Hi, I've posted in the electronics forum without success so am hoping for more luck with the experienced tourists. I'm hoping you'll save me a bit of research.

I've just ordered a new tourer (Thorn Nomad, pics when it arrives) and have specified a Schmidt SON dynamo hub. Now the question is which device charger to buy in order that I can charge the maximum range of devices. I'm thinking about the Busch & Muller e-werk, and I know phones and GPS are no problem, but is there any charger that would generate enough current to charge (for example) a netbook or an iPad and which could itself be charged from the hub? Maybe a powermonkey, for example? Sorry to be clueless - electrical stuff has never been my strongest suit.

And more generally, is the e-werk a good choice, or are there others out there that you'd recommend as superior?

Hi chasm54,

Congrats on the new bike. Here is a good place to start your research in dynamo rectifiers device chargers.

Basically there are 2 types on the market. One that has a built in battery and one that doesn't have a built in battery.
The types that have built in batteries store the charge generated by the dynamo and then the battery charges the desired device.
The types that don't have batteries built in just regulate the voltage from the dynamo and sends it straight to the desired device.

If you're trying to charge a iPad or iPhone then i'd suggest you go with charger with a built in battery. Reason being that when the bike stops rolling you won't have the charging of the device cut in and out.

I don't think using a bike dynamo to charge a laptop is practical.

Thanks. My German isn't too hot (in fact it's pretty much freezing) but I'll get a translation. Anyone else?

Your web browser should do a full translation for u.

I recently finished the Northern Tier (July 8 to Sept. 8) using a Shimano dynamo hub, an E-Werk, and an external USB battery pack to charge a cell phone, camera batteries and an iPad.

I charged the cell phone and camera batteries directly with the E-Werk. Direct charging of the iPad was unacceptably slow, but if I charged the external battery pack all day (enough for a full charge), it would bring the iPad's battery up about 20% overnight. That nicely matched my usage for importing my daily collection of photos, offline composition of a daily blog entry, and perhaps 30 minutes per day of online access when I found Wi-Fi.

This all worked very well until the last week, when the external battery pack stopped taking a charge. Notably, I didn't plug ANYTHING in to a wall outlet until that point, so the battery, which was already a couple of years old, experience about 50 "extreme" charge cycles. I say extreme because the iPad would suck it totally dry, and it was often being charged in fairly hot conditions.

If I were to do this trip over, I wouldn't have been so strict about never plugging in, but I enjoyed the novelty of meeting my power needs this way. I passed up many chances to plug in during meals, etc, which would have dramatically reduced my need to constantly think about what most needed power from the E-Werk.

Overall I was very happy with the E-Werk (and thrilled with the iPad: absolutely perfect for what I was doing). I like the idea of having the "cache" battery as an extra item. It probably means more upfront cost, but batteries don't last forever.

If interested, here's a link to my blog (there's a category about gear, and the E-Werk post has details about the battery I used and the gizmo I had for charging my camera's batteries.):

https://hpscott.wordpress.com/

VERY interested, thanks. Exactly the sort of info I needed about the E-Werk, and goes a long way to convincing me that the e-werk with cache battery is the way to go. (I agree about the iPad btw. Pretty close to ideal for touring purposes. Now if they would just drop the price by 50% lol).

No experience with it:

https://www.tout-terrain.de/2/product...lug/h-bar.html

This independent review shows The Plug not kicking in until you hit 20km/h



From plenty of 20 km / h units deliver all enough power to compact with full charging current to provide the MDA. Those who move frequently slow, however, undergone significant differences: While the low-cost solution, "Low" loader series capacitor at 15 km / h still shines with full 2.2 watts plus, delivers the KE-Charger only half and "The Plug 'switched off completely. When you tout terrain represents the location: either full 5 volts or nothing, as some consumers fluctuating voltage caused problems with. The e-work is at a medium speed and the strongest commercial device also has the entire speed range by far the winner in the efficiency to 80% efficiency. Amazingly,) is the minimum-Craft solution (without series capacitor but not that much

Hey Derailed, any idea of the usb clip will work with this type of battery?

https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

The terminals are not as exposed as they are on other camera batteries I've used. I can't entirely tell from the pictures how the clip charger attaches.

Are there any other solutions out there for charging a camera battery via USB? I'd like to go this route for my upcoming tour if I can figure out a way to charge my camera and my ipod. I was thinking of trying out the Dahon Reecharge.

Hmmm... it looks like that battery is 7.2 V and, unfortunately, the Lenmar "Universal Clip Charger" I use is only designed for 3.6 / 3.7 V Li-Ion batteries. Here's a link to its specifications: https://www.lenmar.com/Uploads/File/L...ts/PPUCLIP.pdf

So, I'm sorry to say that I don't think it will work.

Oh, good point, thanks.