{"id":483,"date":"2010-05-14T21:26:35","date_gmt":"2010-05-14T10:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/?p=483"},"modified":"2010-05-14T21:26:35","modified_gmt":"2010-05-14T10:26:35","slug":"powering-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/powering-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Powering on"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s no doubt the modern traveller carries more gizmos and gadgets than the first Apollo missions. That of course brings it’s own problems; how on earth do you keep everything charged and running?<\/p>\n

I’ve riden all over the world on the motorbike, but I’ve managed to keep my cameras, laptop and other electronic paraphernalia running. You can carry a mass of chargers and international plugs, or you can buy a handy combined international plug<\/a> with a series of USB cables – there are lots of options out there. If like me you don’t know where your next electric socket will come from you need the broadest range of options – something to plug in, something to charge off 12v, something that will charge from a solar panel (usefully). That really only leaves one option – the range of gear from a UK company called Power Traveller<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve mentioned these guys on my blog before – in fact they’re top of my 5 things I always pack<\/a> list – but it’s worth re-visiting the range and why they work for me.<\/p>\n

The first item I bought was the Power Monkey Explorer<\/a>. It’s a small device capable of charging cameras, phones and other low power devices. It’s perfect for keeping my iPhone and Cannon Exilim\u00a0fully charged. It comes with a solar panel that worked really well in Morocco and less well in Russia. \u00a0It’s designed so you can plug your phone in and still hold it to your ear, with the charger sitting in the palm of your hand. It’s rugged and mine has been through the works and still powers along well. It charges from my 12v socket on the bike, via a wall socket or via it’s solar panel.<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a>The second device I had from them was the Mini Gorilla<\/a>. This unit will charge devices requiring up to 19v – which means I can charge my MacBook and my Canon HD Camcorder. It will re-charge from the very large and very efficient solar panel that is also available, or from a socket in the wall. Practically I find that a full charge of the Mini Gorilla will give the MacBook an empty to half-full charge (about 2 hours worth of use) and will recharge the camcorder from empty to full three times. It’s also perfect for charging the Panasonic G1 DSLR and my Sony Radio Mics as it has a full 12v output, which combined with off the shelf chargers makes it incredibly flexible.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As if that wasn’t enough I got caught out last week when friends came to stay at the house. Having misplaced my standard airbed pump I was left with my 12v version… I just plugged it into the mini gorilla and it powered the pump and blew up the bed!<\/p>\n

I’m quite excited by some new products coming out of Power Traveller – including the new Silverback Gorilla<\/a> – full 240v AC supply from a unit that will fit comfortably in my motorbike pannier. Genius.<\/p>\n

You can read more tips from me and others at Lonely Planet in the new book ‘<\/em>Lonely Planet’s Best Ever Travel Tips<\/em><\/a>‘. <\/end plug><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s no doubt the modern traveller carries more gizmos and gadgets than the first Apollo missions. That of course brings it’s own problems; how on earth do you keep everything charged and running? I’ve riden all over the world on the motorbike, but I’ve managed to keep my cameras, laptop and other electronic paraphernalia running. … Continue reading “Powering on”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-ramblings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelondonbiker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}