Charging electronics: my mobile charging options

Having a working telephone, GPS, light or other electronics can in some situations be vital for your safety. However when there are no sockets to put your chargers in to, you need a different way to charge your batteries. I have already write about my car charging options before.

In most cases, I do not need a huge power capacity. Power outage here are rare and always very short. Even if they are long, I barely use power in my house (my power bill is a whopping 50 cent a month) and the potential loss of the contents on my fridge is very low. So in most cases it's just an empty phone battery to charge.

In the past you were able to use AA's or AAA's in most devices. Mine first mobile phone used three AAA's NiMH batteries and would accept AAA alkaline. However most new devices have switched to a Lithium based battery, which are not easily switched.

A few methods I use to keep my electronics charged:
- Spear (phone) battery. The smallest and lightest option, however it does require you to turn off your device first and can generally only be used on one device. This obviously will not work with phones without a removable battery. For other electronics, I have plenty of AA batteries ( I try standardize my batteries). Lithium AA batteries for long term storage and critical equipment and plenty of charged Eneloop batteries for other electronics.

- Power-pack. A external battery pack which will charge your device, usually by USB port. When looking for the battery capacity of these packs, you need to know that the battery power needs to converted to 5 Volts, to match the USB output. Then the power is converted back to a lower voltage to charge the battery. This wastes some of your battery capacity. This is however my favorite everyday emergency charger.

Both a spear battery and power-pack generally uses a Lithium based battery, which degrade with age. So generally you won't be able to use them more than 3 or 4 years.

- Solar charger and battery pack. I have had some small solar panels in the past, which were totally useless. You need a decent size solar-panel to charge something. If you only have a solar-panel, the output would vary a lot. This could be a problem with some electronics, whom need a stable input.

Currently I'm using the Goal Zero Guide 10 Plus Adventure pack. I choose this model because it uses AA (or AAA's with a adapter) NiMH batteries in it's battery pack, has an USB output and is flexible in use. NiMH are not as age sensitive and the AA's are easily obtained and replaced. You can also remove the AA batteries and use them directly in any devices. Being a bit of a battery nerd, I don't like the fact that the batteries are not charged in independent charging bays, but you can't expect that from a solar charger which does not have a constant output. Due to it's design, you can only charge 4 similar sized batteries at a time. However my devices rarely uses 4 batteries at once. You can mix full and empty in the battery pack, but I prefer to stick a separate USB charger in to the pack (yes this is inefficient). I have a Sanyo Eneloop USB charger, which has 2 independent charging bays to do this.

Although the manufacture says the pack can be charged in 2 - 4 hours, mine takes much longer in full sun light. So don't expect to charge lots of electronics with just a solar charger.  The black color of the entire system also absorbs a lot of heat when you let it sit in the sun for long periods of time.

If solar is not a option you can charge the battery pack by USB or take the batteries out and charger them separately. Since it uses AA NiMH you can also just insert charged NiMH's and continue charging.

These three options give all the power I need in my applications (lights and phones). I really don't use much electronics, if you are I would suggest a larger setup.

Emergency Toilet option

Keeping human waste separate from everything else is important to keep illness from spreading. Most people are used to having a toilet. But what if the sewage or water pumps are down? Keeping filling the sewage, when they are down, simply means you are pushing sewage through overflow valves in the neighborhood.  Also you need something to flush it with. Having too much dry matter in the sewage would simple clog it.

For short term emergency's I would recommend to just use plastic bags to store human waste until you are able to dispose of it. One big bag to line a bucket with to catch leaks and smaller bags which can be replaced after each use.

Chemical solutions are a risk to store long term (they can leak) and relatively heavy and bulky. In the end you still have to dispose of the chemical solution.

As for more long term solutions, like dry composting toilets. They are fine when the power goes down, but not practical to buy just for emergency's.

My emergency set up is a reliant toilet bucket. The toilet seat lid, makes it more comfortable to do your business. The bucket is filled with toilet paper, disinfecting cleaning wipes and trash bags. The disinfecting cleaning wipes are rotated out occasionally to prevent it from drying out. A cheap and simple solution which can stand up storage and most emergency's.

Expensive is not always beter

Expensive (luxury) cars are not always beter then others. 

Check the small overlap ratings on the website of the IIHS: http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx

Stop, STOP, STOP!!!

Some driver miss the height limit signs, some also seem not to notice the 'if you hit the sign you will hit this bridge' sign (or other height bars which you will hit when you are too high), some even miss the blinking lights and stop lights. For those situations, there is another kind of stop sign: 

Which lock to choose to secure something outside.

The primary goal of a lock is to prevent things from being stolen. Sometimes you can't store something inside and you have to lock it in place outside. This can be a bicycle, generator, pump, etc.

A short list of the most commonly used locks and failure points:

Cable locks
Steel cable is made by twisting lots of steel wire in to a cable. This construction makes is vulnerable:
1: To cut a cable, you do not have to cut the full thickness of the cable. But it is possible to cut the individual wire separately. This allows cables to be defeated by fairly small pliers.
2:  To make cable you need a flexible kind of wire. To make a wire harder to cut you need a hard wire. Flexible and hard are contradictory. So cables are easy to cut with a bolt cutter.

Armored cable locks
Armored cable locks are cable locks with thick steel bushings protecting the cable. This makes it very hard for bolt cutters to cut it. However this design also has weaknesses:
1: There is a certain amount of play in the bushings, to allow the lock to be flexible. However this play is limited. If a long lever is used to twist the lock, the effective length of the bushings and cable will differ, causing the cable to be pulled out of the crimping and the end of the lock.
2: If twisting does not defeat the lock, twisting will expose small gaps between the bushing, allowing the cable to be saw through with a small hacksaw.

U-locks
U-locks are made made of relatively thick steel, making them hard to cut. The stiffness of the U-shape causes problems:
1: These locks do not stand well against torsion forces. If a bicycle is locked to a lantern pole, the entire bike can be used as a lever (by flipping the entire bike) to twist the lock open.

Segment locks
Segment locks are made of pieces of steel plate of tubing riveted together. This has the same problem as the U-locks:
1: These locks can be opened by twisting the lock, with a larger lever.

Chain locks
Chains combine stiffness and flexibility. This makes it hard to be cut by small pliers or to be twisted open. Since there are many kinds of chain locks, so here a list of things to look out for:
1. Chains can be made from regular steel or harden steel. Obviously harden steel is harder to cut.
2. A bolt cutter provide the most cutting power when it's almost closed. So it's best to make the beginning of the cut the hardest. A round shaped chain shackle has a relatively small surface area when a cut is started. A square shaped chain shackle forces a bolt cutter to cut a much bigger surface area a the beginning, making it harder to cut. A minimum thickness of 6 mm would be recommend.
3. If you need a small lock, get a lock with the closing pin covered by the last chain shackle when locked. This way the closing pin it self can not be cut directly.

Norwegian Association of the Blind: Don't Disturb the ones working

Many dogs are kept as pets, but as professionals in the safety and security business, we also encounter work dogs. Dogs for SAR, security dog, dogs for sniffing bomb or band substance, etc. If you encounter them, don't disturb them. 

Although not related to the type of dogs we encounter, this funny video from the Norwegian Association of the Blind does bring the message not to disturb those at work.