Photojojo’s Crankerator is a backup battery pack with a twist. Or rather, with a spin. You can charge it via boring old wall outlets, but when the juice finally runs low, you can reanimate it with a few twists of the crank-arm on the side.
Where by "few" I mean "at least a minute of furious cranking." Still, if your iPhone is totally dead, this is a lot better than nothing, and it’s more portable than a solar panel.
Between this and my Hario hand-cranked burr-grinder for coffee, I’m going to come back from camp with bigger biceps than when I left. $60.
2000 mAH lithium battery and emergency generator
Stores energy through crank-power or plugging into the wall
Charges any device that’ll charge via USB cable (phones, toy cameras, flip cams)
Fully charged Crankerator can fully charge a phone
A pocket-sized 1 x 2.2 x 5 inches
Source: Photojojo
Charlie Sorrel writes reviews and how-tos. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @mistercharlie, and at micro.blog on @mistercharlie
3 responses to “The Crankerator — Human-Powered Battery Backup”
I like it. Work for energy.
Hmm. Let’s see if my math is good here. 2,000 MAH generally gives you 2 hours of recharge time. 60 seconds per 30 seconds of phone call time… 4 hours of hard cranking to get a full recharge for 2 hours?
Cranks, to be direct, stink. The “pull cord” chargers are a LOT more efficient. Unfortunately, I cannot find any on the market. I do not know if there’s patent encumbrances.
Potenco was going to make them for the One Laptop Per Child project, but apparently the entire company is frozen in carbonite. I’ve seen a few other companies claim to sell devices, but can’t find any actually for sale.