Tomorrow Is Build Day
I know I've said it before; this time I mean it. A last-minute design-change meant ordering a new batch of switches and returning the old, inadequate, downright unAmerican last batch, along with a couple of other components that I, uh, forgot I'd need. All that will arrive tomorrow, and I get to start turning that wren's nest of wires into a great pod o' electronics wizardry that will run all my various back-to-nature electronic gizmos.
The basic concept: a single black box that you plug solar panels into which will provide DC output for six items, with the option to power each item from a 12-volt battery charged by the panels, or directly from the panels via a 13.8-volt DC-DC converter. In addition, each solar panel can be individually routed to the converter or the battery's charge controller.
I have two devices that have no batteries of their own: the CB and the Wilson cellular phone amplifier. These will run off of the 12-volt battery or the solar panels. The laptop, iPod, and cell phone have their own batteries that can be charged up using the DC-DC converter. The GPS has its own AA batteries, but sucks them down quickly, so it will be wired to run off the 12-volt battery or the panels, with the AAs for backup. The "problem child" of this build is the digital camera: it uses AAs, and eats them up like Saturn snackin' on his chilluns, but doesn't have a 12-volt adapter available. So, I'm still scoping out the possibility of getting ahold of a 12-volt charger for AA rechargeables, so I won't spend a fortune in batteries as I pedal across the US of A.
Because this camera? Takes video. And, after I saw the overpriced 512MB SD cards at Best Buy, I took my newly-purchased camera outside, sat down on the curb in front of the store, fired up my laptop with its cellular modem, and grabbed a 2GB SD card off eBay with four times the capacity at half the price. So the camera will take lots of video. Which means I need reliable power! That's right: you'll be getting the full-on multimedia onslaught as I travel.
I will pause to let you salivate.
Or whatever it is you do when you come here.
The choice I'm having to make is essentially weight vs. cost: it will cost quite a bit to feed the camera with AA alkalines. Carrying a AA-charger and a set of batteries to rotate through it will add more weight. I haven't yet done the usual "lay out all your gear, and don't bring half of it" ritual for normal bicycle touring...but the fact that I'm bringing along my own multi-purposed custom-built solar power supply and a 27-inch television makes being a weight weenie rather like ordering the two-cheeseburger meal, a Big Mac, a five-piece Chicken Selects and a Diet Coke.
Still, every ounce does matter...shave a few off here and there and before you know it you've shaved a couple of pounds, for which your quadriceps will thank you as you crawl up the side of a mountain. This is why my French press and my Sierra cup are made out of titanium. Solar panels can only get so light before they become too fragile to travel with, so the weight has to come off of other things. Such as the cyclist, for example.
As near as I can figure, I've dropped just shy of twenty pounds since my top Winter weight. And somewhere in Kansas, I'm going to have to find a Target or a (shudder) Wal-Mart and replace a few of my clothing items, which by that point will have become voluminous and useless. (This is one advantage of the chain-storing of America: I know that I will be able to find what I need at a store somewhere in the Midwest that will be very much like a store here in New York.)
So, I while I'm pondering the whole ounce-ish weenieness of it all, I should probably take that into account.
Nearer, nearer, nearer...the house appraisal is tomorrow. The pile of Big Trash on the curb grows daily, as we shed superfluous items like a destroyer about to make the jump to light speed, thus providing cover for the scoundrel-hero and his rebel buddies to escape the clutches of our evil geek empire...for now.
