Dear Muthuh,
I have gotten a lot of good ideas from your web site, Thanks a lot. Here is my little tip for you and your other readers.
We like to camp when we're on the road and that can make it kinda hard to keep the batteries for the digital cameras up and running. I ran a fused line into my travel pack and put a cigarette lighter on the end of it. Bought a battery charger from radio shack that runs off a cigarette lighter and now I am able to keep the batteries as well as the phone charged up while were in the road.
Here is what and why I did what I did...
I ran a supply line into the trunk off the battery with an in line fuse (3 amp). I opted to run off the battery as opposed to through the ignition so the power would be constant. I think that will be better for the batteries.
I put a in line plug in so I could unplug the cigarette lighter when not in use so I don't have to worry about anything slipping into the socket and causing a problem. Make sure the hot lead goes into the shielded side of the plug It also
give me the option of plugging other things into the power cord in the future. (I don't know what it would be but being a believer in Murphy's Law I figured if I made it so I could plug something else in I'd never need to)
The other photos are the reason I installed the power supply.
Battery Charger (for small flash light Portable CD/MP3 Player and Digital Camera) I opted for Ni-MH because unlike Ni-Cd batteries you don't have a memory. You can run them part way down and charge them back up. (cost about $20 at Radio
Shack and came with 4 Ni-MH batteries.
Portable CD/MP3 Player with remote. This sits in the trunk while I'm riding. I went with the MP3 so I can fit about 10 hours of music on a compact Disk as opposed to a little over an hour with regular CD's. ($50 and up, you get what you pay for)
FM Modulator enables me to hear the CD/MP3 player over the FM Radio ($20 at Circuit City)
Iomega Photo Show: 250 MB Zip Drive that can store photos off a digital camera, edit pictures and run slide shows. All ndependent of a computer. (about $250.00)
Don't forget that you can also keep your cell phone and you laptop charged up if you have the car adapter.
I'm going to keep a Journal of the trip. If you'd like I'll send you something when I get back in September.
This whole thing started because our clubs (Red Knights MC, www.redknightsmc.org) convention is being hosted by the Manitoba chapter. The convention is the week after Sturgis, I figured if we were headed that far west we might as well hit SD while we're at it. Then one of the guys says "you know, if were going to SD then we should swing down to Colorado Spring to see the IAFF Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial".
The girls fly into Rapid City on the Sunday that Sturgis ends and we have till Thursday to get to Winnipeg. Gives us a few days to just roam around the US and Canada.
After the convention we head home through Canada to Toronto and then a day or so at Niagara falls before we get back to Rhode Island.
CAN'T WAIT
CJ
