FlameStower - USB charger powered by fire

I think they got the idea right, but designed it around the wrong source first. Using fuel to power my devices means I need to carry more fuel with me. Why do that when I can just carry cell phone backup batteries like this one: <a href="http://mylimeade.com/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mylimeade.com&#x2F;</a><p>Instead this should have been designed around something I can throw in a campfire with some sort of protective spiral metal cabling to snake out of the fire to a box with a USB connector. The metal cabling could be similar to those used on high temperature oven thermometers.

First thought: &quot;Awesome - power for phone if everything goes to hell.&quot;<p>Second thought: &quot;Wait, if everything goes to hell, there&#x27;s not going to be any cell service.&quot;<p>Third thought: &quot;Oh well, at least I&#x27;ll have Candy Crush.&quot;

I brought a BioLite stove with me on a recent camping trip and loved it. That had other advantages: easy to get a fire going during a very rainy week, no fuel to carry (in the White Mountain National Forest, anyway) and it was pretty easy to cook with.<p>USB charging didn&#x27;t seem all that useful at first, but with a USB-rechargeable LED lantern it ended up being great. If that&#x27;s all you really needed, you could get it from the FlameStower without the battery + fan machinery of the BioLite, I guess.

Last year there was the PowerPot, which is the same principle on the bottom of a cooking pot <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/david-toledo/the-powerpot" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kickstarter.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;david-toledo&#x2F;the-powerpo...</a>

Stoves with built-in USB chargers already exist as a commerical product. For example, check out <a href="http://www.rei.com/product/846334/biolite-wood-burning-campstove" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rei.com&#x2F;product&#x2F;846334&#x2F;biolite-wood-burning-camps...</a>

A DIY version by Timo Noko [1]. The same guy has been tinkering also with some other interesting stuff [2].<p>[1] <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1A5qc872Ks" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=R1A5qc872Ks</a> [2] <a href="http://koti.welho.com/tnoko/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;koti.welho.com&#x2F;tnoko&#x2F;</a>

And here I was hoping I could finally buy a USB powered flamethrower.

Oh man, I do and don&#x27;t want to see the efficiency and carbon-output per joule generated of this device compared to actual grid energy. Not to mention particulate air pollution.<p>Although it will depend on what you are using for the source of your &#x27;fire&#x27;, it&#x27;s not gonna look good.<p>This is a weird idea.

I&#x27;m going to get one so I can carry coal instead of batteries.

Great for the post-apocalyptic world!<p>Maybe good for short term natural disasters or outdoorsy types who want to stay connected.<p>I find some humor in that having a cell phone on and charged is still &#x27;off the grid&#x27; (I know they meant electrical grid).

I wrote about something very similar last year, the BioLite camp stove: <a href="https://bbot.org/blog/archives/2012/06/13/biolite_camp_stove/" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bbot.org&#x2F;blog&#x2F;archives&#x2F;2012&#x2F;06&#x2F;13&#x2F;biolite_camp_stove...</a> (I&#x27;d argue that the BioLite is a better product, despite being twice as expensive, since it can run on wood.)<p>A problem with both products that they use the thermoelectric effect, which is miserably inefficient: The BioLite generated 2 watts from a thermal power of 5500W, for a thermodynamic efficiency of 0.036%<p>Solar panels, on the other hand, don&#x27;t need to burn anything at all.

I see this product as having two target markets:<p>1) Outdoorsy people who carry fuel and find themselvea away from electricity.<p>2) People who are going to burn their homes down trying to recharge their iPhones during power outages.

It looks like something one could craft in Minecraft so I like it, seriously though, I&#x27;ve been shopping for a solar charger just in case there is some unforseeable disaster and I need to be able to keep the GPS and compass working at least. This looks like a good alternative, I looked at two of the competing products in the comments here but this one seems to me to keep the most distance between the heat source and the electrical cord while still staying out of the way of my cooking. The collapsible design seems like a good idea too.

2-3W? That means it&#x27;s only a 0.5A, right? A lot of devices don&#x27;t even charge properly off of a 0.5A USB source.

This, to me, isn&#x27;t very novel. Why can&#x27;t you just wait for the sun to come up and carry a 140g solar panel? I suppose this may be useful in a very rare emergency situation, but otherwise, nahhh.<p>$ don&#x27;t lie, though, and it looks like they have almost reached their goal.

Congrats to Adam (and Andy) -- went to elementary&#x2F;middle&#x2F;high school with him, been neat to watch this product evolve over the past year on facebook.

Does anyone bother to create something similar that would help 3rd world electricity problems? oh, I forgot... they don&#x27;t have smartphones.

a superior technology is known for several years, but still can&#x27;t make ends meet<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkanellos/2013/01/31/why-are-portable-fuel-cells-such-a-flop/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.forbes.com&#x2F;sites&#x2F;michaelkanellos&#x2F;2013&#x2F;01&#x2F;31&#x2F;why-a...</a>

Mongolians will love this.

I like it but I&#x27;m curious how this compares to a hand crank like on one laptop per child

Of limited practical use, but I can see it being a hot present for outdoorsy people.