Freeplay 12v dynamo
Hello all, and welcome to my first review!
I recently bought a 12v dynamo from freeplayenergy.com. It is built to charge cell phone’s and other such electronic devices when other power sources are not available. When I was researching this product online I searched EVERYWHERE and could not find any of the power statistics except for it being 12volt.
When I opened it from the box I was very impressed with its quality feel.
12v dynamo
I took a turn of the crank and found it to be extremely quiet compared to other dynamo powered devices I have. (my dynamo led flash light is sure to disrupt any beautiful wildlife scenes and I am going to replace it before the Canoeing the Inside Passage trip).
Halfway through of writing this review I came home from work to find the dog had chewed the cord off and the handle is bit up! I was going to post the actual amps it is capable of producing as well as watts. Now I can only tell of what I have previously played with it. (i will be taking it apart and repairing it later) I first tried charging my cell phone. I did not have a car charger for my cell phone so I just used my 160 watt inverter to use the wall charger for my cell phone. it worked surprisingly well!
Once you figure out a good grip on the thing it becomes much easier to crank for long periods. I would like to see future models of this unit come with a hand strap built in (similar to cam-corder’s-so you don’t have to keep holding it when tired to keep cranking). My initial thoughts on this unit was to charge AA batteries with a 12v charger, it does not quite produce enough amps to run the charger I have. I did find a usb powered rapid charger online (again I cannot find how long the charge time required is or any power stats) but at 20 dollars I can afford to test it out.
At this point I plan to use the 12v dynamo coupled with a solar cell to keep my small battery bank topped off while on the Canoeing The Inside Passage trip. I believe that I can casually crank the dynamo without relying on it solely. This product is something I will recommend to you all for its intended use, ie: through hiking and charging cell to call your ride. But this recommendation does not come without saying that it is not hard work.
