Prudent Prepping: To Save, Or Not to Save

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping. 

My phone 'bricked' over the weekend. I went to start it up and it never turned on. Suspiciously, I had the new phone page from my service provider open before turning on my phone. Inquiring minds *cough Google tracking cough* and all that. Could there be a connection? Nahhh!

...To Save, There Is No Question
I had the old phone for almost 5 years, well protected in a slimline Otter Box case with a Gorilla Glass screen cover. It was never dropped more than 3 feet on a hard surface (4 times) or wet to the point of needing to take the case off. Prior to this, I went through 2 iPhones in 5 years. Nothing against Apple; I just beat them up because my job was very different.

I spent a large part of Saturday afternoon at my service provider, working my way through their staff until I finally talked to their 'techie' guy. I had already done everything listed on several websites and in YouTube videos, and the first 2 employees tried the same things I just tried, but hey, they need to qualify the damage before passing everything up to the next person. I didn't have anything else to do, so there I was.

Nothing worked.

Now while my core data like Phone List, Contacts, Email, Calendar and other programs were saved in a backup, I didn't have EVERYTHING set to copy over, such as all the pictures on my phone. Yes, I know it's stupid, but I always dumped them on my computer before this. My (poor) excuse is I've moved twice in 3 months and I don't have a desk with enough room for a mid-tower and the other things I need out of boxes, but it's still all my fault. IBacking up a phone is really simple to do, whether it's Android or Apple. Cnet is a wonderful source of info for techno dorks like myself, which is where I found one of many 'how to' guides. Here is a Cnet link to what needs to be done BEFORE you have problems.

How to back up your iPhone or Android phoneFrom the Cnet article linked above, here are the steps to save data from an Android phone:

• Go to Settings.
• Tap the search engine bar at the top and search for "Back up" (two words).
• Choose the first option that shows up -- it varies depending on what type of Android phone you have.
• If your phone shows "Back up to Google Drive" at the top of the screen, make sure it's toggled on, OR
• If your phone shows "Back up my data" and "Automatic restore," make sure both are toggled on.

For an iPhone the steps are very similar:

• Connect your device to a Wi-Fi network.
• Go to Settings > [your name], and tap iCloud. If you're using iOS 10.2 or earlier, go to Settings, then scroll down and tap iCloud.
• Tap iCloud Backup. If you're using iOS 10.2 or earlier, tap Backup. Make sure that iCloud Backup is turned on.
• Tap Back Up Now. Stay connected to your Wi-Fi network until the process completes.

Pretty simple!

Several tech savvy people said that there may be a way to see if my pictures are salvageable, but I should be ready to spend some money. I'm afraid those pictures are gone.

Now get up and do it yourself! Don't be like me and lose graduation pictures, birthday party shots and saved pictured from years ago.


                                                                   ***

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If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

 NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.

Solar Wireless Charger

After buying a new cell phone, I started looking around for accessories for it. Since my new phone uses a new-style USB C charging port, I had to buy new cables for it, but it also has the ability to charge wirelessly using the Qi format charging stations. Although the Qi system has been around for a decade or so, I've never used anything set up for it so I had to do some research before I started using it. It turns out that Qi has become the standard for wireless charging, and is being offered in new cars and in places that see a lot of transient foot traffic like coffee shops and airports. Even Apple has given in and is making their phones compatible with the system.

A normal Qi charger is a flat pad upon which you lay a suitable phone, and it charges the battery in the phone by use of an induction field. Induction is the property that makes transformers work and is related to the physics behind most electrical generators: If you pass a wire through a magnetic field, a small electric current is created (induced) in the wire. Generators typically spin a coil of wire through a strong magnetic field, although there are some types that spin a magnet inside of a coil to get the same results. Radio transmission uses the same physics, the magnetic properties of a radio wave passing over a conductor known as an antenna creates a weak electrical current that is then amplified to the where it can be turned into sound.The Qi system uses a coil of thin wire inside the phone's casing and a rapidly cycling magnetic field in the charger to create an alternating current (AC) in the phone, which is then rectified to the proper DC power needed to charge the battery.

I started looking around at various chargers on the market, but the $50 price on most of those made by reputable companies was too much for my budget (the new phone ate into my discretionary funds budget), and I didn't really want to buy something with only one use. I also typically carry a small backup (external) battery for all of the electronic toys I use, but my new phone came with a 3200 mAhr battery and that's more than most small backup batteries can hold. While looking for a battery with more capacity, I found this Qi charger with built-in solar panels and a few other features I liked, so I spent the $37 and got one delivered.

https://amzn.to/2W0CsjO

A short list of the features:

• waterproof
• dustproof
• 10,000 mAhr capacity
• 2 USB A ports rated at 2.1A each
• standard micro-USB charging port
• LED flashlight
• 800 mA solar panels
• FAA compliant, so you can have it in your carry-on luggage
• just slightly larger that my new phone in its case
• Qi compatible wireless charging

I've been using it while working at remote locations for the last two weeks and have come to a few conclusions:

• The waterproof/dustproof claim is due to the construction and a rubber plug over the ports. It has survived light rain and a lot of dust in a short period of time, so we'll see how it stands up to the rest of the year's work.
• 10,000 mAhr of power is enough to recharge both my phone (3200 mAhr) and tablet (4200mAhr) from completely dead to full charge and still have enough left to top off my e-cigarette. Lately I've been working in areas way beyond my normal service area, so I've been relying on digital maps and satellite photos for up to 16 hours a day. This battery is large enough to keep me going.
• Having 2 USB ports is great when I have to charge the phone and tablet at the same time. The high-speed charge (2.1A) ports are designed for newer electronics and will “throttle” back for older items. Being able to plug the battery pack into my home charger overnight ensures that I start the day with a full backup.
• The LED flashlight is behind a translucent panel on the back of the battery pack. It puts out a nice glow instead of a bright spot of light, but it's more than enough to see around you at night.
• The 800mAhr solar panels fold up nicely over the battery pack and are held closed by a strip of Velcro. They are mounted on a vinyl/pleather material and sewn in so they aren't going to get lost. There are no visible wiring or connectors, which adds to the waterproof capabilities and reduces points of failure. 
• The downside is that at 800 mAhr, it will take at least 12 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge the battery pack. The charging indicator starts to light up under most sources of light, but there is no way to tell how much the panels are putting out. I drained the battery pack and have not had a cloudless day since, and about 20 hours of diffuse light hasn't fully charged it yet.
• Being only a little bigger than my phone, it fits in my lunchbox nicely and will fit in a coat pocket or small compartment of a backpack easily.
• The Qi system wireless charging works on my phone, although you have to heed the warnings about the charger: since it produces a moderate magnetic field, you don't want to get credit cards or any other items with a magnetic strip too close while charging your phone or it can erase the data on the card.
• Since the battery pack has two USB ports on it and it came with a short micro-USB cable for charging, I would have liked to see a place for storing cables. I may have to modify mine a bit and add an external pouch so I don't have cables laying around loose when it's not in use.

For what I paid, this seems like a decent addition to my preps. Having a way to recharge my phone and other various electronics gives me access to more information and tools to make life simpler. Storing 100GB of manuals and books on the tablet only works if I have some way to power it, and the new phone has several new sensors and options that the old phone didn't. I'll come back in a year or so and report on how well it stands the test of time.

A Prepper Phone?

I’ve had the same cell phone for 5 years, a Samsung Galaxy S4, and it has served me well. It’s a bit outdated now; Android has released 3 new versions of the operating system that my old phone can’t run due to hardware constraints, and it recently had a major failure: while working in a moderate thunderstorm (yes, I work outside in bad weather), it got thoroughly drenched. Since the S4 was the last model of the Galaxy with a user-replaceable battery, it is nowhere near waterproof. The microphone and charging port stopped working for a few days, so I started looking for a new phone.

A phone is a tool for me; I use them to make my work easier. I don’t have any games on my phones, but I do have a variety of apps for navigation and communications to make work flow a bit easier. I don’t scrimp when it comes to tools; the false economy of buying something that is poorly made but inexpensive, and having to replace it often, will leave you without a tool when you need it. Quality doesn’t have to be expensive, but you do have to do some research to find the best actual value for your money. Cell phones can also be part of your every-day carry (EDC) preps because of the various sensors and apps available, as well as the emergency alerts and communications that they offer. As long as they — and the network — work, cell phones are multi-purpose tools.

When looking at phones, I had a list of features that were desirable, and a soft budget of about $500. That may seem like a lot to pay for a phone, but for something that I will use every day to make my job easier, I’m willing to pay it.

The features I wanted are:

• Rugged. I want something that won’t break if you look cross-eyed at it. I don’t need a phone made of glass; I need a tool that will last.
• Waterproof. I just lost a phone in a rainstorm; I don’t want to do that again. Too many phones die early due to being dropped in water, or being in a pocket when a person gets dropped into water. Dry bags are great if you’re rafting a white-water river, but slipping in the mud and ending up in a lake happens more often and less expectedly.
• Scratch-resistant. The Galaxy S4 was kept in an Otterbox case its entire life, and it still picked up a few scratches on the screen. Between the grain dust and fertilizer I deal with, scratches are hard to avoid.
• Android OS. Apple has pulled too many stupid tricks over the years for me to trust them. Google gets enough of my data; I’m not going to have a Pixel phone on which they can snoop. I like Android and the wider variety of apps that are available, even if I do have to run them through a virus check before using them.
• New. I don’t care for the “refurbished” phones on the market. There are too many variables in who does the work and how good a job they do. I’ve also seen friends go through 6 months of hassles trying to get a phone that works when they go this route. Between this and my $500 budget, all Apple and most of the Samsung phones were cut from the list immediately.
• Good battery life. I work long shifts a lot and don’t always have access to a place to recharge a phone. I need something that will run for at least 12 hours of use between charges. I got around this by using external battery packs with the Galaxy S4, but I don’t want to fight with that any more. If I end up out in the woods overnight, I’m not going to find a USB port on a tree, so I want a good battery.

I use Verizon for my cell phone service, since none of the other carriers have decent coverage where I work and live. Verizon is iffy in spots, but AT&T and Sprint phones don’t even get a signal inside my house. T-Mobile and the others don’t have a footprint in my market, because it’s too rural for them.

Verizon has a good selection of phones, but they really push the Apple lines. Filtering out the various iPhones left me with Samsung, Motorola, LG, Kyocera, and a few other brands of Android phones. I liked the looks and features of the Red Hydrogen One, a brand I’d never heard of before, but the $1300 price tag took it out of consideration. Samsung has gone all-in for the mass market phones and doesn’t make anything really durable any more; wraparound glass just sounds like more ways for it to break. Motorola doesn’t make a work phone any more, and most of the other brands were just clones of the most popular phones from the major makers. Then I saw the one Kyocera phone that Verizon offers, the DuraForce Pro 2. It met my requirements quite well:

• Durable. It meets military specifications for durability (MS 810G- survives being dropped on all corners, edges, and screen from about 4 feet to a hard surface 26 times). The hard plastic case wraps around the edges and extends above the screen. It’s also very resistant to bending or flexing. I carry my phone clipped to my belt or front pocket, and that puts it about 3 feet off the ground, so all this is important.
• Waterproof. With the dust covers closed over the various ports, it’s rated for 30 minutes in 6 feet of water (IPX 5 and IPX 8). The camera has settings for taking pictures under water, so they’re pretty sure it’s waterproof.
• Scratch-resistant. Verizon has the version with a true sapphire-glass screen. Sapphire has a hardness of about 9 on the Mohs scale. For reference, common steel is about a 5, hardened steel is about a 7, and diamonds are a 10 on this scale of hardness.
• Android OS. It comes with the latest version of Android (8.1) and should be able to run the next few versions.
• New. The Pro 2 version has only been out for about a year, so there aren’t many “refurbished” ones on the market yet. The factory 2-year warranty, which is twice what anybody else offers, should keep the “certified pre-owned” phones to a minimum as well.
• Battery life. They advertise up to 31 hours of talk time and 13 days on standby. With a 3240 mA-hr battery they may be right; that’s about 10% more than most phone batteries.

After looking around for something better, I went to the nearest Verizon store a month ago to actually put my hands on one of these phones. At a little over a half-pound, it’s not a phone you can slip into your pocket and forget you have. It’s also a bit chunky, being about twice as thick as the newest Galaxy or iPhone. The price was barely within my budget at $444 (plus tax) and I liked the other features that it has, so I bought and activated one. Here are my initial findings:

• I put a plastic screen protector and case on it; the case is more to have a way to clip the phone onto my belt than for protection, and the screen protector was cheap.
• I’ve dropped it numerous times already, and sat on it a few others, with no issues.
• The speakers will put out audio at more than 100dB, so it’s easy to hear in an industrial setting.
• Battery life is good (a 12-hour shift is no problem) but I do have to charge it after really long days if I’m streaming videos to fight the boredom. It’s nice to still have 50% battery left at the end of a shift instead of having to charge my phone at lunch every day.
• The new USB C connector has no top or bottom, so you can’t get the orientation wrong. It also allows for faster charging than the older USB formats, but I did have to buy a few new cords.
• I stuck a 256GB memory card in it for storage because nobody in the city carried the 512GB that the phone will support. I don’t have to worry about running out of memory for a long time. I can store a lot of books and manuals in my phone and still have room for maps and useful apps.
• An added bonus for me is the fact that the phone is rated as “explosion proof” (Class 1, Div. 2, Class A, B, C and D for the technical folks). I work around a lot of nasty chemicals and explosive dusts, so having a phone that is less likely to kill me makes me feel better about carrying it with me all the time.

So far, I am happy with my new phone. I think it will be a good addition to my EDC tools, and I’ll keep testing it to see if I can find any flaws. Let me know if you have a similar phone so we can compare notes.

Cell Phone Security Camera

A few weeks ago, during the serious rainfall that triggered our local flooding, my cell phone got soaked. That's one of the hazards of working outdoors a lot, and I've been lucky for a long time; I've had this poor phone for over four years and have always taken good care of it, but the Otterbox case that has kept it safe from drops and scratches wasn't enough to protect it from being drenched and the microphone on it died.

My new phone is undergoing testing for a future article, but I managed to get the old one running (minus the microphone) and was looking for a good use for an outdated Samsung Galaxy S4. Trade-in value was zero and getting it repaired is going to be a challenge due to its age (parts are hard to come by), so I have a mostly-functional smart phone to play with. While setting up the new phone with new apps, I ran across one that sounded interesting and I decided to give it a shot. 

Meet Alfred

Alfred is a small app that runs on phones and tablets that have at least Android 2.5 and a similar version of iOS (I'm not a fan of Apple, so I don't have the exact version required). It lets you use the camera and speaker/microphone on a phone or tablet as a home security camera, recording with live video that you can view on a second phone/tablet or on a computer. No phone contract is required if you have Wi-Fi coverage, so it works well inside a house or apartment that already has wireless internet. The app itself is free, with the normal ads popping up once in a while (removable for $16.99) and there is a subscription option ($2.50-$4.00 per month) for HD quality video, no ads, and a few other perks. I'm not interested in paying a monthly fee, so I haven't tested those options and this will only cover the free version.

Set Up

Setting the app up is about as simple as you can make things:

1. Download Alfred on two phones/tablets;
2. Designate one as the Camera and the other as the Viewer;
3. Log in using a Gmail address (it doesn't ask for your password, so they're not getting access to you emails);
4. and you're ready to go. 

You can have as many phones as you want on your account; just use the same Gmail account when you set them up as Camera or Viewer. If you have an Android phone, you have a Gmail account, and if not, they're free and you can always set up a throw-away account.

How you set up the camera is up to you. I currently have my old phone plugged into a charger with the phone propped up in a corner of a window overlooking the sidewalk outside my front door. You can place the camera phone just about anywhere as long as it has power and a Wi-Fi signal, so I may move mine around to find a better spot. I could leave it in my truck, plugged into the charger and parked close enough to get a signal from the home router and have a view of one of the blind spots in my yard. The garage blocks the view of about half of my backyard, so this would be a nice addition to my security setup. I need to check a few other spots for Wi-Fi signal strength to see if there may be a more permanent spot to mount a phone.

Options

• The quality of the video is limited to what your old phone cameras can provide. My “old” Samsung has a 12MP rear camera, which is much better than any of the dedicated security cameras I've seen on the market.
• Motion detection is an option. You can set the sensitivity or turn it off completely. I have birds nesting in a tree outside my window and I couldn't set the sensitivity low enough to prevent constant alerts, so I shut it off.
• Sharing video. You can add people to a “Trust Circle” and allow them to view your camera feeds by adding their Gmail account. This is set up for each camera individually, so it will let you share what you want and keep some things private.
• Camera switching. If your Camera phone has a front and rear camera, you can switch between the two from your Viewer phone. This is a handy feature if you have the Camera phone set in a hallway and want to see both directions.
• Speaker/microphone. You can toggle the Camera phone's microphone off and on for audio surveillance. If you need to say something to a person when they appear on your camera, hold down on the microphone symbol and talk into the Viewer phone. Audio is not quite real-time, there is a bit of lag depending on your internet connection, but the quality is comparable to a speaker phone conversation.
• Recording video. On the free version you're limited to short 5-30 second clips (as determined by the motion detection) saved on the service's computers for 7 days, but you can download them to your own storage; the subscription service stores them for 30 days. I'm still playing with this option, but my neighborhood is pretty boring so there isn't much worth recording.
• Misc. You can turn the flashlight of the camera phone off and on remotely as well as activate an ”Alarm” mode that will set off an alarm at the maximum volume on the camera phone until you silence it.

All told, I haven't found any downsides to this app yet. I'm still digging around and need to check with a few friends who know more about internet security than I do, but for a free app using surplus equipment that was paid for a long time ago (or cheap off eBay), this beats the snot out of paying hundreds for a security camera system. Next on my list of things to try is getting a dead phone with a “bad” serial number that has been blacklisted by the phone companies and see if it will work. Since the app doesn't use the SIM card at all, just Wi-Fi, it should work.

N11?

Last week I posted a bunch of information about where to find road condition information in various states. Several of the websites had “511” in the name, and one of my friends asked why that particular number was used, so I thought I would explain that a bit.

Way back when rotary-dial phones were still in use, every phone call was routed through mechanical switches, and the clicks that the phone made as the dial returned to its rest position controlled the mechanical switches. Because of certain physical restraints and standards imposed by the monopoly that ran 98% of the phone systems, the first three digits of any phone number (the area code) couldn’t start with a 1 or 0 and the second number was always either 1 or 0. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stepped in and brokered an agreement with Canada for a uniform numbering system, the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), under which certain numbers were set aside for public service use. The first digits 0 and 1 were still reserved for operator-assisted and long-distance calls respectively, but with the NANP we got the ubiquitous 911 emergency number along with a few others that aren’t as well known.

When the phone systems in the US switched to all-digital equipment in the late 1990s, it opened up that second digit in the area code and made millions of more phone numbers possible just in time for the explosion of the cell phone market. The Internet and cell phones have obsoleted many of the N11 numbers, but they’re still in the regulations. Here are the numbers in use and how they are to be used.

211

Community services and referral information. If you are looking to contact the local Red Cross or some other health/human services organization, try this number. It’s only available if the local government or a non-profit organization runs it.

311

City services and/or non-emergency contact for police and fire departments. This is a handy way to report potholes and graffiti around your city without tying up a line to the emergency services dispatcher (which is considered illegal — at the least a misdemeanor — in many states anyway).

411
Directory assistance. This is a left-over from a time when phone books were still common It’s only useful for local numbers, and most of the large cell phone companies don’t publish their customer’s numbers, so this one is somewhat obsolete, although many people still have land lines in addition to cell phones and those land lines still get printed phone directories.

511

Road condition information (usually at the state level). Most states still offer an automated phone service if you call 511, giving the highlights of road closures and construction.

611

Customer service. This number is not specifically designated as such, but is so used by many phone companies. It is the number to call for a problem with telephone service, or to report an outage, etc. Most of us have experienced what the phone companies consider customer service, so this one is pretty useless, in my opinion.

711
TRS (Telephone Relay Service) and TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf), services for the deaf and blind. Paid for by the phone companies, TDD and TRS give the disabled a way to communicate in near real-time.

811
Before-You-Dig. This number was set aside for as a digger’s one-call system: before you dig into the soil anywhere, you’re supposed to call this number and the local utilities will send out a “locator” to find and mark any underground wires or pipes. Failure to use this normally free service has cost a lot of idiots a lot of money and caused some major headaches. “Bubba with a backhoe” is the derogatory term for someone who manages to pull up or cut into a buried phone line or gas pipe, causing a service outage that can vary from a neighborhood to a city, and (in the case of the gas) risk fire and/or explosion. I’ve seen some rather large outages in my time, up to and including the idiot who ruptured a high-pressure natural gas transfer pipe. That one took weeks to fix once the residual gas bled off (and was intentionally set on fire).

911
Emergency services. We’re all familiar with this one; if you need the police, fire department, or medical aid, you’ve been taught to dial 911. Cell phones are required by law to have GPS locators in them so the dispatchers can know where you are; land lines will show up with their version of caller ID, but phone-over-internet calls have created a hole in the system. The proposed authentication system for combating robo-callers may close this hole and shut off the “swatting” of people by spoofing their phone numbers.


I know this isn’t strictly prepper material, but I’m answering a legitimate question from a reader. We’re still dealing with flood waters in my area and it looks like we’ll be seeing them for several months. The snowpack upstream is just starting to melt and we’re expecting more rain, so the rivers will be full again this weekend. Unlike a hurricane or storm surge, our flooding tends to be long, drawn-out periods of miserable weather coupled with some of the most helpful people in the world.

Li-ion Batteries in Winter

After listening to my coworkers whine about their cell phones going dead in the cold, I decided to look up an explanation for why it happens. (Keep in mind that I work outside a lot of the time and this has been one of the coldest winters in a generation. Temperatures hovering around 0° F every morning is getting monotonous.) It turns out that my habit of keeping my phone in an inside pocket, where it won't get lost, also protects it from an issue arising from the chemistry and construction of lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are becoming ubiquitous; they're what power most cell phones, small electronic devices, and common cordless tools. Chances are that your rechargeable flashlights, radios, etc. all have lithium-ion batteries in them and they are becoming common as replacement batteries for motorcycles and ATVs. Lighter and having a higher power per pound than lead-acid or nickel-cadmium batteries, they are also the choice of most electric car companies, but after looking into the issue of phones “losing” 70-90% of their charge when exposed to temperatures below freezing, I don't expect to see very many electric cars this far north. I know the cars have a heating system to keep the batteries from freezing, but since it uses power from the battery to produce the heat, that will drain the battery and reduce the range of the car even further.

The problem comes from the way all batteries work, with a slight twist on the lithium-ion system. Batteries work by storing energy in the form of a chemical reaction that is reversible; when you charge a battery, you are forcing electrons into it to move ions from the cathode (positive post) to the anode (negative post). In Li-ion batteries, the ions actually squeeze themselves into the spaces between the molecules of the anode and cathode instead of chemically reacting with the materials (bumping other ions off and taking their place). Incidentally, this is why some Li-ion batteries will swell as they age -- the graphite that the anode is made of doesn't contract to its former size once the Lithium ions have left during discharge. Samsung has a bad reputation as a battery maker because they ignored this tidbit of information.

Cold temperatures slow down all chemical reactions. In the case of Li-ion batteries, as the temperature drops the Lithium ions may follow an alternate reaction and “plate” out on the surface of the anode as metallic lithium during charging. This “plating” is not fully reversible, and the battery will lose some of its charge capacity because of the lack of free ions to be moved around. The layer of metallic lithium will also create a barrier to the free flow of ions which increases the internal resistance of the battery, causing heat. A much bigger problem is that you now have a layer of pointy, conductive, metal crystals on the anode, and if they puncture the insulating barrier, being forced against it by the normal swelling of the anode during charging and the thermal expansion from the added heat, they will cause an internal short-circuit which can be very energetic.

“Energetic chemistry” is a euphemism for an explosion. For this reason: NEVER CHARGE A FROZEN LI-ION BATTERY. It is theoretically possible to charge a frozen Li-ion battery safely, but the charge time would be measured in days instead of hours. Always warm the battery up to as close to room temperature (70°F) as you can before trying to charge it. A much more technical explanation can be found here.

A secondary problem with the slowed-down reaction inside a cold Li-ion battery is the fact that the battery won't be able to produce the voltage that a cell phone expects to see, with the circuitry inside the phone seeing the reduced voltage as an indication that the battery has lost its charge. Once the battery has had a chance to warm back up, the phone should read the charge more accurately. This is what is affecting my coworkers who keep their phones clipped to the outside of their coats, and once they let their phones warm up, they usually show most of the charge that they should.

The main reason I keep my phone in an inside pocket is because I have had them fall out of pockets in my outerwear without my noticing. When I'm wearing four layers of clothing, I lose some of the cues that something is missing. Keeping it warm is a side effect that ensures I have a working phone when I need it. If I'm carrying a radio for communications and it uses Li-ion batteries, you can be assured that it will be kept warm as well.

Prudent Prepping: Safety Alerts

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.  

I had a wake-up call this week, and it was caused by a mechanical failure. Funny enough, it was a problem with a button.

Seriously, a button was pushed, shaking up a bunch of people.

OOPS! I Did It!
Sorry everyone, I was not in Hawaii causing havoc. I wasn't in Japan either, for that matter. No, I was at work, just getting started for the day when my phone rang. My phone doesn't ring often that early, since I start at 5 AM.

Phone: Ring, Ring!
Me: "Hello?"
Sis: "Hey, it's your sister, are you okay?"
Me: "What?"
Sis: "You sent us two emergency texts and a sound recording of footsteps and banging noises."
Me: "Uhhh, I don't know what to say. Everything is fine here, we are just setting up for the normal work day."
Sis: "Look at your phone, the whole thing should be there."

I looked over my phone, and it was all there in black pixels.

The only thing that might have caused this to happen is that my phone case pinched the phone and rapidly punched the power button to activate the emergency message function on this model. I wear my phone in a horizontal case on my belt, not in my back pocket, and the case is two years old and getting a little soft. Since I am left handed, the phone is carried on my right side and  facing screen-in, so the power button is pointed upward.

Now this is a bit funny since my sister has a habit of checking on me anyway, but it usually isn't when she is pouring her first cup of coffee, and this only happened because I went through the steps to actually set up the Emergency Alert function available on this phone.

Samsung is not the only company to have this type of program, so look through your instructions or Google your particular make and model. This is something my friends and family have done and is something everyone needs to do, especially their kids or those working odd hours and places.

To have something so simple to set up and use already in my phone, even with the possibility of a false alarm, made the decision to spend the two minutes setting it up a no-brainer,

The Takeaway

• Personal safety can be as simple as pushing your phone's "ON" button and almost that simple to set up.
• Pick a reliable contact and be prepared to be the recipient of a future call. 

The Recap

• Nothing was purchased this week. 

Just a reminder: if you plan on buying anything through Amazon, please consider using our referral link. When you do, a portion of the sale comes back here to help keep this site running!

If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.

Emergency Cell Phone Charging

Today's topic is whether or not you can use a USB car charger with anything other than a car's electrical system to charge a cell phone.

One of my friends posted a video of a simple hack that shows how to connect a regular 9V battery to a car charger, and the video was automatically denounced by an electrical engineer as impossible or even dangerous. The ensuing pissing match led me to doing my own research and trying to find the truth.

Just to make it perfectly clear, nobody is telling you to plug your phone into a 9V battery. The video showed them connecting a standard car charger to a 9V battery and then plugging a phone into the charger.

Some Basic Facts

• Watts=Volts*Amps.
• Amperage is the amount of electrical flow.
• Voltage is a measure of the force behind the electrical flow.
• Wattage is the amount of work done by the electrical flow.
• Battery storage is measured by the amount of power they can produce over time, milliamp-hours (mAhr).
• Milli- is a prefix that means “one-one thousandth” or 0.001.
• One milliamp is 0.001 Amp. 
• 2000mA=2A.
• Standards have changed, but USB chargers are rated at 500mA (slow charge) to 2.0A (fast charge).
• Cell phones and other devices that charge through their USB port require about 5VDC (4.4to 5.25 VDC).
• A common smart phone battery is going to be rated for 2000-3000 milli-Amp-hours (mAh) of power. This is why even a fast charger will take a few hours to fully charge your phone.
• Normal car batteries produce about 12VDC (it varies from 11.5 to 13.0 VDC depending on the state of the battery) and amperages that are measured in the hundreds of Amps.
• A common 9V battery, like you'll find in a smoke detector, is rated at 400-500mAh (lithium versions are around 1000-1200mAh).

Now For Some Math
(I heard that groan, Erin)

• A dead cell phone (smart phone) is going to need around 2000mAh at 5VDC. 
• 2000*5=10,000 mWh.
• A common 9V battery can provide around 500mAh at 9VDC. 
• 500*9= 4500 mWh, or about half of a full charge on your phone. That's enough to make a few calls for help. 
• A lithium 9V battery can provide at least 1000mAh at 9VDC.
• 1000*9=9000MWh, or almost a full charge.

There is some inefficiency in the charger and wiring, so you're not going to get absolutely everything out of a battery; as a battery discharges, the voltage drops off (less of a problem than you'd expect) and it will reach a point where there isn't enough voltage (pressure or force) to push the electricity into the phone battery.

That Video
This is the video that got and ripped up by a sanctimonious Electrical Engineer (EE) who didn't think it would work.



A lot of people assumed he knew what he was talking about, because, “Hey, he's an engineer!”. Let me tell you a secret: engineers are like doctors; there are so many specialized fields that no one person is going to know everything. Just in the field of electrical engineering alone there are 299 different journals published by the IEEE. An engineer who designs power plants isn't likely to know any more about semiconductors than I am, and the engineer in question is an “adjunct professor” from Boston who specializes in radar and remote sensing technology (I looked him up). How much he knows about batteries and charging is up in the air.

(For what it's worth, Nye is a Mechanical Engineer and his opinions on anything outside that field should be taken with a grain of salt.)

Being an obstinate old man, I dislike people “in authority” stepping out of their narrow fields of research and handing down pronouncements like some petty gods. I do my research before I stick my foot in my mouth. Here's what I've found.

For something that won't work or can damage your phone, there are dozens of hackers posting videos on YouTube showing how to do it. Here's an example, with almost 3.5 million views. This is not a new hack; people have been building battery-powered phone chargers in Altoids cans for years. Links to similar videos are usually on the right-hand side of the page when you view it.

For those who don't use YouTube, I'll describe the basic wiring.

1. You'll need a car charger (the kind that plugs into a cigarette lighter), a battery, and some way to connect the two electrically. You'll need a USB cable, too, if your charger doesn't have one.
2. Connect the “+” post of the battery to the center post of the car charger
3. Connect the “-” post of the battery to the spring clips on the side of the car charger.
4. Plug your USB cable into the charger and your phone.
5. You're done.

How It Works
Inside the car charger is a circuit that converts one voltage to another. Here's a diagram for those who like to see how things go together.

http://www.electroniccircuitsdesign.com/battery-charger-circuits/usb-car-charger-adapter-circuit-design.html

Most simple chargers like this use a chip to do the work, with a few other pieces to control the chip output and protect it. This diagram uses an LM317L fixed current voltage regulator that puts out 100mA. The input voltage can be anywhere from 3VDC to 40VDC, and the output voltage is set at 5VDC by the resistors marked R1 and R2. Here's the data sheet for any engineer that doubts me. This is a slow charger, it only puts out 100mA and would take a long time to charge a smart phone.

Other common chips are:

• 7805 (78xx series voltage regulator, the xx designates the output voltage), which doesn't require external resistors and has an input range of 5VDC to 18VDC.
• 34063A, which is capable of putting out 5VDC at 1500mA from a supply ranging from 3VDC to 40VDC.
• LTC1174, another 5V, 100mA converter with an input range from 4VDC to 18VDC.

Here's my experiment. I prefer real-world results over some educated fool's pronouncement, so I grabbed a spare car charger, a 9V battery that's been on a shelf for a few years, and about three inches of scrap 12ga solid copper wire from when I moved an outlet.

1. I stuck the wire under the spring clip on the side of the charger and the other end on the "-" post of the battery, with the center post of the charger resting on the "+" post. 
2. I have an old cell phone that isn't worth using any more, so it is the guinea pig. I plugged the phone into a regular charger to make sure it would still take a charge, brought it up to 5%, and then switched it over to the battery/car charger. 
3. In five minutes got it up to 10%; 10 minutes got it to 15%. I let it run for a while, as I wished for a real electronics bench with the proper tools to measure the voltage and amperage while it's running. 
4. At 25 minutes and 15%, the phone booted up. The charger LED started to flicker a bit, but it isn't a very good charger (there's a few reasons it's a back-up). 
5. 40 minutes in, it shows 20%. 
6. I let it run for an hour and it stopped at 25%. Not bad for an old phone with a weak battery and a 9V that had dust on the package! 25% is more than enough to make a few calls to let people know where you are and that you're still alive.

So, no, setting something like this up is not going to make your phone blow up. Yes, you can use a DC-DC converter with a variety of input voltages and still get the same output voltage; that's what they're designed to do in the first place. Four AAA, AA, C, or D cells would give you 6VDC if wired in series (+ to -), which would be enough to power any of the converter chips I was able to track down. Any battery that produces more than 5V but less than 18V would be safe to use. Look for them in emergency lights, toys, etc.

Personally, I'd use one of the low amperage chargers to slow down the draw from the donor battery. Pulling too much out of a small battery too fast can make them heat up, and that reduces their efficiency.