You can make a simple power supply by cannibalizing a standard car plug to
USB mini (like for a cell phone or GPS). Connect the car plug voltage
regulator to your ship's battery and as many USB minis as you need in
parallel to supply all your little devices.

Should your ship's power should fail unexpectedly, your little devices are
fully charged at that point and should last for the rest of the flight.

I use the 5v output from my CAI-302 wired to the red and black wires in a
USB mini to power my XCSoar Android, which will run all day on its own, but,
should all else fail, will provide me with GPS and an OLC-approved logger
for the remainder of any forseeable flight. And, as said above, it will be
fully charged at the point of failure of the ship's battery.



"Sean Fidler" wrote in message
news:13015168.1684.1328580585694.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@yqad38...
Tim,

What is the screen time for the Calibri 2 with the screen on? This is the
statistic that is important. I would want to use the screen and want it to
easily last a full cross country flight with the screen on and operating to
its full feature set. I understand this is around 4 hours?

I have been using the Nano for one year now and am really happy with it. It
is impressive and simple to operate. Easy to lose ;-). That said I was
very interested in the same unit with the navigation features...awesome!
But...

While the Cabibri 2's screen functions, particularly the navigation function
is really cool...but without the battery life it seems a little suspect.
Hopefully they will work on a Calibri 3 Or Calibri II (v2) that will get at
least 10 hours (full contest or cross country day) of battery life with the
screen ON!

I think it clear that battery life is key for a logger or any instrument
that is intended to be utilized for the full flight.

Also, when is the last time that any product has lived up to its full
advertised battery life? It is clear that the Nano is good for 24 hours or
so (or two full flying days). Lets assume 28 is a stretch. I have
experienced this battery duration already and have flown for 3 days without
charging in once case. In the case of the Cabibri 3, its screen on power is
something like 4 hours. They don't even list it specifically in their own
product description (hmmmmm?).
(http://www.lxavionics.co.uk/flightrecorders.htm) Why is that I wonder?

To be honest, it sounds to me like they scrimped on the battery to be price
competitive with the Nano or their requirements for the product were flawed
(size or battery life). I strongly considered buying one but the battery
life is a big, big issue to me. These units are backups for me..and I
really want them to be fool proof. Running out of batteries is not an
option if the gliders power somehow shuts off... 4 hours is NO DEAL!

Let us know if they improve this.

Sean
F2