptop might even need up to 20 volts or more (my tablet uses 19v, and my laptop uses 17v to charge). My portable ham radio uses a 7.4 volt battery, but the charging circut is designed to accept 12-16 volts.
It looks like your solar charger also has a 12v automotive style socket. Your best bet would probably be to use that with a car charger made for the device you want to charge.
The device I want it to charge is a Baygen radio, which has a tiny and somewhat inefficient panel built in. I would think that since it can charge from the inconsistent output of the built in panel that it can handle a pretty broad range of input voltages.
The old Baygens used a 3 volt charger, so the 5 volts from a usb charger would probably cook the baygen’s battery. You would need to add a votage regulator to your adapter. Not too hard to cobble up, but I’m not sure there is a manufactured product that will fit that need.
Not to mention the inefficiency. Your solar charger puts out 12-14volts. They regulate that down to 5volts for the usb plug. The rest gets converted to heat. Then you want to take the 5 volts and regulate it again down to 3 volts. Actually, I was looking around the interwebz and I see one baygen was made that used 6volts. That one would probably run ok from the 5volt USB.
I remember the first time I got some fractional gold coins(mine where some 1/10th and 1/4 size Maple Leaf’s in the mail)…I was constantly terrified I was going to misplace them.
It is a tremendous amount of purchasing power, but I’m worried that at some point, Rawles might be right, and gold might prove to be too concentrated a form of wealth for effective bargaining when it’s needed.
I guess that’s why I went with fractional’s instead of 1 oz coins.
On the gold vs silver thing I look at them for different purposes. It would be problematic to make change to swap gold for a couple cans of food or a ride. On the other hand silver is heavy and thus difficult to move around. You could toss 50k in gold into a daypack and move around without anybody being the wiser. Even at today’s prices 50k in silver would weigh about 100 pounds.
For gold I lean towards frational coins. At some point after I have a decent amount of them I will go to one ounce coins due to their lower cost by weight. Yes those little 1/10th ounce coins are depressingly small.
How’s this look for a multicharger?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817652003
A little off subject on a little dated thread but why did you choose the Nomad 7 alone and not with the kit?
I am looking for a solar charger for my phone while camping and the kit just seemed more versatile. Maybe I am missing something, so if you get time ejukate me on your Nomad 7 vs a Guide 10 kit (19010)
Thanks.
I didnt want to spend a lot of money on a product to find it wasnt what I wanted, so rather than buy the whole package I figured I’d just buy the panel and see if it was a good product.