Sunday, January 25, 2015

drained, a better memory, lost in the dialog

It is surprising how long it can take to drain a battery.  When I'm taking photographs of something that interests me the batteries seem to drain in no time at all.  But in the dead of winter, when I want to drain and recharge batteries to keep them fresh, it takes forever.


Between twice daily therapy workouts I've got the fuji x-20 shooting video continuously, running down the four or five batteries I have for that camera.  And the GoPro is shooting two frames a second, with the wifi feature turned on, draining battery power as fast as it can.  I will recharge all of the batteries using the Sherpa 50 battery and Nomad 13 solar panel from Goal Zero.  Goal Zero does recommend fully draining and recharging the battery a few times a year.  Other manufacturers claim their batteries do not have memories, but my memory is better than that.


I have also ordered a new copy of GMCO's Waterproof Chartbook of North Carolina.  Cruising the waters of NC has taken its toll.  The back cover, which is the map index, has torn off.  Pages are sticking together and the spiral binding wire is spreading rust all across the pages.  I tried to order a copy from the manufacturer, but it was complicated and with tax and shipping it would have cost almost $60.  Amazon is sending a copy for about $45.


A friend texted me late last night saying he and his wife were watching the film All is Lost.  He said the sailing reminded him of me, and wanted to know if I had seen the movie.  I told him I had watched some of it but had gotten lost in all the dialog.

3 comments:

my2fish said...

Didn't realize I should be draining my GoPro battery...
Totally agree about All Is Lost, and then out of nowhere Redford screamed out a giant f-bomb! My kids were sort of watching with me, so I could have done without that.

Steve said...

I can't guarantee that draining your go pro battery will help it, but it certainly won't hurt it. I just believe that all batteries have a memory. The more used - drained and recharged - the better. steve

Ken said...

Careful Steve - Some batteries do not like to be drained and others do. You really have to look at what type of battery it is to decide about the correct way to take care of it. I wish it weren't that complicated. If you share the battery type I bet there are enough geeks reading your posts that you can get some good recommendations about the maintenance of the specific types.