Yes, Mike, it is good. I was talking to Ed about it earlier on in another thread too by pure coincidence. I think Montgomery on the forum has one already. It isn't really that new though to be honest there, I was talking about it back in April/May time on the forum. The price is much better now though, as you say, I do believe. More details at the Trevor Baylis Brands website, and the manufacturers website too, that operates out of Eastbourne or else Hove in Sussex I think, if I recall at all correctly.
Hmm... MP3 players forgetting where they are is very annoying, especially if you're listening to podcasts or audio books. It's an essential feature, IMHO.
I have a cheap 2GB player (£16) and a Hi-Gear wind-up charger (£4), bought as an experiment. I ran the MP3 player down to power off, and then used the wind-up charger. I had to wind for a long time to get only a short runtime. It might have been better if I had charged it up before letting it discharge fully, but I've not tried that tests (and it's harder to test, as there's no well-defined charge indication).
I think Trevor Baylis has just bought in a joblot of the cheap'n'cheerful MP3/4 players you can buy for buttons here in China, a tiny screen slapped on front of a 2GB flash drive. Bang it in a box, add an SD slot and a crank, job's a good'un - but they need to work on the interface and the durability before I'd buy one again.
I'm now using the new Sony, which I can't really fault - tiny, 16GB, great interface, looong battery life, drag'n'drop file transfer (no clunky software needed), and doesn't conk out in the cold like the older ones. For longer trips I'll also take the AAA-USB stick unit I bought in Romania when the Baylis crapped out, it'll be handy for podcasts via internet cafes. Both together cover all the options and are still much smaller than the Baylis unit.
cp, you have raised a very good point there indeed, on the recharge first-off to maximum capability/charge potential on any such outdoors use goods that eventually might need a hand crank charge-up. It is a problem I am having right now too kind of, but in this case it is with the Trevor Baylis Tent Lantern I have here. I wrote earlier in the year to the manufacturer/wholesaler retail company doing the Trevor Baylis Brands stuff, at their home base office here in sussex, all about this issue. I said it made the unit rather less usefully effective, not to have been given there a good charger unit with it in the box, to first charge the thing up to full capacity from the mains! I asked why the unit did not come with such a charger, when other wind up stuff like the original clockwork radios certainly did do! They said this was not a cost saving issue, but rather an eco issue, as it was thought at time of design that to include the purchaser a plug in mains charger unit would be energy wasteful, basically! So now I have to wind and wind to get very little light output, for very little duration! This effectively, in my considered opinion, makes the lantern unit rather more on the useless side, as an outdoors use item, considering the fact it is advertised and sold as a 'Tent Lantern' for outdoors useage!
I am now going to have to spend out now on a much more reliable one I think, like the one ptc has been triailing-out recently, the Alpkit tent lantern. That at least seems to offer the bright enough light output I feel that I really need in camp or in tent outdoors, for reading, writing and other basic living chores.
I am thinking seriously of inviting the good Trevor Baylis Brands folks on here to talk to us about issues raised wth their products here upon this thread now. And too finally asking them to provide an update maybe perhaps too, to what exactly is happening with Trevor Baylis regarding the hiking/walkers recharging device he was a while ago before talking of in the press; as being a project he had been working on, being plans for a device that charges up ones kit as one walks, using ones own momentum from one's own walking. We have often discussed such device ideas on here, and I know I did promise the forum here earlier on in the year, to contact Trevor Baylis myself using the home phone number he provided me with, when he kindly before wrote back to me about six years or so ago when he replied wishing me well with my serious back operation I was having to then go in for. I kept on meaning to do that job of contacting him over the last several months, but just have not felt like disturbing him at home there is all really, as you might all remember he is a bit of a personal long-term hero of mine!
"They said this was not a cost saving issue, but rather an eco issue, as it was thought at time of design that to include the purchaser a plug in mains charger unit would be energy wasteful, basically!"
Sadly this means, at least with the MP3 player, the only practical way of charging the device is to switch your computer and then tun this 150w device to charge the player. NOT very eco.
Welcome to the forum there Jake. I was talking of the Trevor Baylis Tent Lanterns there actually bud. I do not know if that player unit of his comes with a mains charge lead or not.
Yes, Mike, it is good. I was talking to Ed about it earlier on in another thread too by pure coincidence. I think Montgomery on the forum has one already. It isn't really that new though to be honest there, I was talking about it back in April/May time on the forum. The price is much better now though, as you say, I do believe. More details at the Trevor Baylis Brands website, and the manufacturers website too, that operates out of Eastbourne or else Hove in Sussex I think, if I recall at all correctly.
