Innovative phone charging?

[siman]

Think I've just decided to take my normal phone with me to the festival. Its a HTC and anyone with touchscreen/ smart phone... whatever, will know how long the battery doesn't last.

So aside from queuing half my festival away at the free charge tent, can anyone recommend any innovative charging methods? I'm open to all suggestions be they solar, wind-up... magic - anything (which doesn't cost an arm and a leg).

[Clareno7]

I've just ordered a spare battery from amazon for my nokia X6. It's not genuine nokia but it's got good reviews and 2 fully charged batteries will hopefully see me through the fest - as long as I don't play with that app continuously! Can't believe it's not available for nokias just yet...

[Festival Liam]

Spare phone/battery. Simples.

[MamaJojo]

4in1 jumpstarter/aircompressor/light/12v charger. £25 off ebay. blows up airbeds, lights your tent, and if you have a cigarette lighter charge attachment will also charge your phone. If you also buy an inverter for £2 to £7 then you can also plug in anything with a 3 pin plug, including straighteners, low watt hairdryers, even laptops. We bought one to power our 12v shower and charger our phones, as it was cheaper than buying juice packs for my iPhone and extra batteries for the other arfs phone. And it works a treat.

[Tuska]

4in1 jumpstarter/aircompressor/light/12v charger. £25 off ebay. blows up airbeds, lights your tent, and if you have a cigarette lighter charge attachment will also charge your phone. If you also buy an inverter for £2 to £7 then you can also plug in anything with a 3 pin plug, including straighteners, low watt hairdryers, even laptops. We bought one to power our 12v shower and charger our phones, as it was cheaper than buying juice packs for my iPhone and extra batteries for the other arfs phone. And it works a treat.

[Sunny Afternoon Don]

Just buy a number of spare batteries and a charger on e-bay, they will probably come together, cost you £10-£15. Charge the batteries before you go and change when necessary!!

This method has always worked for me.

[rubenz]

I usually leave the HTC behind and dip into my drawer of old school mobiles and bring 2 or 3 along they last a lot longer..

[robin]

I have a combination of old phone with spare batteries and 3g turned off, various external battery packs which I can charge by USB before hand, solar panels to top up those battery packs during the day. And a supply of USB cables to any kind of phone connection so that everyone else that I'm camping with who wasn't quite as prepared can recharge their phones and then supply me with more beer in payment.

[siman]

Thought about spare bats but I would need one for every day, and they are about £6 each (unofficial). So for the money thought I might be able to get something to charge my camera to? 4 in 1 sounds good but maybe a bit overkill for what I need...

Obviously dependent on sun, but any solar recommendations from anyone? And can you get a full charge from that?

Thanks

[siman]

... What about lockers? I know they often have chargers in... Not sure about Glasto tho. Linkage would be much appreciated

[robin]

The solar chargers and external batteries are not cheap, I've just accumulated various chargers and gadgets over the years. One of them is a freeloader supercharger and that should recharge it's battery in a day, you can then charge the phone from that separate battery. You can't properly charge the phone directly from the solar panel though so would have to do it via another battery first.

Getting a couple of spare batteries for your model of phone would be by far the cheapest solution though. Make sure you turn off any 3g or roaming, close any apps that you may have running, turn the brightness down on the back light, don't use the phone to tell the time. You will then get longer out of a charge.

[MamaJojo]

Thought about spare bats but I would need one for every day, and they are about £6 each (unofficial). So for the money thought I might be able to get something to charge my camera to? 4 in 1 sounds good but maybe a bit overkill for what I need...

Obviously dependent on sun, but any solar recommendations from anyone? And can you get a full charge from that?

Thanks

Edited May 27, 2011 by MamaJojo

[DevilMadeMeDoIt]

I've just bought a charger for my iPhone, it takes AA batteries. I've tested it out and you can get 2 charges out of 4 AA batteries. Got it from amazon it's called system-s battery adapter

[MamaJojo]

I've just bought a charger for my iPhone, it takes AA batteries. I've tested it out and you can get 2 charges out of 4 AA batteries. Got it from amazon it's called system-s battery adapter

[fur_q]

4in1 jumpstarter/aircompressor/light/12v charger. £25 off ebay. blows up airbeds, lights your tent, and if you have a cigarette lighter charge attachment will also charge your phone. If you also buy an inverter for £2 to £7 then you can also plug in anything with a 3 pin plug, including straighteners, low watt hairdryers, even laptops. We bought one to power our 12v shower and charger our phones, as it was cheaper than buying juice packs for my iPhone and extra batteries for the other arfs phone. And it works a treat.

Edited May 27, 2011 by fur_q

[devonhammer]

I usually leave the HTC behind and dip into my drawer of old school mobiles and bring 2 or 3 along they last a lot longer..

[ark]

4in1 jumpstarter/aircompressor/light/12v charger. £25 off ebay. blows up airbeds, lights your tent, and if you have a cigarette lighter charge attachment will also charge your phone. If you also buy an inverter for £2 to £7 then you can also plug in anything with a 3 pin plug, including straighteners, low watt hairdryers, even laptops. We bought one to power our 12v shower and charger our phones, as it was cheaper than buying juice packs for my iPhone and extra batteries for the other arfs phone. And it works a treat.

[siman]

Think I'm going to go for this Amazon and take shit loads of duracell lol Thanks DevilMadeMeDoIt. I know you MamaJojo, said yours only worked twice but I'm gonna give it a whirl and if it does pack up I'll have to effing queue :s

Edited May 27, 2011 by siman

[CitizenErased]

I went for one of these : http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Trent-iCruiser-IMP1000-Blackberry/dp/B004CHMP50

Should work ok with HTC phones or most devices that can charge from a USB port, depending on the model you'll probably get around 5 full charges out of it from what people say in the reviews.

They also do a smaller capacity one : http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Trent-ultra-pack-IMP50B-Universal/dp/B003PFCEGA

I got it mainly to recharge my camera, but should the retro nokia I'm taking need it, it'll charge that as well. Comes with several attachments for various devices.

[StoneCircle]

Ted Baker Charger off eBay for me. Great bit of kit for £14.99

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ted-Baker-Portable-Mobile-Phone-Charger-iPhone-4-Nokia-/110693266672?pt=UK_MobilePhones_MobilePhoneAccessories_MobilePhoneChargers&hash=item19c5d534f0#ht_2500wt_1084

[GlastoEls]

Taking SIM out of iPhone, putting in the 2001 vintage Nokia 3310 or whatever it is. Old school!

[MamaJojo]

LOL I do worry about the amount of stuff you are planning to bring with you

[Spindles]

I bought one of those solar chargers off amazon, it's pants. It has a nicad battery that you can fully charge as well as 2 panels that either charge that battery or a usb device if attached. I gave it a full charge, attached it to my n900 and (according to battery eye) proceeded to slowly drain my phone for 3 hours until it gave up. Using the solar panels alone to charge the phone, however, had better results when I stuck it under 900watts of 2700k lighting (I have friends with interesting hobbies;)), giving approximately 5% charge in 3 hours. This has to be the most inneficient electrical device in history, I can fully charge my phone in 90 minutes over USB from my desktop.

So, as ever I will be doing what I always do, leaving my phone and charger with the nice people at solar energy alliance in croissant neuf and chucking them 3 quid each time. I find that I only need 1 charge during the festival, so more cost effective than ANY other solution and the only truly green way to go. There are usually at least 3 or 4 such places where you can drop a phone and charger in and get a full charge for a couple of quid or so in the green fields and I never really understand why people think that buying multiple batteries is a cheaper option.

I like mamajojo's idea with the jumpstarter pack, although do wonder about both the weight and also how long you get out of one in normal use.

[siman]

Thanks everyone.

Not long now

[Late]

Most years i take a 6v battery.

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/displayProduct.jsp?sku=BT0058694&CMP=aballnobrochure

slightly more volts than the usual 5v from USB but never had a problem. Charge your phone 20+ times no issue.

DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!