Paul Hayward's setup seems a bit like ours: A hefty gel-cell, that primarily power the bilge pump, also supplies the old GPS (which is very power hungry!) with power via a long cord. We have a few cameras, and about half uses AAs, while the rest uses their own style batteries. As most of the dedicated chargers to the various cameras, cellphones and video-cameras need 220V AC, we carry an inverter as well, if we bring any chargers along in the first place! Our solar panel is too small to be really useful, but it prevents, hopefully, the gel-cel from losing charge (it's just too small - about 2 sq. ft), and the backing aluminium plate has very sharp corners, so it isn't ideal in any way, but light! So normally, we just don't bring it! The ideal spot for it would be out on the outrigger, but this is yet a pending issue :-)! While I use LiPos in my model planes nowadays, there are quite a few issues here, not just during charging. If you short a pack it will turn into a Molotov Cocktail, and if you plan to use a big pack, as you mention, it will be a bloody big cocktail, no doubt! I can think of better places to be than in the cockpit of a small boat when such a device 'explodes' under the deck. If you use water to put it out the Lithium will react even more violently, I am sure! The batteries are an interesting mix of lithium (which reacts with air, water, etc), plastics, metal and solvents, a jolly fire-enhancing mixture indeed! If you puncture it, it catches fire, if you short, overload, or charge it with a non-prescribed type of charger, the same result (most of the time it takes a few seconds before the mix catches fire, so you might have time to abandon ship)! Some packs carry internal fuses, but that is rare indeed! All responsible modelers I know keep theirs in metal boxes, when not actually up in the air :-)! Wise men! The Eneloop (sp?) AAs sounds interesting, though! My LiPO charger is nice, though, as it is small, and handles charging NiMhs, NiCads and SLAs (Sealed Lead-Acid), as well as various types of Lithium batteries! Tord *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Oct 20 2009 - 05:00:52 PDT
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