It looks like this test is over now. The TabletKiosk MP3400 blew up on me.

This morning, everything was going well. The MP3400 was charging well from the Sunlinq…

…but later in the day, when I was charging the Q1 Ultra from the MP3400, it all went wrong. The MP3400 overheated in a big way…

I had left the Q1 Ultra connected to the MP3400 in the boot/trunk of the car while I went out to pick up some beer and when I came back the unit was incredibly hot. When I took it out of it’s case, it was clear that it had overheated as the plastic on the inside of the case had melted onto the battery. Part of the grille had melted too.

I left it to cool for 20 minutes and it looked like it was working again but it didn’t last long. Its completely dead now. No lights, nothing!

Lesson learned. Don’t try and use the MP3400 in 32 degrees heat inside the protective case, inside the boot of a car.

Fortunately the Q1 Ultra is still working although i’m down to 60 minutes battery now. There’s no way to charge it up until I get home on Saturday evening. Here ends another Solar-UMPC test. Now where’s that beer I bought….

Wooooooohoooooooo! Total distance covered: 450km over 10 days. UMPC, Phone, Camera, GPS and Torch all topped up from Solar energy. I made it!

Distance since last post: 65km
Weather: Dark and cloudy.
Notes: Don’t drink two beers at the finish line without having something to eat first!!!

Today at about 1700 (UTC+2) I crossed the unofficial finish line on the Solar UMPC tour. The official finish happens tomorrow with my sponsors, VIA, but that will be at the same place that I enjoyed the beer shown above. For me, the tour is complete and after I’ve posted this and used up the last hour of battery life on the Samsung Q1b, I’ll be connecting back to the electricity grid to charge up my phone and umpc for the first time in 9 days ago.

Finish line!

It has been a fun and challenging time trying to balance a 450km cycle camping trip with work and a solar powered UMPC experiment but its been fully worth it. And that includes that last three days of full cloud cover and zero solar power possibilities. I’ve learned a lot about how solar energy works, how it can be applied to mobile computing and how different battery technology affects the results. But it hasn’t just been about solar energy. Its mainly been about energy efficient mobile computing, mobile Internet connectivity and the balance of tasks between a mobile phone and a UMPC. Although I managed to perform a lot of tasks on my simple mobile phone, none of the mapping updates, images, GPS tracks and detailed postings would have been possible without a UMPC and the VIA-based Samsung Q1b has been a reliable and efficient partner all the way through. It hasn’t missed a single heartbeat.

The last 65km leg up here to Duesseldorf was a fun trip. Two friends of mine, Steve Carr and Ian Emmett, came with me and we had a good fun ride. Bessy managed to clock 38.2km/h, Steve lost a mudguard and Ian managed to get a branch stuck in his (overly complex, if you ask me!) gears. Bessy has been an absolute star too and she’ll be getting a good soft rub-down when she gets home. Thanks Bessy the Blue Bakers Bike.

As we rounded the last corner of the journey and saw the Vodafone Germany HQ and a long line of riverside bars I knew it had been worth it. I feel so happy that it would be impossible to describe it within the limits of my battery life here but its been a perfect week of work. I want to start planning the next project ASAP!

Goodnight Duesseldorf. see you tomorrow on the finish line again where I’ll be showing off the Solar-UMPC kit to the journalists. I hope it doesn’t rain!

When i’m fully charged up (personally) again in the next few days i’ll be posting all the photos, an overview of the trip and a detailed report on how things can be improved. There’s a lot to be learned from the Solar-UMPC tour.

Here’s a solution based on the Sunlinq 25w panel and a Xantrec 300 Plus combo lead-acid battery/inverter. Its very similar to my own solution apart from the fact that this one weighs nearly 10KG!!!

A number of blogs seemed to have picked up on this solution today and are quoting 11-12 hours charging time. This figure is a little misleading. The battery capacity is about 240w/hr and based on a reasonable 5-hour per day full-sun rate its going to take 10 hours. That’s a minimum of 36 hours duration! In middle-Europe, you’ll be waiting for 3 full days of sun!

The other point to consider is that you need to take all your AC converters with you (weight problem) and should recon on 20% energy loss by converting from 12v -> 110V and down to 12, 16, 19 or whatever voltage your device takes. Hardly efficient. Alternatively you can buy 12v car adaptors for all your equipment (can get expensive.)

My recommendation is to use a combination of a Li-ion battery with variable DC output (I’m using the TabletKiosk/Tekkeon MP3400) and a lead-acid battery (I’m using a 2.5kg 6Ah part) This gives you the best of both worlds (lead-acid flexibility and Li-Ion light weight) and cuts the total weight right down to under 4KG. At also avoids having to operate a dangerous 110v. Capacity with my solution is around 130W/hr but here’s the key. Don’t use a notebook PC, use a UMPC. They are far more efficient. With a normal UMPC you’re good for 10 hours of computing on a fully charged system (around 7 hours full-sun charge time.)

News Via GottaBeMobile.