Good mobile phone with internet and camera for touring

[PpPete]

Wow that hub is cheaper than I thought it would be and the pedalpower things looks simple enough for me to use but if I may as a rather girly question*, what is the difference between an AC dynamo and a DC dynamo in terms of what I might want (iphone/Adventurer 2800 GPS)?

Historically pretty much all dynamos were AC (still are except for that Pedalpower one). Bike lighting is usually set up to use AC (hence the flickering effect you get on some lights at low speeds.) The downside is that you need a rectifier circuit of some description to turn AC into DC to power devices like phones and GPS and stuff.... but you wouldn't want expensive devices like that connected to the wildly fluctuating raw DC coming off a dynamo anyway, so most devices have some sort of clever circuitry (like the rather B&M Ewerk) or a buffer battery (like the SIC and the Dahon Biologic Reecharge**) that turns out nice smooth USB standard voltages.

* letting the side aren't you un-necessarily there ! I learnt most of this stuff from a girl (Kim, over on YACF)

** I wouldnt buy one of the Dahon units, it has a well documented failure mode - it's covered in the instructions but still easy to get it wrong inadvertently when tired/cold/wet/hungry and then your unit is fried.

Yeah, the problem is that I have hub-brakes, and ICE recommends (and Auntie Helen's experience supports) having matched hubs, so I'd need two new wheels with disc brakes. The all-in cost is a bit frightening!

Yeah but think of the power you could generate with two independent dynamos ! Wonder if you get the feed-in tarif if you put it on the turbo !

 

[CopperBrompton]

I'd ideally want to power the existing dynamo lights (currently running on a bottle dynamo - yuk!), a POV1 camcorder, an iPhone and eTrex Vista HCx, so I suspect some research is required into exactly how I'd do that little lot.

 

[suffolkcindy]

Where did you see that? There's no time limit, just a limit of 1000 photos:
http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/photo-stream.html

read it on the apple website and there is much debate on iphone forums about time limit

 

[CopperBrompton]

(Oh, and if it could do the Dinotte lights too that would totally free me from battery-charging, but I suspect I'd be pushing things to do all that even with two hubs!)

 

[CopperBrompton]

read it on the apple website and there is much debate on iphone forums about time limit

I don't know where they're getting that idea from. I have photos in my stream that have been there for months.

 

[suffolkcindy]

That's important to know coz it makes a huge difference to whether I bother using Photostream...nothing happens to them after 30 days? Hmm maybe I should just try mine and see...

 

[CopperBrompton]

That's right: the limit is 1000 photos, and you always have the most recent 1000 photos in there. There's no time limit.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-iPh...42781?pt=UK_Mobile_Phones&hash=item3cbef7b5fd

I f I bought something like this and simply bought a pay as I go sim card in the states would it work on a usa tour for wifi, e mails, facebook, phone, texts to UK/usa etc? Sorry for dumb question but all this iphone stuff is greek to me still.

or a friend just suggested to me an ipod touch...no phone capability but i have anokia already..so i could use this purely for wi fi access?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Used-A...tu=UCI&otn=10&ps=63&clkid=8411869767657690109

 

[suffolkcindy]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-iPh...42781?pt=UK_Mobile_Phones&hash=item3cbef7b5fd

I f I bought something like this and simply bought a pay as I go sim card in the states would it work on a usa tour for wifi, e mails, facebook, phone, texts to UK/usa etc? Sorry for dumb question but all this iphone stuff is greek to me still.

or a friend just suggested to me an ipod touch...no phone capability but i have anokia already..so i could use this purely for wi fi access?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Used-A...tu=UCI&otn=10&ps=63&clkid=8411869767657690109

Just a thought: to be totally sure... you could buy it in the US (or off the US ebay?) and the sim card too?...that way you KNOW for sure its going to be OK. Not being up on these things, I do know that the US is odd when it comes to bandwidth and all that (see, Ive confused myself already)
I have an ipod touch as well as an iphone and I love for touring, cheap too. I also find Apple are excellent on face to face helpl via their shops so you might want to pop in to an apple shop near you and just CHECK your idea out from here?? some 14 year old sales assistant will set it all up for you

 

[suffolkcindy]

Historically pretty much all dynamos were AC (still are except for that Pedalpower one). Bike lighting is usually set up to use AC (hence the flickering effect you get on some lights at low speeds.) The downside is that you need a rectifier circuit of some description to turn AC into DC to power devices like phones and GPS and stuff.... but you wouldn't want expensive devices like that connected to the wildly fluctuating raw DC coming off a dynamo anyway, so most devices have some sort of clever circuitry (like the rather B&M Ewerk) or a buffer battery (like the SIC and the Dahon Biologic Reecharge**) that turns out nice smooth USB standard voltages.

* letting the side aren't you un-necessarily there ! I learnt most of this stuff from a girl (Kim, over on YACF)

** I wouldnt buy one of the Dahon units, it has a well documented failure mode - it's covered in the instructions but still easy to get it wrong inadvertently when tired/cold/wet/hungry and then your unit is fried.


Yeah but think of the power you could generate with two independent dynamos ! Wonder if you get the feed-in tarif if you put it on the turbo !

Thanks Pete BUT still not sure if I should buy the AC one or the DC one (Shimano offer a choice)? Presume DC for the iphone charging?

 

[PpPete]

I'd go with AC. Tried & trusted.
And lots more choice of "boxes" that both rectify it to DC and smooth the voltage out.

 

[Randochap]

I'm an iPhone acolyte and dedicated dynohub devotee. I just upgraded to the iPhone 4S. Siri is awesome--not perfect but, unless I'm in a public place, I most often dictate e-mail, tweets, etc. rather than typing on the tiny keypad. It's also cool to instruct the phone to "play Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and voila! No more scrolling through contacts either ... just tell the phone to, for instance, "call home."

As for charging devices, there are now a number of great options on the market that run off dynamo hubs, with the Tout Terrain The Plug II on the top of my want list.

 

[suffolkcindy]

Thanks for details y'all...just an update though on PHotostream (the cloud saving space for iphone) it is definately ONLY the last 30 days of photos that get saved into photostream...just tried it. Guess it might be a new thing but 30 days it is...

 

[defy-one]

Why don't you email the photos to yourself when wifi is available?
Thats what i do


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[RhythMick]

I'm an iPhone acolyte and dedicated dynohub devotee. I just upgraded to the iPhone 4S. Siri is awesome--not perfect but, unless I'm in a public place, I most often dictate e-mail, tweets, etc. rather than typing on the tiny keypad. It's also cool to instruct the phone to "play Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and voila! No more scrolling through contacts either ... just tell the phone to, for instance, "call home."

As for charging devices, there are now a number of great options on the market that run off dynamo hubs, with the Tout Terrain The Plug II on the top of my want list.

Apologies for off topic, but I'm a recent apple convert (have the ipad 3) and seriously thinking of doing to the new iphone when it comes out.

Do the voice commands work over Bluetooth? I have a great Motorola S9 headset and with my old blackberry I'd press the button on the headset and the phone would say"say a command" through the headset. All worked fine. With my android phone it don't work that way. How does Apple work?

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