High Tech Survival and Apps

Doc Ruby

Although there is a great emphasis on simple, manual, rugged tools for bushcraft, survival and prepping, and rightly so, to me one of the important differences this hobby of ours makes is comfort.

In any disaster that can be survived, people will survive, even if they've never done an hour's preparation in their lives. Maybe even lots of people. This is dumb luck more often than not, and its mostly very far from comfortable.

Whereas we make this look good. :cool:

So with that in mind lets talk tech. What kind of electronics, power tools, anything that runs on a battery would you consider a priority to pack or prepare, and how would you deal with maintenance, recharging and so on?

I'm building a setup that revolves around AA and AAA batteries as much as possible at the moment, they are used in many electronics, are easy to carry, and are very common. I've a small USB charger for them, so I can hook them up to any USB port and let them recharge. I haven't tried the reverse yet, maybe something non-explosive.

A smallish solar charger (don't have that yet).

My Nook ereader. This thing is great, it can store thousands of books of every sort from educational to entertainment, and it runs for six weeks on a single charge. For staying sane and improving the situation, its a powerful tool in its own right. Directly rechargeable through solar, light as a feather, fits into normal pants pockets and it even browses the internet if you're near wi-fi.

Two walkie talkies, these run on AA batteries, rechargeable.

€20 MP3 player/radio with earphones, stores massive amounts of music and podcasts, runs on an AA battery. Not pretty but she gets the job done.

Flashlight, runs on an AA battery.

Wind-up radio/flashlight, I want to get a more capable one though.

Car recharger, if I'm able to take the car, its a normal car charger with both USB ports and a standard Irish plug socket.

I don't have a netbook yet (NOT an ipad, I needs me some keyboard), and I have my eye on a few 10" ones, sufficiently small and light not to be a bother. Basically this becomes a mobile intelligence centre, you can do a great deal with a computer. Recharging these, hm. A bit trickier. With the car charger its fine, but what if I can't get to a car after say six months? I'll have to look into the options there (universal power adaptor maybe, I just need to get a USB port feeding into a power port). Anyway I've got my eye on this bad boy, 10.1" screen and 1.18 kg, 5-6 hours battery life.

1 TB external USB powered HDD, containing lots of stuff.

Two USB keys.

Throwaway Motorola Razr, the smallest and lightest I could find. I can hook that up to the netbook and go online anyplace there is coverage, which even in a serious apocalypse would be persistent for quite a while I'd imagine.

All of the above, that I have anyway, are individually drybagged and bubble wrapped, with the lot put into a single larger drybag.

Camera! I have a biggish camera, and I got a battery grip for it specifically because that allows the used of 8 AA batteries to replace the standard battery pack. Now at this point I think I've wandered off the survival trail and into the holiday trail, but sure if its doable I'll bring it. Its not terribly heavy but it is bulky, so we'll see... Nice to be able to document events as they unfold though, through photo and video.

All in, excluding the camera and the solar charger, that's less than 3 kilos. The solar charger might push it up to 4, but for what it all brings I'd say its worth the weight.


Any thoughts on the iphone/ipad/apps? I don't have either of these, would they offer any serious advantages? Could I consolidate some of the items above into fewer items?

Doc Ruby

I'm liking the Solaris 26 for solar power on the go.

Tabnabs

Have you got a GPS for mapping etc.?

Doc Ruby

Tabnabs wrote: »

Have you got a GPS for mapping etc.?

No, never occurred to me actually. I know the area I roam fairly well, that's Connemara to about halfway through Mayo to the Midlands and the Burren, I'd have no use for it in that range and rarely go outside that range. Might be useful, or even vital, for night boating though, and I might pack one if I was going hiking or camping elsewhere.

I once managed to find an industrial estate in north Dublin from Grafton street by using a map and driving at the correct angle to the sun where possible though.

bonniebede

Doc Ruby wrote: »

No, never occurred to me actually. I know the area I roam fairly well, that's Connemara to about halfway through Mayo to the Midlands and the Burren, I'd have no use for it in that range and rarely go outside that range. Might be useful, or even vital, for night boating though, and I might pack one if I was going hiking or camping elsewhere.

I once managed to find an industrial estate in north Dublin from Grafton street by using a map and driving at the correct angle to the sun where possible though.

I've done something similar, navigating around london by sun direction and post codes on the street.

I agree with tabnabs, I think a gps is a game changer. also it might be something that someone else without your skills could use to bring help to your location in the event that you were unconscious, so if you carry one it could be good to have nice clear instructions with it, like ' if I am hurt please contact... this emergency service number and give them this reading... that sort of thing.

solar powered charger coming to aldis tomorrow for 14.99
http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_21955.htm

eth0

bonniebede wrote: »

solar powered charger coming to aldis tomorrow for 14.99
http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_21955.htm

Looks like a squib. Probably not even .2 of a watt. I used to have something similar that wouldn't even give you 1/4 of a charge if you left it in the sun all day

Doc Ruby

eth0 wrote: »

Looks like a squib. Probably not even .2 of a watt. I used to have something similar that wouldn't even give you 1/4 of a charge if you left it in the sun all day

Yeah I got a slightly more powerful device from dealextreme, it charged up in the sun alright but then wouldn't charge any devices. You've to spend a few bucks on solar if you want any results.

waterfordham

I can vouch for this one.
http://www.amazon.com/PowerFilm-USB-AA-Solar-Charger/dp/B001RMBHMK

It chargers a pair of AA's, they then charge the usb device.

_AVALANCHE_

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.max.SurvivalGuide

Red Neck Hughie

Upgrade your solar set-up by using mirrors, you'll get an almost linear increase in output with any increase in light you reflect onto the panel. Should work on the simplest radio charger to the most complicated pv and inverter off-grid setups there are.
If a mirror is not handy make sure the charger panel is directly facing the sun, even being a little off-direction will reduce power a lot.

Khannie

Doc Ruby wrote: »

I'm building a setup that revolves around AA and AAA batteries as much as possible at the moment, they are used in many electronics, are easy to carry, and are very common. I've a small USB charger for them, so I can hook them up to any USB port and let them recharge. I haven't tried the reverse yet, maybe something non-explosive.

I've given this quite a bit of thought in the past and this is my basic premise too. I've started building up a reasonable amount of high quality rechargeaables in the house over time. Solar is pricey, but obviously costs zero calories to charge your electronic devices once you've got it. If it was something for your house, you can buy relatively powerful solar cells on ebay for very little, they would just require some effort to make useful. 40 quid and a few hours of your time would get you something that could charge all your electronics devices in a day without breaking a sweat. Wouldn't be portable in the slightest though.

Basic kit that I'd like / have:
12v car -> USB (2 euro store)
USB->AA charger (dealextreme, but haven't bought yet)
Solar cells (ebay, but haven't bought yet)
Car alternator (have one in my car and one in my shed).
LED torch that runs on AAA (have a few of these from dealextreme. Great value for wattage.)

My own preference would be use something like a dynamo / alternator. It wouldn't be overly difficult to build something useful post SHTF and would run on body fat. Any semi-fit human could put out 100W for an hour no problem. That would buy you a lot of electronics time.

Doc Ruby wrote: »

My Nook ereader. This thing is great, it can store thousands of books of every sort from educational to entertainment, and it runs for six weeks on a single charge. For staying sane and improving the situation, its a powerful tool in its own right. Directly rechargeable through solar, light as a feather, fits into normal pants pockets and it even browses the internet if you're near wi-fi.

Same. Love my nook. Super battery life for very little charge. Really useful tool as you say for a variety of uses.

My smart phone would be one for me too. In airplane mode they last a very, very long time. Would be good for playing music, has a radio, GPS (once you have maps pre-downloaded, which I do) and its' basically a portable computer. Certainly the newer ones (HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy S3) are actually very powerful computers if you're tech savvy enough to be able to use them.

Doc Ruby

Khannie wrote: »

My own preference would be use something like a dynamo / alternator. It wouldn't be overly difficult to build something useful post SHTF and would run on body fat. Any semi-fit human could put out 100W for an hour no problem. That would buy you a lot of electronics time.

A good suggestion I saw a while back was to take a power drill and create electricity by the rotary motion, so where the drill bit would go, that's your wind blades or water wheel or treadmill. I suppose you could connect them up in a series to really get the juice flowing.

Khannie wrote: »

Same. Love my nook. Super battery life for very little charge. Really useful tool as you say for a variety of uses.

The more I use it the more I appreciate it tbh, Christmas saw me staggering out of Project Gutenberg cackling like a loon. I'm thinking of picking up another one as backup.

Khannie wrote: »

My smart phone would be one for me too. In airplane mode they last a very, very long time. Would be good for playing music, has a radio, GPS (once you have maps pre-downloaded, which I do) and its' basically a portable computer. Certainly the newer ones (HTC One X and the Samsung Galaxy S3) are actually very powerful computers if you're tech savvy enough to be able to use them.

I need a keyboard more than I need computing horsepower! It would be great if they released a rugged water resistant netbook with inbuilt radio, sim card slot and GPS unit for outdoorsy types. I mean you can get all that and telly too via USB attachments but it means fiddly bits.

Incompl

Charge your phone with a candle and the tPOD1

have2flushtwice

while you have planned seems good, I some questions, when the sh1t hits the fan, what are you expecting to actually happen, floods, famine, war?

other issues that could arise, which would leave us in a vunerable situation are,
for example,
are you expecting a solar pulse - this will not allow your electronics to operate, in effect they are destroyed. goodbye battery chargers, phones GPS, usb ports etc.

alternatively, should the country be subject to terrorism attack, and our communication systems are wiped out - it will take months to rebuild, goodbye phoone and GPS also.
this thread is about the devils advocate, and so my questions come from that angle.

Doc Ruby wrote: »

Although there is a great emphasis on simple, manual, rugged tools for bushcraft, survival and prepping, and rightly so, to me one of the important differences this hobby of ours makes is comfort.

In any disaster that can be survived, people will survive, even if they've never done an hour's preparation in their lives. Maybe even lots of people. This is dumb luck more often than not, and its mostly very far from comfortable.

Whereas we make this look good. :cool:

So with that in mind lets talk tech. What kind of electronics, power tools, anything that runs on a battery would you consider a priority to pack or prepare, and how would you deal with maintenance, recharging and so on?

I'm building a setup that revolves around AA and AAA batteries as much as possible at the moment, they are used in many electronics, are easy to carry, and are very common. I've a small USB charger for them, so I can hook them up to any USB port and let them recharge. I haven't tried the reverse yet, maybe something non-explosive.

A smallish solar charger (don't have that yet).

My Nook ereader. This thing is great, it can store thousands of books of every sort from educational to entertainment, and it runs for six weeks on a single charge. For staying sane and improving the situation, its a powerful tool in its own right. Directly rechargeable through solar, light as a feather, fits into normal pants pockets and it even browses the internet if you're near wi-fi.

Two walkie talkies, these run on AA batteries, rechargeable.

€20 MP3 player/radio with earphones, stores massive amounts of music and podcasts, runs on an AA battery. Not pretty but she gets the job done.

Flashlight, runs on an AA battery.

Wind-up radio/flashlight, I want to get a more capable one though.

Car recharger, if I'm able to take the car, its a normal car charger with both USB ports and a standard Irish plug socket.

I don't have a netbook yet (NOT an ipad, I needs me some keyboard), and I have my eye on a few 10" ones, sufficiently small and light not to be a bother. Basically this becomes a mobile intelligence centre, you can do a great deal with a computer. Recharging these, hm. A bit trickier. With the car charger its fine, but what if I can't get to a car after say six months? I'll have to look into the options there (universal power adaptor maybe, I just need to get a USB port feeding into a power port). Anyway I've got my eye on this bad boy, 10.1" screen and 1.18 kg, 5-6 hours battery life.

1 TB external USB powered HDD, containing lots of stuff.

Two USB keys.

Throwaway Motorola Razr, the smallest and lightest I could find. I can hook that up to the netbook and go online anyplace there is coverage, which even in a serious apocalypse would be persistent for quite a while I'd imagine.

All of the above, that I have anyway, are individually drybagged and bubble wrapped, with the lot put into a single larger drybag.

Camera! I have a biggish camera, and I got a battery grip for it specifically because that allows the used of 8 AA batteries to replace the standard battery pack. Now at this point I think I've wandered off the survival trail and into the holiday trail, but sure if its doable I'll bring it. Its not terribly heavy but it is bulky, so we'll see... Nice to be able to document events as they unfold though, through photo and video.

All in, excluding the camera and the solar charger, that's less than 3 kilos. The solar charger might push it up to 4, but for what it all brings I'd say its worth the weight.


Any thoughts on the iphone/ipad/apps? I don't have either of these, would they offer any serious advantages? Could I consolidate some of the items above into fewer items?

Doc Ruby

have2flushtwice wrote: »

while you have planned seems good, I some questions, when the sh1t hits the fan, what are you expecting to actually happen, floods, famine, war?

Generally long term preparations should cover as wide a spectrum as possible. Were I expecting a quick trip across the Gobi desert for example I wouldn't pack the drybags. Actually on second thoughts I might, as they would keep out dust as well as water, but you know what I mean. Prepare for as much as you can.

have2flushtwice wrote: »

are you expecting a solar pulse - this will not allow your electronics to operate, in effect they are destroyed. goodbye battery chargers, phones GPS, usb ports etc.

Natural solar storms don't affect small scale electronics unless they happen to be plugged in at the time. The only kind of EMP blast that zaps most electronics is nuclear, and if nukes start dropping I expect I'll have bigger problems than checking in with you folks on boards.

have2flushtwice wrote: »

alternatively, should the country be subject to terrorism attack, and our communication systems are wiped out - it will take months to rebuild, goodbye phoone and GPS also.

Cellular networks are just that, cells, there are lots of them. It would take a full on dedicated invasion targeting civilian communications to significantly reduce coverage, and why would an invader do that? If the external trunks get cut there's still satellite and internal communications, quite useful I would say.

The only semi, very slightly possible scenario where electronics would become worthless is with a high altitude nuclear explosion over Europe, potentially caused by terrorism. It's Snake Plissken time right there.

bonniebede

Doc Ruby wrote: »

. The only kind of EMP blast that zaps most electronics is nuclear, and if nukes start dropping I expect I'll have bigger problems than checking in with you folks on boards.

What????!!!!:eek:

But on the other thread you said you would help people. Oh well...

Doc Ruby

bonniebede wrote: »

What????!!!!:eek:

But on the other thread you said you would help people. Oh well...

I doubt you lot will need much help tbh, salty crew that ye are. I might drop Khannie a line to see has the still stopped glowing in the dark yet.

fenris

It probably depends on how much SHTF combined with a prudent amount of "better looking at than looking for".

The point for me is that some techie toys can make life much more bearable or be a positive benefit.

Cheap android phones are a good example, even without a SIM or phone network you have a screen, GPS, WIFI, camera, microphone, speaker, accelerometer sensor package etc. in a nice integrated bundle with a battery attached. This can be re-purposed very easily. You do not need to go as far as these guys http://www.cellbots.com/ who are using old phones as the brains for robotics projects to get something useful going especially when combined with Arduino boards, there are even some Android phone based UAV projects out there. To assemble all of those parts and manage them would have cost thousands a few years ago.

Arduino boards allow for easy control of scavenged components for basic automation e.g. follow the sun tracking for solar panels.

Check out http://hackaday.com or http://instructables.com for a wealth of cool ideas - not just techie stuff.

Much more sophisticated uses of tech are now within easy reach, tech like Zigbee allow for very low power draw radio links that will live very well on the crappiest of solar power - think perimeter sensors, water level sensors or even alert that a snare / trapline has been triggered - all things that give you information that you would normally have to find out the hard way.

The big difference between todays tech and that of 10 years ago is that: 1. Power - batteries have gotten smaller cheaper and better
2. Processing - there is easily accessible computing power available in pocket sized packages
3. Physical - there are easy options for physical environment sensing and interaction (Arduino, Zigbee etc.)

Combined that mean that some very mundane tasks can now become semi automated in a manner that would not have bee previously considered because of cost or difficulty.

For an idea of the kind of fun to be had with a little ingenuity check out

http://projectsentrygun.rudolphlabs.com/home

bonniebede

Doc Ruby wrote: »

I doubt you lot will need much help tbh, salty crew that ye are. I might drop Khannie a line to see has the still stopped glowing in the dark yet.

:P:D

my heroine:



with a bit of this thrown in:



and a lot of this:

Khannie

Doc Ruby wrote: »

I doubt you lot will need much help tbh, salty crew that ye are. I might drop Khannie a line to see has the still stopped glowing in the dark yet.

I manufacture alcohol of the highest quality.

bonniebede

Khannie wrote: »

I manufacture alcohol of the highest quality.

that explains a lot!;)