Jul/082
Spot the difference. (Technology moves on)
One year ago (see this post for details of the 2007 Solar UMPC tour kit,) I was using the setup below for my mobile blogging and tracking.
This year, its a lot simpler. And a lot more powerful. Notice how the phone, GPS tracker and Camera have merged into one device. Yes, the N82 is a real boon. The N82 camera is not as good as the S2 (as expected) but the ability to auto-tag while tracking and then post the images directly to a server over the Internet is a massive advantage.
You’ll also notice a change in UMPC. I’m now using the Samsung Q1 Ultra (with XP and HSDPA) which has an SD slot (negating the need for any cables for the camera) and a much brighter, higher resolution screen. I’ve also moved to SSD rather than the traditional, spinning hard drive. Its safer. The keyboard (A Samsung Q1 keyboard) remains the same as there’s still nothing out there that can beat it. You’ll also see the USB LED lamp. Still, a key part of the kit!
Now lets look at the solar setup. This is the setup I used a year ago.
And this is the setup i’m going to use over the next four days while I go work/camping.
[The Wife and Kid are off camping together and I was due to stay home and work but I've decided to come along and make a working holiday of it. Dads - this is the beauty of Ultra Mobile PC's!!!]
I’ve removed the lead acid battery from the kit and am now direct charging the Tablet Kiosk MP3400. It only charges during peak hours (one full charge per 100% sunny day here in mid-summer Germany) where the SLA battery charges during less sunny periods but the amount of energy you get in those few extra hours is minimal. I’ve chosen to drop the SLA battery and use the MP3400 direct on the Sunlinq 25W solar panel.
Here’s a post with more detail about using the two together. And a how-to video.
I’ll probably post a few solar computing thoughts while I’m away so stay tuned here for more. Weather is looking good!
Last year on the Solar UMPC tour.
Aug/070
Mathematics, sunburn and how 1.2kw of energy gives you 2 hours of computing.
When I did my first tests and calculations about the use of solar power to drive a PC I was quite amazed at the inefficiency of the process and today’s ‘laboratory conditions’ test proves just how much room for improvement there is. It’s thanks to devices like UMPCs that this is project is at all possible because I really doubt it would have worked with even a ‘power saving’ notebook PC.
Today I stayed at the campsite and put the Solar panel and Li-Ion battery through a 3 hours test. Its was a cloudless day with a very thin haze, 22 degrees centigrade and for reference I’m located at about 50 degrees north and 7 degrees east. The date is the 30th of August which is heading towards Autumn here in Germany. The test was done from 11:00 – 14:00 and I took the empty Li-Ion battery and charged it with the solar panel for 3 hours.
I estimate that about 1.2KW of energy hit my 7000 cm2 panel with about 660W falling on the Solar cells (3500 cm2). After conversion to electricity it created about 50w/hr of energy. Of that, about 40W was taken by the Li-Ion battery because it only uses a fixed current and voltage. It won’t adapt to the power available. Due to input voltage conversions and charging losses, this left me with an estimated 30W of energy and after taking this through yet another set of voltage conversions and charging process, left me with a rather poor 18W of power. Of course this is enough for a few hours of work but isn’t it incredible that so much power is wasted (or rather passed back as heat!)
I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to work out how this process could be improved and I’ve come up with a list of ideas that could help. I’ll talk though them in the next post but right now I need to put some more cream on the back of my legs because through all the concentration I forgot about the sun and I’ve burned the bit right behind the knee. That’s going to be really enjoyable tomorrow when I make the 70km dash to Bonn.
Here’s a diagram I created quickly on the Q1b. Hopefuly it makes things a bit clearer. How would you improve the architechture?
Aug/073
First UMPC camp. Day 0.
I made it down to Karlsruhe in Germany after a quite stressful train journey with the bike and all the kit and after a short journey that turned out to be a 2.5hours trek to the campsite. I just managed to get the tent up before it got dark and I had to dive straight into the tent though because there are thousands of hungry mosquitos here.
After spending an hour trying to organise my kit inside my one-man tent (I gave up) I finally settled down with the local radio playing on the mobile phone and the Q1b lit by my USB led lamp. How nice!
The campsite here is terrible. It’s right next to a factory and full of drunk people. In front of me is someone trying to play the bongos and to the right of me is a family having an argument. Mmmm. I hope it gets better than this!
Tomorrow will be the first test of the Solar kit. Will it work? Will I be sitting in my tent tomorrow evening surfing the net and writing journal entries or will I be playing cards?
Jun/070
InterSolar 2007. Nothing for Solar-UMPC fans.
It was an early start yesterday. 0445 rise and bus at 0530. 5 hours later after three trains and another bus I arrived at InterSolar 2007 in Freiburg, Germany hoping to find out how I could improve the UMPC Solar kit at Europe’s biggest solar expo. Unfortunately, 
there wasn’t much there for consumers at all. It was all 200w, $1000 panels and huge thermal heating set-ups. I saw one company that was selling the Voltaic Solar Backpack but I’ve already assessed this product and at 4W max output, its not powerful enough. I was rather hoping to see someone with the Reware Juicebag which, at 6.3W is much more useful.
Actually the most interesting thing that happened yesterday, apart from some awesomely stormy weather, was that the train journey took me on the Rhein route south to where I will start the Solar UMPC tour. Its a gorgeous route. Lovely scenery and I saw loads and loads of great Rhein-side restaurants and camping sites. I’m looking forward to the tour more than ever!
One bit of relevant news from yesterday which came through RSS and has spawned another bit of research was that Sanyo have broken the record for a production solar cell. We’re up to 22% now. In theory, the cell on the left here, a 10×10cm device, should be able to generate over 2W. 100cm2 is about the same area as the face of a UMPC. 4W is the target average power consumption that Intel have set for devices based on Menlow, their UMPC platform for 2008. The interesting thing that I’ve found out is that this cell (or at least the previous 
version of it) appears in the Sanyo Eneloop solar charger. The charger houses a Li-Ion battery which can store enough energy to charge 4×2000mah batteries. That’s about 10W if my maths is correct. The only problem is the quoted 6 DAYS charging time for the internal Li-Ion battery. I suspect that the cell isn’t exactly being used that efficiently because as I said before, that 10×10 cell should be able to kick out 2W, enough to charge the batteries in a few full days of sun. This little bit of tech will set you back over $150. Eek!
Jun/079
Video: How to use a solar panel to power your gadgets.
Before I talk about the video I just want to say “where’s the damn weather!” Lesson number one in the Solar-UMPC project is that the weather is chaos and if you live in mid-northern Europe, you can’t rely on it as a source of instant energy. You’ll see how I’ve had to adapt my solution in my first Solar UMPC video. In the video I present the solar charging and storage setup that I’ve decided to use for the tour. Its based on the fag-packet drawing I did a few weeks ago after deciding that Li-Ion batteries weren’t really the best solution.
I’ve introduced the lead-acid battery as a buffer and despite the 100-year old technology and 2.6KG weight, provides the perfect stabiliser to the whole architecture.
A quick rundown of the equipment I’m using (mostly bought from my home country, Germany.)
- Sunlinq 12v / 25W foldable solar panel.
- Sonnenschein 12v / 6.6Ah lead-acid battery.
- Solar charge controller. 12v / 4A
- Samsung Q1b UMPC.
- TabletKiosk MP3400 Li-Ion battery pack.
- Voltcraft dual-mode 12v battery charger.
- Voltcraft 12v DC-DC adaptor.
The 20-min Video is below (800kbps divx, 120MB) and also downloadable here. If you can handle a 1.5mbps stream or 200MB download, take the WMV version from here. YouTube version also below. More pictures in the gallery here. Blip.tv link here for sharing. Many thanks to SelectSolar for their help in preparing this solution.
Now available at YouTube:
May/078
Solar panel testing. Tough calculations.
The weather is still bad here in Germany and there’s no chance of getting reasonable testing done on a solar panel at the moment. The forecast is also bad so I’ve decided to send the test P3 panel back. In the very short time I was able to test it I was able to learn a lot though and its given me some thoughts about how I will move forward. This post goes over some of the stats, figures and calculations so its not exactly the most interesting post for the average reader. For those that are thinking about doing a similar thing though, this could be a very interesting post for you!
A very important lesson was learnt on the first day - the charging system doesn’t even start working until the sun reaches 70% of full power. This is due to the Li-ion charging system on the powerbank. It wont trickle charge so only kicks into life when there’s enough power to drive it. This renders about 8 hours sunlight per day as unuseable with this set-up.
The second thing learnt is that the charging system doesn’t work faster if there’s more power available. It seems that the power bank needs 12W to charge and will not take any more power if, say, 15W is available. Thinking back to my basic electronics, I guess this makes sense! This means more waste though and requires balancing the charging requirements with the power available if i’m to use this set-up.
One very nice feature of the P3 panel was that it was able to charge the TabletKiosk powerbank directly, without voltage conversion. That helps a lot because the other solar panels i’ve looked at only drive 12V. That would mean converting voltage up to 19V and losing power in the process. Taking a few of the figures learnt, there’s a simple equation gives me the theoretical power possible per day.
Power available (W/hr per day) = Powerhrs x ChR
Powerhrs is the number of hours per day when the sun is over 70% power. (taken from sun power records. June. Bonn, Germany) This is about 7 hours in May, June and July.
ChR is the charge rate of the power-bank (must be about 0.7 of solar panel rating for best efficiency.) = 12W
This assumes a sunny day. No cloud cover. No shadows and the panel facing the sun. The changes of that happening are slim. I have the advantage that I’ll only leave the house if the 6-day forecast is good so I can reduce this risk to a minimal amount but I think I’ll lose another 20% through shadows and positioning while I’m moving. If cycling around becomes a problem with shadows and sun positioning I might have to carefuly plan my stops in order to maximise solar panel positioning. Maybe a stop at 10-11 and again at 3-4 would help get the best out of the early and late light.
So lets plug the figures into the equation and see what we get with the P3 solar panel and the TabletKiosk MP3400 power bank.
7 x 12 = 84W/hr energy per day assuming 15W from panel at max sun power.
Now for the second part of the equation:
- There’s no such thing as a perfectly sunny day. Especially when you’re cycling. I’ve been advised to use a figure of 4 hours per day for sun. In my tests, on two sunny periods, I managed to load a 56W/hr battery in about 8 hours so the equation seems to be roughly OK. At a 12W load rate, that’s about 4 full hours of sun so I agree with the 4 hours rule.
- You can not charge and use the bank at the same time. This means that a second power source is needed for the daytime. In the evening its fine because I run from the powerbank. I could use the battery on the device UMPC in the daytime of course but what happens when its empty? Can I charge it from the solar panel (that’s stupid because I would need a second UMPC just to charge the battery – the solar panel will not be able to run AND charge a UMPC. Also, if there’s not enough voltage or current protection on the UMPC I would risk killing the UMPC) There’s is the possibility of topping up the UMPC overnight from the power-bank but If I do that, I have to consider the following…
- To charge other devices from the bank, there is something like 20% power loss through the charging circuitry.
There’s one other point too. The powerbank can only store 56W/hr of power. Taking point 1) into account brings me down to 48W/hrs on a sunny day which I guess solves the problem of limited powerbank capacity!
I think the best solution for point 2) is to use a second power bank. This also has the advantage of giving me a spare powerbank should one fail, and, being able to fill a second device should I find myself with sun and nothing to charge! It also reduces the risk of killing the UMPC and avoids the wastage of 3)
So we’re now at 48W/hrs per day. Its incredibly poor considering the power of the sun. In theory, the suns power is equivalent to 1Kw of energy for every m2 and that makes solar energy capture and storage horribly horribly inefficient. Consider that in 4 hours, about 2KW/hr of energy will be hitting the solar cells on the panel I tested. Yes 2000W/hrs. Enough energy to power a small UMPC for 1 month at 8 hours per day! The efficiency is a crazy 48/2000. Just over 2%.
How can this be improved? One thing I could do is to find a lower-power charging solution. That is, start storing energy before the sun reaches 70%. If you can start storing energy when the sun is at 50%, you have a few more hours per day and if you can start gathering energy at 30% power, you can even get some when its cloudy!
The second variable is the power-loss on charging. This is generally because the Li-ion batteries need a fairly strict charging voltage and current and there’s a fair bit of circuitry there to protect them. Lead-acid batteries could be better but, wow, the weight! To store just 70W/hr of energy you’re looking at 2.5KG. The 56W Li-Ion power-bank I have is just 500grams.
The third option is to get a panel with more efficient solar cells.
Having said all that though, this is an off-the-shelf system that appears to work. I didn’t need to make any modifications at all and I like the idea that this project could go ahead with off-the-shelf equipment. It makes it easier for others to replicate it.
The big question now is, will 48W per sunny day be enough? If so, I don’t have to worry about the terrible efficiency and high cost. It will be enough to provide me with power where I can’t get it. I’ll be analyzing the power requirements in the next post to see if 48W per sunny day is enough. If it isn’t, i’ll have to go back and look at other options.
May/070
Choosing the Solar UMPC
Its decision time on the UMPC and I think I’ve just about come to my conclusion – The Samsung Q1b HSDPA. Its not perfect but it covers the important requirement of efficiency very well. Maybe in a few more months there will be better options but right now I need to focus on one device and start testing and getting used to it.
Let me take you through the reasoning though. You might be thinking about the same thing yourself so I’ll list my requirements and then go through the options.
Requirements.
- Power efficient. Obviously. I’m looking for sub 10W average power drain for a total power budget of under 60W per day. (More on the power-budget in another post.)
- Lightweight. All UMPCs are lightweight. This shouldn’t be a problem.
- Bright screen. Some are better than others and when you’re outside, this can make a huge difference. Put it this way, I’d rather be sitting on the terrace of a cafe rather than inside on my own!
- Keyboard. I’m going to be doing a lot of typing so this is going to be an important requirement. Nearly all built-in keyboards are nothing more than thumbboards. I will have to consider external keyboards
- Protective case. A slip case isn’t going to be enough. I need a very good protective case. Preferably rugged.
- Ruggedness. 8 days on the road is going to be tough on a UMPC. I’m concerned about dust and the hard drive.
- Bluetooth connectivity (for data through mobile phone). There are other connectivity options including connecting a mobile phone via USB and getting a UMPC with built in 3G data modem.
- SD card slot for digital camera images.
- Extended battery. Generally the batteries with UMPCs are around 20-30W/hr types. an extended battery is going to make charging easier.
- Reliable. A proven track record is important.
- Cost effective. Upper limit is around 1500 Euro for all UMPC equipment.
I have already chosen VIA as the platform I will use. Intel is powerful but can start to sap power very quickly is not used carefully. One stray process and you can eat 15W in an hour. I don’t want that to happen. AMD is another option and there are some nice low power solutions around. The only problem is that the processing power of the AMD solutions is limited. I have edited a couple of movies on an AMD platform and it was a long process. I can not afford to leave the PC for one hour crunching videos and sapping energy.
VIA have been on the UMPC scene since the Origami launch in March 2006 and the core of their solution is the C7-M ULV CPU. Its available in 1, 1.2 and 1.5Ghz versions but until recently, only the 1Ghz versions have appeared in UMPCs. Amtek (OEM), Samsung and Uren are really the only manufacturers that already have VIA-based UMPCs on the market and although there are three more available this month, they are new, untested and not available for immediate delivery.
The T700 was the first VIA-based UMPC. Its a basic device compared to some of the UMPCs we’re seeing today with a simple style, no SD and no web cam. It has proven to be a solid device though. It has an extended battery and there are bump cases available for it. Its also good value. You can pick up branded versions for under $800. The big problem with the Amtek T700 though is its average battery life. 11-12W drain is normal. It is also lacking the SD card slot required.
The second option is the Q1b from Samsung. This is the VIA version of the Q1, another UMPCs released as part of the Origami project from Microsoft. Its a slightly more attractive design and comes with a 280nits screen. Brighter than the T700. Again there’s no mouse and no SD card slot but bump cases and even a specially made Samsung organiser pack with keyboard is available. In fact, I’m using one to type this right now and its a very very nice keyboard. The other major advantage of the Q1b is its battery life. It can average well below 10W and is even reported to run in a battery saving mode with low-backlight for 4 hours. That’s about 8W average drain. Again, its a good value buy although its not available in its basic form in Europe because Samsung introduced it here in Germany with a built in HSDPA modem, bigger disk and more memory. Potentially a great advantage but the price is quite a bit more than the T700 is available for. It would stretch the budget when taking into consideration the keyboard and protective cover.
Finally, there’s the Uren V1. Unfortunately this one is very quickly out of the running because it’s not available at outside Asia. Its also a car-focused UMPC. The most difficult thing about the Uren though, is that no-one has really written any reports about it in English. Its certainly not a UMPC that I’ve been able to get hold of and test so at this stage it goes straight to the bottom of the list.
So there you have three UMPCs. One looks like good value and capable. The other looks like its perfect for the job but expensive and the other is out-of-reach. I mentioned a budget of 1500 Euro for the UMPC. This includes the cost of protective cover, keyboard and extended battery. When I add up the costs of the Q1B HSDPA, the organiser pack (with the wonderful keyboard) and an extended battery I come to just under 1500 Euro. Phew! I’ve even got some spare change for a USB-SD adaptor. The Q1B HSDPA it is then and as you might have seen on UMPCportal.com, I have already taken delivery of one. Unfortunately it had a faulty USB port so its gone back but the short time I spent with it was really nice. The HSDPA modem is going to be a great advantage and I’ve already transferred the data portion of my Vodafone tariff to a new SIM card. No messing with Bluetooth or cables and no worrying about keeping the mobile phone charged. If the phone dies there’s always skype!
May/0712
Solar UMPC ToDo list.
I’ve been making another list! Its the big one. What do I need to do to prepare for the Solar UMPC tour which could start in under 4 weeks if all goes well. Below you’ll find a summary of the things I need to sort out before I go. I’ll be going into detail on each of these topics over the coming weeks.
UMPC. I already have a very shortlist of UMPCs. I’ve chosen VIA as the platform (who are now my sponsors) and at the top of the list of devices is the Samsung Q1b HSDPA. Luckily this is available in Germany now. I am also considering the OQO Model 02 but I will definitely need a full keyboard in addition which negates the advantage of the thumbboard on the OQO. Amtek T770 is also in the running. There’s a question of extended batteries and I also have to take availability and price into the equation. What about ruggedness too. Hard drives can fail and I’ve already experienced that. I’m also thinking about a backup solution if the UMPC fails. N800 could be well suited as its got no moving parts. I need to sort this out as a priority and while I’ve been writing this I’ve been talking to TheTabletStore in Munich who might be able to get hold of the Q1b HSDPA for me. Fingers crossed.
Solar equipment. At the moment I’m looking at a number of rollable solar panels ranging from 6W to 24W. I have been recommended a P3 Solar panel because of its ability to drive 19v – the native voltage for my battery pack and the Q1. Voltage conversions cost energy an require extra components which can go wrong so simplicity is the key. I will be looking at various connectivity methods, charging methods and need to add up the average daily power budget to decide on how much solar power I will need. I will probably be getting a P3 rollable solar panel from SelectSolar to test in the next few days.
Power storage. I already have the TabletKiosk MP3400 battery pack which has worked well in the past and so I would like to continue to use it. If it fails, I’ll have to fall back to the other power storage method – storing in the UMPC and driving other devices through the USB port. Very inefficient but a possible last-resort solution.
Mobile phone/Cellular Internet connectivity. If I get the Samsung Q1b HSDPA then Internet connectivity is going to be a breeze. The only thing I’ll have to do is get a second SIM card so that I can take/make voice calls on my mobile phone. If I don’t get a UMPC with built-in HSDPA, I’ll use my Nokia 6280 as a modem via Bluetooth or USB,. Its only 3G but having used it for 5 days at CeBIT, I know its going to be enough for my needs.
Keyboard solution. I don’t want to use a Bluetooth solution as, again, its got too many things in it to go wrong. USB keyboard will be fine. If I go for the Q1b, the organiser pack makes a perfect solution to this problem.
Bike. I don’t have a bike yet. Well, actually, I do have a bike. In fact I have three here to choose from but I don’t fancy doing 8 days on either a mountain bike, a Dutch shopper or a Finnish army bike. I need something stable for sure and will need to think carefully about panniers and loading. All my camping equipment needs to go on it. I hate suspension on bikes and as I’ll be on flat asphalt all the way, there’s no need to waste money and energy (those things sap energy from the bike) on it.
Tent + Camping equipment. This one is a list in itself! I have most stuff but I found out last year that my little 2-man tent has finally given up and started letting the elements in. That means I need a new tent. Damn. I’m wondering whether it needs to be a one man or two man tent. A one man tent will be smaller and lighter but if it rains, I need to store my equipment so a two-man tent is a better option. Will test some solutions out soon. As for the other camping stuff. I’ll make another list for that!
Logistics. I have a rough idea of the route now. Its probably going to start from Strasbourg on the French border. I’ll take the Rhein Radweg north and hopefully make it back to Bonn. The main problem though is weather. I will need to make a final decision as near as 48 hours before the start of the journey in order to get an idea of the weather for the next week. This means I cant book a train down there and can’t tell friends to meet me on the way. Annoying but necessary.
There are are a lot of different little things to sort out too. Bike clothes, shoes, rechargeable batteries, blogging plan, PR work, website preparation, and, oh, one more big thing.
Fitness. Fortunately, I’ve got an in house personal trainer. My wife’s company, Power-Balance, will get a training plan together and I’ll start it this weekend. Running, biking and arm exercises are the order of the day. This is the bit I’m not looking forward too!