We had always aimed to have some sort of emergency charging mechanism for the MyComm that would make it possible to send an emergency message even if the battery was flat. Initial thoughts were to use solar because the relatively small dimensions of solar cells and associated circuitry would help to keep the overall device size down. Obviously to charge using solar we need sun - not ideal if emergency charge is required at night! Also after some initial investigation charging effectively with solar is quite difficult (especially with small cells) which could lead to potentially long charging times before anything useful can be done with the MyComm. Then we saw this power generating iPhone case from a company called AmpWare:

Quoted to be 23 times more efficient than solar power they say 5mins of crank time giving 1 hour of battery and it’s all packaged into a nice slimline case. The windup crank charging seems like an interesting alternative to solar, it could at least potentially solve the issue of charging at night and might also allow for quicker charging in emergency situations. After a search online we ordered some Micro Hand dynamo charger DIY hand generator brushless motors from Alibaba to experiment with:

They are currently being shipped and should be here any day.

JG