bud16415

I had an interesting thought while posting to a thread on what best way to keep a device charged while touring. I have tried to make as many items I carry have multiple uses. One of them is batteries used as storage to recharge other devices and also power lighting etc. both bike and camp lighting. My bike headlight is much too bright for using in the tent but I have adapted battery packs to be used both on the bike and around camp powered out of my handlebar bag that also contains the stuff I wouldn’t leave in the bike and wish to have inside the tent.

Ok here is my idea and I’m sure it’s been done and someone will say you mean like this. I did a few google searches and saw some people messing around with the idea on larger tents than we would use for bike touring. Plus I love my old tent and doubt I would buy one to get this feature.

LED lighting sewn into the tent. Maybe 3 or 4 lights someplace in the seams that would have a little plug by the door that I could clip my battery pack into. Maybe even one single LED on the outside for getting in and out at night.

Was a crazy idea I had. I know there are dozens of hanging lights out there and flash lights just thought it would be nice if when tent was set up lighting was already in place and much lighter.

MichaelW

Nice idea but the wiring will have to withstand constant stuffing and folding.
An external locator is really useful on dark nights, I use my windup radio LED unit.
Most LED lighting is very directional, like a headtorch. It would be nice to have some diffuse ambient mood lighting, maybe something between the fly and inner. A red/green/blue LED set could be set to your fav colour.
My Hilleberg tent has typical Swedish interior design where they though very carefully about the colour of light.

Rob_E

I think it's an interesting idea for a tent, although MichaelW is right to point out that you'd need some very flexible, robust wiring. Also what you say about things doing double duty is a very good way to get your load lighter, and while your idea has a battery pack that does double duty, it also has LED lights and wiring that can only be used inside the tent. Personally, I have a dynamo light, a handlebar-mounted flashlight, and a headlamp. The dynamo light can't really be used off the bike, but the other two can be used around the campground and in the tent. I also have a tiny, LED, Coleman-style lantern that I take car camping or on overnight bike trips when there's room. It does a decent job of lighting up my small tent or providing light at a picnic table. None of those items could be replaced with an LED tent, but most could be used inside of a tent instead of integrated lighting.
So I could see the appeal of that idea, especially for car camping, but I am guessing there would be a net weight increase, not decrease. If you could get one battery pack that powered everything, then maybe, but then you'd be unplugging your tent every time you needed to plug anything else in. Also I don't seem to spend a lot of time in my tent with the lights on. Other people may have different schedules, though, and integrating lighting might make more sense if you spent more time in the tent needing light.

bud16415

I just bought ordered one of these this morning as a device that will charge my iPhone from alkaline or rechargeable batteries. Will report more when I get it and try it out.
https://www.tekkeon.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=9&idproduct=194
It is also a charger if I have AC to recharge the batteries and also a direct AC charger for the phone. The fact that it works with alkaline batteries ether 2 or 4 was appealing to me as they are available everyplace I will be going to, and have long shelf life. Being able to supplement a set of NMH into the mix is a plus. Everything is set up around AA cells and my bike lighting uses 4 AA also. The whole thing is pretty light. My good camera that I sometimes pack also uses 4 AA.
I have a bunch of these USB lights I get for a buck at dollar tree.
https://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=usb+lights
I guess plugging one of these in the backup Tekkeon would make a nice lamp for cooking or reading as they bend and stay put, and would be enough light in the tent. If I do wire job inside I would use a fine multi strand flex wire and just a USB plug on the end. I was looking at how my LL Bean hat was wired.
https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/63736?pi=1058741&subrnd=0&qs=3016887_pmd_google_pla
Wire plugs and LED’s shouldn’t add as much weight as one AA battery to my burden I know I could easily remove a lot more weight than that from my seat post by skipping a few meals.
Thanks for the comments.

Tourist in MSN

With the tiny LED lights available now, you can hang them from a safety pin that is pinned into the ceiling fabric on double wall tents. (I would not recommend puncturing a single wall waterproof tent with a pin.) With a diffuser to broaden the beam, you can effectively have a tiny lantern hanging in your tent quite easily.

Several years ago I tried to standardize all of my battery powered devices to AA batteries. That did not work out very well. I now use a mix of AA, AAA, dedicated batteries for my camera, dedicated batteries for my phone, N size battery for my travel alarm, if I bring my netbook a dedicated battery for that, etc.

bud16415

I like the pin idea or maybe sew a couple loops inside and then I can make a string of 4 LEDs and pin them up each night back to my USB power pack.

The power share thing is why I’m excited to try out the TekCharge MP1580 thing. It’s the only backup unit I have seen that takes regular AA batteries, and also can recharge batteries. My power requirements can all be done with AA as long as I have something that gives me a USB charge port. iPhone does it all for me on tour even alarm to get up. I carry some lights and a couple of luxury items that use AA.