How come they have so many solar/crank radios but no mp3ers?

Narz

Or maybe I just haven't found any yet.

I meant Mp3 player sterio by the way. Headphones are great to drown out the world but music is better shared.

I want to mount one to my bike or just roll around town with it blasting from my milk crate. Smile

_________________
My PO Amazon store (shameless plug).

JRP3 · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 23, 2006 Posts: 395

Headphones take less power to run, and not everyone may like your music, so you may want to reconsider using headphones.
_________________
The shovel with a wheel - The Wovel.
http://wovel.com/

Building the AMPhibian
http://amp-phibian.blogspot.com/

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/

jlw61

green_achers

I always thought of a hand-cranked radio as primarily an emergency device, in concept. In an emergency, you're going to want to know what's going on in the world, not to listen to your favorite pop tunes.
_________________
WWJD? What would Joel Salatin do?

wisconsin_cur · Moderator Joined: May 10, 2007 Posts: 2992

Simple,

if you are reduced to using a crank you should be more interested in getting news and information not jamming to your last download.

try batteries.
_________________
Nature is complete because it does not serve itself.

The sage places himself after and finds himself before,
Ignores his desire and finds himself content.

He is complete because he does not serve himself. -Lao Tze

WisJim

I have 2 hand crank radios, one with an external solar panel and the other with the PV panel built into it. I think I got the first one at Big Lots store for under $40, and bought the other smaller one, with a pv panel in the top of the case, online for around $80. We use them all the time, when not in the house near a regular radio, such as in the garden, or working on something in the driveway or yard, if there is something on the radio that we want to hear. They both are made by Freeplay, and the older one also has a power jack so that you can plug something else into it, although I have never used that option. But I think that plugging your MP3 player or cell phone into it would work, providing voltages were correct. But I haven't seen one made or marketed with that in mind, although it would be a good idea I would think.

Freeplay does make a hand crank power supply (called "Weza"), with a battery built in, list price about $300, along with numerous other hand cranked and/or solar devices.
http://www.freeplayenergy.com/products

Narz

I think I'm going to go ahead and get some of these (portable speakers).

I don't like wearing headphones while riding my bike because it makes me paranoid I will not be able to hear upcoming cars.
_________________
My PO Amazon store (shameless plug).

SheikYarbhouti · Tar Sands Joined: Jan 27, 2008 Posts: 25

Funny you should ask... CNN broadcast a little segment about just this topic a couple of days ago. Here's what they featured (I think):

Solar: eMotion

Hand crank: ePod

One minute of crank for 40 minutes of play time is not effin bad, IMO.

Ask and ye shall receive, Narz.

SheikYarbhouti · Tar Sands Joined: Jan 27, 2008 Posts: 25

D/P (arrgh!)

BTW, anything you can connect headphones to you should be able to attach external speakers to. Might require a trip to Radio Shaq.

mos6507

Because they think you'll only use the handcrank when you're stuck in the middle of some natural disaster, so you're more interested in hearing news than playing MP3s.

Terran

You can always get a solar charge for your Ipod. I got one of those myself, but it takes forever to charge on solar energy.
_________________
my page:
www.myspace.com/peakoil