CAPÍTULO I. EL CONSEJO DE SEGURIDAD NUCLEAR
1. El Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear
System requirements Solar panel and rechargeable battery pack; 33.3Wh lithium- polymer (3.7V, 9000mAh) battery with 5V (700mA) and 12V (800mA) output; solar panel 5V, 600mA (max specified); 110/240V mains charger with international adaptors; battery pack 145x60x28mm; solar panel 170x90x18mm (folded); 1.1 kg total
£100
inc VAT Contact n powertraveller.com Read more n tinyurl.com/mhwvf3zthe ‘Universal’ ports, since it won’t draw any more current than it needs to charge at maximum speed.
Although Inateck makes a big deal of how portable the charger is, the power supply is bigger than the device itself. The brick measures 115x45x30mm, so while it isn’t going to be a burden to carry around, this is the kind of gadget you’ll leave plugged in at home or in the office.
We tested out the charger by connecting an iPad Air, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, Google Nexus 5 and Asus Memo Pad 7 and all five devices charged up as quickly as we’d expect. Neither the charger nor power supply became
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particularly hot. In fact, the only criticism we have of the charger is the lack of rubber feet or any way to stop it moving around. It weighs almost nothing (80g), so you have to hold it firmly when plugging in a device to charge it.
Verdict
As long as you want to use Inateck’s UC5001 five-port USB charger somewhere where you can hide the power brick, it’s a neat solution to the charging problem. It doesn’t really work on a kitchen worktop where it just looks untidy. But on an office desk, it’s a very handy gadget indeed. J Jim Martin
USB CHARGER
Inateck UC5001
System requirements Wood/biomass-burning stove with thermoelectric generator; four-and-a-half minutes specified boil time per litre; 46g of wood to boil 1 litre; 2W specified continuous charging output via USB; components: combustion chamber, battery/generator, USB- to-USB lead, stuff sack for carrying; 110x210x125mm; 935g
£150
inc VAT Contact n biolitestove.com Read more n tinyurl.com/Lkrgdx9 PORTABLE GENERATORBioLite CampStove
that generated. As such, excess energy isn’t available initially for charging external devices.
We found that it was ready to charge, as indicated by a green LED, after three minutes, by which time flames were visibly licking around the water pot.
Occasionally thereafter, for example after adding fuel, the green LED may go out momentarily. Generally, once the stove is up and running, there’s an almost constant supply of electricity for charging.
Under these conditions, with a Samsung Galaxy Ace smartphone attached, we measured a charging current of 300mA at 5V, with occasional pulses to 450mA. This corresponds to 1.5W (and peaks of 2.25W) – a touch less than the continuous 2W claimed by BioLite. This resulted in the phone’s 5Wh battery charging at a rate of just over 0.5 percent per minute. At that rate, it would take three hours, 20 minutes to charge a phone from flat.
Verdict
With very little if any competition, we’re not able to compare the BioLite CampStove with similar products. However, in our tests it came close to meeting the manufacturer’s claims and proved itself effective both as a camping stove and a charger for portable electronics gear. J Mike Bedford The BioLite CampStove is no
ordinary camping accessory. In addition to cooking your evening meal, this extraordinary piece of kit also charges your smartphone and tablet or other portable electronics gear. As the name suggests, the CampStove burns any biomass that you can find round the campsite – for example twigs and pine cones – instead of gas or paraffin.
BioLite heralds this as environmentally friendly, though, to get maximum heat from this source of fuel, fan-assistance is necessary. Indeed, the stove has a fan inside that’s powered from an internal battery, and while you should charge the battery before you leave home, a built-in generator serves to keep it topped up.
The science behind this electrical generator is not explained by the manufacturer, other than its description as a patent-pending thermoelectric generator.
What’s more, it generates more electricity than is required just to maintain battery charge so the excess is available, via a USB port, for charging electronic equipment.
No-one is likely going to buy the CampStove just to charge their phone so we were keen, first of all, to see how good it is at cooking. The bottom line is that we were able to boil 500ml of water in four minutes,
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which is comparable to similarly- sized gas burners.
Having said that, BioLite claims you can boil a litre in that time and, to be fair, our pot probably wasn’t of the optimal size and shape, it didn’t have a lid, and we were still getting up to speed on how much fuel to use.
On the other hand, this was summer with no cold wind to rob the unit of heat, so times would be longer under less ideal conditions. We should also point out that, once the fire had become properly
established, the stove no longer emitted any visible smoke. In
effect, the fan ensures that any combustible material that
would normally be lost as smoke is converted to heat, thereby improving efficiency. Similarly, when the fire went out, very little ash remained in the combustion chamber.
Even if the CampStove’s battery is fully charged before use, when you first light a fire the energy used by the fan will be greater than
50 www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews November 2014
November 2014 www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews 51 Build: Features: Performance: Value: WIND-UP RADIO