Wish Lust: Green Traveler

Here is a neat container that is being Kickstarted that I was quite keen on.

I have a number of survival caches, but they are all pretty small, such as the neat aluminium Sentinel-X by Ti2 and of course, the PathoPak "Dead People Jars" but having a purpose built food-storage, especially with rugged and dependable construction. Having enough storage components to make a whole meal or meals worth of food travel with you, up and down mountains, and along the trail. Something like the Green Traveler from My Green Traveler is in order.

It is only in its pre-production state currently, and I haven't had one in hand as yet, but here is what they say about it, and what I think about that. Made from injection molding out of ABS, and is made from 8 pieces. Two flat bottomed tray sections, each with a sealing lid, and two cup end pieces, with screw caps.

The tray sections, called Nooks, each hold 355 ml (12oz), and the cups hold 237 ml (8oz) for a total of 1.3 L (44 fl.oz) with overall dimensions of 34.5 x 9 cm (13” x 3.5”) and weighs 500g (1.1lbs) on its own. Solid. Heavy is good, if doesn't work, can hit them with it.



When sealed up, the Green Traveler has four isolated compartments, is reliably liquid tight, so won’t come apart inside a bag. It has two sets of clips on the top side of the nooks, to allow it to be clipped to be the outside of any bag, strap, sling or belt loop and fits in the beverage net on the side of most backpacks. It can keep items inside dry as well as hold liquids in.

It is designed for everyday uses such as around a city during your daily life to carry food, while traveling on airplanes, or driving to the park and is rugged enough for hiking, skiing, rafting, kayaking, canoeing, climbing and other adventure sports.

I suspect it wont like a rapid altitude change, such as on an airplane of a sea to summit trip, so be sure to burp it, if that's you plan, but the combination of screw clips on the cups, latch clips on the nook lids suggests

•Pack a lunch for a day trip
•Take food to-go or meal leftovers
•Pack a lunch for your kids
•Fill with pre-made food at a hot bar or food truck (this sounds excellent)
•First aid or other supplies to keep dry while boating
• Prevent soggy food from melted ice in a Esky

The Green Traveler looks like it will be a good sturdy food container, not to mention other supplies that can be stowed in it: medical supplies, fire starting kit, or electronics might well work in it, for kayaking trips or the like. ABS is a great plastic for this kind of build, and I think it will hold up well. I have LEGO that's almost 35 years old and still kicking around and going strong. I'll be curious to see how well the seals hold up, but as a one-piece set of food carriage gear, I'm impressed.

Review: Kathmandu Wide Mouthed drink bottle

Every now and then a piece of gear comes my way through .... unconventional means.

One time an IR strobe mysteriously appeared in the post, another time the same thing happened with a set of lockpicks. Other times I have found gear discarded and added it to my collection (some would say hoard).

This time it truly was a case of "gear adrift is gear a gift", in that in the flotsam and jestam of my local beach, I spotted a water-filled bottle, and fished it out.

It turned out to be a very serviceable Kathmandu wide-mouth drink bottle.

It was full of fresh water, and had obviously snapped loose, fallen overboard or been washed away, as the lid-to-bottle retention strap had been snapped away, and only a stub remained on the lid.

I am all for reusable drink bottles, and the clear-plastic, wide mouthed Nalgene's that I have been using for years have served me well.


That link is for a slightly different design, as the one that washed up appears to be no longer available but here is the Dead link anyway.

Apart from the obvious aspect of having a reusable and sealable water bottle, that holds a liter of water for hydration purposes, this kind of bottle also has the capacity for storage for any number of small needfuls to set it up as a survival cache or just as a waterproof storage system for those of you with phones or still use paper money still ...

As a reusable drink bottle, it is only 155g (5.5oz) Eastman Tritan co-polyester, which makes it both odour and shatter resistant,  freezer safe as well as withstand temperatures up to 100 degrees for washing in a dishwasher. They aren't recommend for hot beverages as the plastic will become too hot to touch but make for a great hot-water bottle if you wrap a t-shirt around it once it's sealed up tight.
Even after being lost at sea, and losing its retention strap, and being sandblasted rather thoroughly, its held up really well. The volume increments are still visible, which is good for measuring cordial or tracking how much I've drunk and how quickly, but that's not nearly as useful as the addition of moulded finger grip points on both sides of the bottle.

When you've just filled the bottle, or washed it, or worse, filled it AND washed it they get slippery. so having a textured gripping surface really adds value to the bottle.
I dummy-corded a new retention string to my bottle, so I don't loose my lid, and have something to tie MY bottle down with, so I don't loose it overboard.

Certainly a good addition to my bottle collection, and the price was right, that's for sure.

Always be on the lookout for gear adrift, it's gear a gift. I'm still enjoying a number of items I salvaged off the Tough Mudder courses I've run.

Wish-Lust: Kickstarter - PACE lid

 I love modular and multi-purpose kit, and if I can get and everyday piece of equipment like a drink bottle to do double duty adds a significant thumbs-up from me.

This Kickstarter project, from GoRuck badass, and innovating outdoorsman, Chris Way.



This is the PACE lid, and it's Kickstarter is underway.

PACE stands for Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency. When planning for events in life you have to expect that unforeseen things may happen and knowing this is empowering.

The container in the PACE lid is 300mL (10oz), it's deep enough for an ID or credit card as well as a variety of other gear.

The container is 7.6cm (3") in diameter and 5.7cm (2.25") inches deep. There's a small well around the perimeter that can secure items vertically and in place if they are bent, like cards, matches, other gear items. It's a feature Chris designed in and finds very useful in certain loading particular items in.

So far Chris and his team have tested the PACE lid and found it forms a water tight seal on wide mouth Nalgene, Klean Kanteen, Hydroflask, and MSR bottles.   I have a couple of Nalgene's so their perfect for me.

The prototypes seen here are apparently 3D printed, but the production models will be tooled plastics.

As well as the lids themselves, Chris is offering a pre-filled First Aid PACE, stocked with products from MedTraining Group, who specialize in non-permissive First Response fitting and training. 

If you're super keen, high-end backers can also get training and adventure time with the PACE team, so there are all kinds of benefits to backing this project, big or small.

For me though, it's all about the lids, and stowing my gear, wherever I go.

Be sure to check it out and hopefully, we can get it over the line.

Kickstarter projects on the go

 I have several Kickstarter projects on the go that I thought had some relavence to the blog, and Equipedness ....

The first two, I have pulled great slabs of text from their projects, as well as pictures. I think both are very interesting, and useful.



http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mikebond/ti2-sentinel-x-aluminum-cache
18 days to go

" Sentinel X -- “form follows function” philosophy with key features: 

Water Tight -- The “X” is tested water tight and features Twin o-rings for redundancy.  The o-rings are made from food grade silicone and able to withstand temperatures required to boil water.
Strength -- The “X” is strength optimized using CAD parasolid modeling resulting in a unique ribbed/skeletonized design.  We are using aircraft grade 6061-T6 aluminum in its construction.
Lightweight -- At just 400 grams the “X” offers a minimal weight footprint.  An excellent way to safe hold 18+ cubic inches (11 fluid ounces) of critical gear.
Internal dimensions  2" diameter and 6" length (51mm x 153mm)
External dimensions 2.5" diameter and 8" length (63mm x 204mm)

Finishes -- The Sentinel X is offered in 2 versions of Type 3, hard anodized coating.  The Sentinel X1 is Type 3 Class 1 hard anodized and is food grade.  Due to the anodizing process it comes in a greyish-bronze color and your choice of regular or satin finish (check out comparison photo below).  This anodizing process is typically used for military applications where durability is critical.  Also, this coating is common on aluminum cookware such as pots and frying pans offering excellent flame resistance.  The Sentinel X2 is Type 3, Class 2, NON food grade and available in Black, Olive Drab and Brown satin finish only.  Both the X1 and X2 exhibit the same durability properties."

Secure carry of delicate items? cooking container? survival cache? yes please! I am already pondering what I can fill mine with.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/publiclab/infragram-the-infrared-photography-project
18 days to go

Infragram is a simple, affordable near-infrared camera

"Produced by the Public Laboratory community in a series of collaborative experiments over the last few years. We originally developed this technology to monitor wetlands damages in the wake of the BP oil spill, but its simplicity of use and easy-to-modify open-source hardware & software makes it a useful tool for home gardeners, hikers, makers, farmers, amateur scientists, teachers, artists, and anyone curious about the secret lives of plants.

Photosynthesizing plants absorb most visible light (less green than red and blue, which is why they're green to our eyes!) but reflect near-infrared. When you take a picture with the Infragram, you get two separate images -- infrared and regular light -- and a false-color composite that shows you where there are big differences. Bright spots in the composite means lots of photosynthesis!

DIY Filter Pack: This is just a piece of "infrablue" filter which you can use to turn your webcam or cheap point-and-shoot into an infrared camera. The filter allows you to take an infrared photo in the "red" channel of your camera, and a visible image in the "blue" channel. You'll also receive a white balance card and instructions on how install your filter -- it's pretty easy!
Infragram Webcam: This inexpensive but flexible reward is perfect for plugging directly into your laptop or integrating into other projects. It's also ideal for your Raspberry Pi, if you want to take it outdoors, do timelapse photography, or write scripts to control your camera. It ships as a bare circuit board with a USB cable - like an Arduino.
Infragram Point & Shoot: Just want a camera? This is a straightforward, if basic, point-and-shoot: you can simply take photos as you normally would, then upload them to our free and open-source web app to quickly and easily get a variety of composite images and analyses. To accomplish this, we're simply modifying existing cameras which we'll buy in bulk, using the "infrablue" filter. This isn't an SLR or even a particularly fully featured camera -- it likely won't have an LCD screen and may be "rebranded" with a Public Lab sticker -- but it's the new filter we've put inside which counts.
The final configuration will depend on the # of backers, but it will likely use AAA batteries and a micro SD card. We're promising a minimum of 2 megapixel resolution, but should be able to do much better, especially if we get a lot of backers. Basically, the more money we raise, the better these cameras will get! "

What a cool idea, process animal tracks and runs through undergrowth, check crop health, locate camouflage .... I already have a balloon system ready to hoist it, but would work on a kite, or a quad-rotor drone too .... Pixels from above!

Lastly....


Cole Bar Hammer

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/363439631/the-cole-bar-hammer
7 days to go

I already covered this as a wish-lust item, but the guys behind it have been constantly improving it, and are very close to adding a metric ruler to the design.


Look it up, and back them, it will be worth it!