Frank Church Wilderness - copyright 2011 Jody Sedrick

Climbing the mountaintops and ridges of the Frank Church Wilderness with my 14-year-old son and 4 other boys last week was an unforgettable experience. Last week we ventured off trail across incredible mountain scapes in an attempt to complete the 52-mile Big Baldy-Indian Creek Loop in 5 days.

While we ended up having to come out a day early due to some of our group getting serious altitude sickness, it was an INCREDIBLE experience. We are planning a second attempt next year.

On my trip, I decided to bring my iPhone to capture photos. No, I wasn’t thinking I’d have connectivity and check emails late at night. I was on an adventure and intended to capture every moment on the iPhone’s camera.  So I decided to pack a lightweight

USB + AA solar charger from PowerFilm Solar to keep my iPhone fully charged.

Powerfilm Solar USB + AA Charger

Here are my findings:

• Time to charge the 2 AA rechargeable batteries: about 2 hours
• Time to fully charge my battery from 50%: 2 hours
• Charging my iPhone worked better if I charged the batteries at the same time.
• Folded up very nicely for easy storage
• 2 grommets made it easy to attach the unfolded solar charger to my back backpack.
• Ideal for light charging.
• Flashing indicator light sometimes was difficult to see in direct sunlight
• As you would expect, direct sunlight was optimal for charging.  Diffused or indirect sunlight didn’t work nearly as well. Fortunately we had a lot of sun.

Tips:

• I found charging my iPhone everyday with the PowerFilm Solar ideal.  One of my hiking companions let his iPhone battery drop to 17% capacity. We charged the application for half a day a recharged the battery to 84%.
• I switched my iPhone to Airplane Mode and shut off all unused applications. This significantly helped reduce the drain on my battery.

Jody and Christian Sedrick hiking in Frank Church Wilderness 2011

All in all I’d give the PowerFilm Solar a thumbs up. Yes it was a little slower than I’d prefer to charge the iPhone from lower battery status. But for continuous light charging it was a great option.

PowerFilm Solar Specs:

• Solar operating voltage: 3.6V
• Solar operating amps: .4A
• Weight w/o batteries: 4.9 ounces
• Folded dimensions: 3.24 x 5.55 x 1.38 inches  (83 x 140 x 35 millimeters)
• Unfolded dimensions: 24 x 5.5 inches (620 x 140 millimeters)
• USB Charging Voltage: 5.0V
• USB Charging Current (Amps): up to 1.0A

Information about Frank Church Wilderness Baldy Creek Trail – http://www.ultimateidaho.com/sec3/extras/frankchurch.html

Jody Sedrick - Zenware

This morning I read a great article by Kevin Benedict about “GPS Tracking for Added Fleet Sales” . As Kevin rightly pointed out the Sears Service Vans are essentially mobile WIFI Centers that enable the service technicians to work in the field and still be tethered to the corporate via Satellite or GPRS.  Incorporating this technology has been a major boom to Sear’s up sale abilities because the service technicians have “…live access to CRMs (customer relationship management) systems, customer records, warranty information and product catalogs which helps them sell more products and services at the point of work”

While Sears has gained ROI in areas they didn’t expect, I’m sure they could achieve even greater ROI by incorporating solar in the fleet vehicles.

You’re probably asking yourself “how does solar apply to field service technicians”?  Well with the introduction of Sun Powered MobileTM, we can provide continuous power to devices in a vehicle including Tablet PCs, PDAs, Printers, laptops and even rechargeable power tools.

In the past companies have had to either purchase extended life batteries or keep their vehicles running to keep power running to mobile devices in the vehicle.  Extended life batteries cost anywhere between $139 – $259 depending on your device. Most companies are running at least 2-3 devices in the field so the costs start to add up. Now other companies or city entities, like police agencies, keep their vehicles running to keep equipment fully charged. Think of the fuel savings organizations could reap if these devices could remain fully charged.

Enter SUN POWERED MOBILE^TM . For under $1,200 per vehicle we can keep all of the devices powered in a vehicle. It’s really as simple as

A – The solar panel turns the sun’s energy into DC power
B – The advanced power control unit safely conditions the electricity for storage in your battery
C – Your battery is already connected to your cigarette lighter through the fuse box
D – A standard automotive power inverter plugs into the cigarette lighter
E – Plug your mobile devices into the power inverter for a full day of data connectivity

Companies are reaping the benefits  in the following areas: