Hi,
I am going on a camping trip for a week, and will have no access to any electricity for the week, and will only be making short car trips during this time.
Does anyone know of a charger that I can use to charge my ipad using AA batteries, I have seen them for iphones, but haven't seen them for the ipad?
Or, does anyone have any other ideas of how. I could charge my ipad without electricity. I just don't want to go the whole week without my ipad, I'm sad I know LOL.
Duncan

You have not seen AA battery chargers for the iPad because it would not be a practical proposition. The iPad charger is a 10W unit and charges at 2A. It typically takes 4 or 5 hours to fully charge an iPad - that's 50W hours. An alkaline AA battery has a capacity of 2700mA hours - OK, 2.7A for an hour. So, to get the 5V that you'd need to charge the iPad you'd need, say, 4 AA cells, which would then charge for about an hour. So for a full-5 hour charge you'd need 5 sets of 4 batteries. i.e. 20 AA cells to perform a single recharge of your iPad. These calculations are very optimistic too, because they don't take into consideration other practical issues such as voltage droop and the degradation of the AA cell's life due to the high current.

So unless you plan to tote a truckload of AA cells with you I wouldn't consider this a practical proposition. There are several external rechargeable battery packs available for the iPad, though, but they are quite expensive and still would add considerably to your weight. Clearly, if you have access to a vehicle during your trip then you can easily recharge the iPad from the vehicle's accessory socket.

Tim

Rechargeable chargers are available for under $100 and work quite well. You can find them on Amazon if you can't locate one at you local Apple store.

-t

Frankly, this seems like absurd overkill but it works great. My wife and daughter went camping a couple of weeks ago and I bought the unit below. It weighs about 30 lbs and they kept it in the car for charging their cell phones, laptop, iPad, etc.

I certainly would not recommend it for back country camping in the wild if you have to carry it about but for keeping at a campsite or in the car and using to charge or run various devices that use 120v input, it worked quite well and didn't require running the car or draining the car's battery over a week or two of camping. In addition, it provides emergency starting for a car with a dead battery and can be used around the house in the event of a power failure. (We have several each year when the tall trees in the Pacific NW fall on power lines.)

There are a number of models available, some less expensive than the model shown below.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Duracell-DPP-600HD-Powerpack-Starter-Emergency/dp/B000TKHMWK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311002999&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: Duracell DPP-600HD Powerpack 600 Jump Starter & Emergency Power Source with Radio: Automotive[/ame]

It's expensive and probably overkill, but lookup Spark Solar Charger for iPad (I can't link yet).

Car power inverter + iPad own mains. It hooks into the cigarette lighter socket and provides DC power.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Targus-PAPWR005U-Mobile-Power-Inverter/dp/B00009RTO8]Amazon.com: Targus PAPWR005U Mobile Power Inverter: Electronics[/ame]

There are many of them...

MacSales Management...

Dh got a new Trent rechargeable battery for a camp trip he took with our son and his scout troop. It worked great. And last week we were without power for almost a week, and it came in super handy. He got it front he site Buy Smartphone, Laptops, Tablets & iPhone Batteries & Cases - Shop Online Now!, but amazon has them as well, but amazon had longer delivery time, so he ordered it directly from the company.

You're going camping and worried about your ipad . . . . . That's just wrong.