Upp fuel cell review: Off

Summary: Fuel cells are now a feasible option for powering smartphones and tablets when there's no access to mains power. We look at a UK-developed product that can keep you charged wherever you may roam.

Upp: no mains, no sunshine required. Image: Intelligent Energy

The post-PC world is all about mobile technology, which means that people are increasingly concerned about keeping their various portable devices charged throughout the day. Most of the time, you'll be able to recharge your smartphone or tablet from a convenient source of mains power, but when you're properly off-grid, an alternative solution must be found. Many people carry a mains-rechargeable battery, and solar-powered chargers are also available. However, in areas where it's not feasible to use such devices, the Upp fuel cell is an interesting option. Developed by UK-based power technology specialist Intelligent Energy, the Upp was launched initially in Africa in November 2013, and is planned to be available worldwide in due course. In the UK, sales via the beupp.com store are expected to begin in June, where a fuel cell/fuel cartridge kit will cost £149 (inc. VAT).

How it works

The Upp is a PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell comprising two parts: the cartridge containing the hydrogen fuel, stored in high-density metal hydride form; and the fuel cell block containing stacked bipolar plates (combined anodes and cathodes) and fans to draw in air and expel the water vapour created by the electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. The fuel cell block measures 119.5mm by 40mm by 48mm and weighs 235g, while the Upp cartridge is 29mm shorter at 90.5mm and 150g heavier at 385g. The two units snap together magnetically with a satisfying 'thunk' to form a device weighing 620g - something you'll definitely notice in your travel bag.

The Upp fuel cartridge (above left), fuel cell (above right) and dust cap (above). Image: Charles McLellan/ZDNet

There's also a magnetic dust cap adapter for protecting the hydrogen inlet on the fuel cell when the two parts are disconnected (as they should be when the device is not in use). Some sort of tether for this dust cap might be an idea, as it could easily get misplaced or lost. The dust cap adapter also houses a Micro-USB port for charging the fuel cell's internal battery, should it become flat (after a prolonged period of storage, for example); this port is protected by a rubber plug, which is also untethered.

What can you charge with an Upp fuel cell? The brief answer is, anything you can charge via USB - there's a full-size USB Type A socket on the end of the fuel cell. In practice, that means feature phones, smartphones and iOS or Android tablets. According to the spec sheet, the 25Wh Upp fuel cell can fully charge a typical smartphone five times from a single cartridge. Tablets, which have bigger batteries, will generally only get one full charge from the device (the iPad Air, for example, has a 32.4Wh battery).

Upp in use

When you're ready to use the Upp device, you attach the two parts and press-and-hold the power button on the fuel cell portion for one second, whereupon, if all is well, a green LED should glow continuously. If it pulses green, the cartridge has less than 10 percent of its fuel remaining; a continuous amber glow means the Upp's firmware needs updating, while pulsing amber means the cartridge is out of fuel; anything red means you have a problem (continuous red for a cartridge authentication failure, pulsing red for an unrecognised firmware image).

According to Intelligent Energy, Upp charges as fast as the mains, and we found this to be a reasonable claim in our testing. Built-in battery protection software shuts down the Upp automatically once your battery is fully charged.

The Upp mobile app (running here on an Android smartphone) tells you how much charge remains on your mobile device and, when connected, the fuel level in your Upp cartridge. Images: Charles McLellan/ZDNet

A key feature of the Upp is its companion app, which is available for iOS and Android devices. The Upp app will report the estimated usage time remaining on your mobile device (see above) and, when connected to the Upp, the fuel level remaining in the cartridge plus the voltage and current being delivered by the fuel cell. Other configurable features include a Fast Charge mode that disables communication with the mobile device and an EcoMode setting that terminates charging when your battery reaches a user-configurable level (the default is 85 percent).

Fuel cell settings and charging statistics are available on the Upp mobile app. Images: Charles McLellan/ZDNet

When it's time to replace the cartridge, the app will even use your mobile device's GPS (if present and activated) to show you the nearest replacement cartridge distributor. At the time of writing, the pushpins on the Find Fuel map were merely placeholders saying 'Upp Partners coming soon', but we're assured that these will soon carry real information. Swapping a spent cartridge for a fresh one will cost £10, while a spare cartridge will cost you £45.

An Upp cartridge will charge a typical smartphone around five times. The Upp app uses your phone's GPS to locate replacement cartridge distributors. Images: Charles McLellan/ZDNet

Conclusion

If you want to be sure of a power top-up anywhere, anytime, the Upp fuel cell works well - although it's on the pricey side at £149 and £10 to recharge a spent cartridge. Having said that, it compares well to competition like the 4-5Wh myFC PowerTrekk, which costs from €199 (around £160). As well as the price, be aware that the Upp adds a significant 620g weight to your travel kit. It also remains to be seen how extensive and efficient the cartridge distributor network turns out to be.

Specifications

Voltage 5VMaximum output current 1ARated power 5WElectrical interface USBFuel cell type Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM)Cartridge capacity 25WhFuel type HydrogenStorage medium Metal hydrideDimensions 119.5 x 40 x 48mm (fuel cell), 90.5x 40 x 48mm (cartridge)Weight 235g (fuel cell), 385g (cartridge)

Gadget in extremis: High

Featuring homemade electronic gadgets, the latest in development boards (Arduino, BeagleBoard, Raspberry Pi, etc), examples of cool design, and the latest and greatest (and most shiny) consumer gadgets.

Room has to be made for this one from MIT, reported by New Scientist - High-tech origami folds itself when heat is on

Aviva Rutkin takes up the story:

Tray bakes will never be the same again. A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has created flat cut-outs that fold themselves into robot-like shapes when heated up. With this new method they have produced high-tech origami structures including a bunny, an egg, a house and a human figure. The unusual method could one day be part of a bigger system that cooks up robots made to order.

'What we would like is to provide design tools that allow people who are not experts to create their own machines,' says lead researcher Daniela Rus. 'My own dream is to make it easy and inexpensive to create robots.'

Each starts out as a flat sheet of plastic sandwiched between layers of either paper or Mylar, a type of plastic film. Creases are either printed or laser-cut into the sheet, based on calculations made by a computer program based on the shape the researchers want to produce.

Then it goes into an oven preheated anywhere from 55 to 120 ºC. The heat causes the middle layer of plastic to contract, forcing the sheet to bend at different angles depending upon the width of the crease. Though producing the sheets takes time, the folding itself is pretty quick. For all four shapes, the final product was ready in a matter of minutes.

The work and its robot-like products will be presented this week at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Hong Kong. The team will also share ways to create self-folding electrical components such as sensors, actuators, and resistors to help bring such machines to life.

Their next step is to figure out how to get these tools inside the robots, says Rus, 'to add the brains to the body'.

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Tags:origami

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Conn's Earnings Show That Gadget Sellers Can Still Thrive

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It's been five years since creditors moved to liquidate the Circuit City's remaining stores. The consensus at the time was that the country's second-largest seller of consumer electronics was perishing from self-inflicted wounds.

It operated under an unpopular commission-based model that scared away potential shoppers. Consumers don't like pushy salespeople, nor retailers that pry into your history. Remember how RadioShack ( RSH) used to hound you for your phone number? That didn't go over so well either; just one of the many reasons that once-popular small-box retailer is on borrowed time.

Circuit City rebuffed buyout offers when the going was good and made matters worse by making bad choices when the economy went south. In a cost-cutting move that it would regret, it booted many of its more seasoned salespeople who were at the high end of the chain's pay scale -- the ones who had the consumer electronics knowledge that customers came for. Replacing costly but knowledgeable employees with cheap newbies was the last straw for many shoppers.

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Consumer electronics are more popular than ever, and a housing boom has generated added interest in the appliances that most leading chains also stock. However, the digital revolution has been more foe than friend to bricks-and-mortar retailers. Folks may buy their devices -- smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, e-readers and video game consoles -- from the chains, but they buy their content online. The chains used to be able to rely on the weekly arrival of new CDs, DVDs, games and the like to lure traffic back into their stores. Now that more music, movies and games can be downloaded directly or streamed, the chains are in trouble.

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Diversification isn't just helping Conn's. Best Buy experienced a 9 percent uptick in same-store appliance sales, helping to partly offset a decline in services and traditional consumer electronics. The situation is hairier at hhgregg, but it too managed to post a modest uptick in appliance sales as its other three categories tanked.

Another way that consumer electronics retailers are helping create their own luck is by taking advantage of their local presence in ways that e-tailers can't. Best Buy's Geek Squad provides a mobile fleet of information technology pros. We're seeing retailers, including hhgregg, tackle showrooming by offering to price-match online deals, giving smart shoppers the best of both worlds: a great deal and instant gratification.

We can't read too much into the positives of Conn's report, but it's yet another sign that consumer electronics chains aren't all going the way of Circuit City anytime soon.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our newsletter services free for 30 days.

Apple store workers' lawsuit over bag and gadget searches can go to trial ...

A federal judge refused to dismiss lawsuits brought by Apple store employees who are seeking wages for the time they spent waiting for managers to perform anti-theft checks of their bags and Apple devices.

In a Friday ruling that offers a rare window into the secretive company's H.R. practices, U.S. District Judge William Alsup rejected Apple's request to throw out the lawsuit and said a trial would be helpful to learn more about the nature of the employee searches.

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Gadget Rewind 2007: ASUS Eee PC 4G

The ASUS Eee PC was launched in 2007 and while it had all the characteristics of a 'netbook,' it arrived before the term had wormed its way into popular vocabulary. This species of compact computer -- essentially miniaturized, internet-focused laptops -- took the market by storm in the late 2000's, but failed to have much staying power and ultimately faded from view. At the time, these stripped-down portables from Taiwan-based ASUS, filled a growing niche for people on the go. They offered just the essentials, while still managing to provide a surprisingly good bang-for-buck ratio. The Eee PC was aimed at users who rarely stepped beyond the bounds of basic web surfing and email, so it was easy for ASUS to trim the fat and offer a small, lightweight device. In fact, that undemanding demographic was the inspiration for its titular triple E's: 'Easy to learn, Easy to work and Easy to play.'

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As tablets, lightweight Ultrabooks and high-functioning smartphones arrived on the market, the Eee PC and other netbooks eventually faded from view, but ASUS still had weight and portability on the menu. Between its keyboard-packing Transformer Pad tablet series and the super-slim Zenbook line, the company managed to tackle two divergent formats, yet still provide quality specs in light, portable packages. Today, for those who still want that laptop experience, but don't need all the expensive extras, the growing selection of Chromebooks definitely fits the bill and even manages to deliver on that $200 promise.

Did you own an ASUS Eee PC 4G? Add it to your Engadget profile as a device you had (or still have) and join the discussion to reminisce or share photos of your device with other like-minded gadget fans.

Gadget Rewind 2007: ASUS Eee PC 4G

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Beyond simplicity, the Eee PC's portability and price were the keys to making it desirable. The 7-inch, 800 x 480 screen and two-pound weight made it far easier to cram in a bag or oversized pocket than its hefty, full-sized notebook counterparts. However, the cramped keyboard was definitely not built with large-pawed users in mind. Three models arrived in the first wave of Eee PCs, covering a variety of price points. The Eee PC 4G (701) landed squarely in the middle of the group, all of which ranged in price from $300 to $500 -- sadly the rumored $200 model never surfaced. And before you get confused, the 4G stood for its 4GB SSD rather than mobile connectivity (2GB and 8GB versions were also in the lineup). To help offset the relatively skimpy drive sizes, ASUS bundled in 10GB of free cloud-based Eee Storage for the first year and a half.

As tablets, lightweight Ultrabooks and high-functioning smartphones arrived on the market, the Eee PC and other netbooks eventually faded from view, but ASUS still had weight and portability on the menu. Between its keyboard-packing Transformer Pad tablet series and the super-slim Zenbook line, the company managed to tackle two divergent formats, yet still provide quality specs in light, portable packages. Today, for those who still want that laptop experience, but don't need all the expensive extras, the growing selection of Chromebooks definitely fits the bill and even manages to deliver on that $200 promise.

Did you own an ASUS Eee PC 4G? Add it to your Engadget profile as a device you had (or still have) and join the discussion to reminisce or share photos of your device with other like-minded gadget fans.