cold-weather experience with MP3 / iPods?

Hi All-
I have taken to wearing my little 128MB iRiver flash MP3 player on
my 2-3 hour rollerski workouts and like it so much that I'm thinking of
getting one of the larger multi-gigabyte hard drive based models so I
can put all of my music on there once and be done with it.

Does anybody know what effect cold weather has on battery life for these
things? I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more accessible.

Chris

Hi Chris,
A quick google turned up:
http://www.maxell.co.jp/e/products/i...attery/li_ion/
is a link to a specific Li Ion battery (made by maxell) that probably
represents a typical case. Scroll down to the 2nd to last graph labeled
"Discharge Temperature Characteristics"

To use this chart you need to know what the minimum voltage your device will
run on - your guess is as good as mine, here. :-(
Your MP3 player may run down to 3.3V or it might cut out at 3.5V. That
little bit of voltage makes a pretty big difference at low temperatures:
As you can see, the battery behaves pretty normally down to 0C.
At -10C it loses only a few percent of capacity at 3.3v min or maybe 10% at
3.5vmin.
At -20C its capacity has dropped to has only 2/3 at the 3.3Vmin and about
40% (!!!) of the 3.5vmin.

That's less than half the capacity. If your player runs for 2 hours at room
temperature, it will crap out in less than an hour at -20C. The good news is
that you're not damaging the battery - warm it up and it will have all the
capacity it ever had.
Bob

"Chris Esposito" wrote in message
...
Hi All-
I have taken to wearing my little 128MB iRiver flash MP3 player on
my 2-3 hour rollerski workouts and like it so much that I'm thinking of
getting one of the larger multi-gigabyte hard drive based models so I
can put all of my music on there once and be done with it.

Does anybody know what effect cold weather has on battery life for these
things? I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more accessible.

Chris

I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more
accessible.


Don't.
I noticed mine fogged up terribly on inside when kept close to the
body and insulated from environment.

If you keep you MP3 player inside your jacket or windshell closer to you
skin and its temperature ever gets down to -20C you have more to worry about
than a loss of music. Your body core temperature would dipping. When the
temperature gets that cold, move your player inside your clothes, at least
the outer garments. In warmer temperatures it should do OK outside for
quite a while.

I'd be more concerned about what happens to a multi-gigabyte hard drive when
you crash.

Scott

"Bob" wrote in message
...
Hi Chris,
A quick google turned up:
http://www.maxell.co.jp/e/products/i...attery/li_ion/
is a link to a specific Li Ion battery (made by maxell) that probably
represents a typical case. Scroll down to the 2nd to last graph labeled
"Discharge Temperature Characteristics"

To use this chart you need to know what the minimum voltage your device
will
run on - your guess is as good as mine, here. :-(
Your MP3 player may run down to 3.3V or it might cut out at 3.5V. That
little bit of voltage makes a pretty big difference at low temperatures:
As you can see, the battery behaves pretty normally down to 0C.
At -10C it loses only a few percent of capacity at 3.3v min or maybe 10%
at
3.5vmin.
At -20C its capacity has dropped to has only 2/3 at the 3.3Vmin and about
40% (!!!) of the 3.5vmin.

That's less than half the capacity. If your player runs for 2 hours at
room
temperature, it will crap out in less than an hour at -20C. The good news
is
that you're not damaging the battery - warm it up and it will have all the
capacity it ever had.
Bob

"Chris Esposito" wrote in message
...
Hi All-
I have taken to wearing my little 128MB iRiver flash MP3 player on
my 2-3 hour rollerski workouts and like it so much that I'm thinking of
getting one of the larger multi-gigabyte hard drive based models so I
can put all of my music on there once and be done with it.

Does anybody know what effect cold weather has on battery life for these
things? I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more accessible.

Chris

Can you actually get a good workout the music? The only people who
seem comfortable exercising with music seem to be power walkers.
Personally I can't focus on the workout with the music. I actually
tried rollerskiing with a player and almost crashed after 5 min into
the workout.



Chris Esposito wrote in message ...
Hi All-
I have taken to wearing my little 128MB iRiver flash MP3 player on
my 2-3 hour rollerski workouts and like it so much that I'm thinking of
getting one of the larger multi-gigabyte hard drive based models so I
can put all of my music on there once and be done with it.

Does anybody know what effect cold weather has on battery life for these
things? I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more accessible.

Chris

I can't even power walk with music. It's just distracting to me -- and
I'm a musician. I need to listen for traffic, people coming up behind
me, etc. Besides, I like being outside and hearing outside things.

June

"revyakin" wrote in message
...
Can you actually get a good workout the music? The only people who
seem comfortable exercising with music seem to be power walkers.
Personally I can't focus on the workout with the music. I actually
tried rollerskiing with a player and almost crashed after 5 min into
the workout.



Chris Esposito wrote in message
...
Hi All-
I have taken to wearing my little 128MB iRiver flash MP3
player on
my 2-3 hour rollerski workouts and like it so much that I'm
thinking of
getting one of the larger multi-gigabyte hard drive based models
so I
can put all of my music on there once and be done with it.

Does anybody know what effect cold weather has on battery life for
these
things? I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to
keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more
accessible.

Chris

Exercising to music seems to work well for me, although I generally can't
work with it on, with the possible exception of classical piano and
harpsichord - I listened to a lot of these last two in the last 6-8 months
of my Ph.D. dissertation work and they had a much-needed calming effect.

I was a DJ while in college and graduate school (both the local college
amateur station and a local commercial one) and wound up with a rather
diverse set of musical tastes - mostly 60s rock, classical keyboard, and
some jazz. I have heard this music for so many years that I turn up my
in-the-ear earbuds just loud enough to hear the music in the background
while still being able to hear the endless stream of "on your left" from the
bike pace lines that go by. We have enough paved trails in the greater
Seattle area that I don't have to rollerski on roads with cars very much. I
have found the music to be surprisingly energizing, even though very little
of it is the rapid beat style that seems to dominate the aerobics classes.

I'll find out soon enough how this will work. I went and bought a 20GB iPod
this afternoon.

--

"revyakin" wrote in message
...
Can you actually get a good workout the music? The only people who
seem comfortable exercising with music seem to be power walkers.
Personally I can't focus on the workout with the music. I actually
tried rollerskiing with a player and almost crashed after 5 min into
the workout.



Chris Esposito wrote in message
...
Hi All-
I have taken to wearing my little 128MB iRiver flash MP3 player on
my 2-3 hour rollerski workouts and like it so much that I'm thinking of
getting one of the larger multi-gigabyte hard drive based models so I
can put all of my music on there once and be done with it.

Does anybody know what effect cold weather has on battery life for these
things? I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more accessible.

Chris

I sure can get a good workout... but only rollerskiing.
For some reason rollerskiing is the only activity I can do with music.

JK

"revyakin" wrote in message
...
Can you actually get a good workout the music? The only people who
seem comfortable exercising with music seem to be power walkers.
Personally I can't focus on the workout with the music. I actually
tried rollerskiing with a player and almost crashed after 5 min into
the workout.



Chris Esposito wrote in message
...
Hi All-
I have taken to wearing my little 128MB iRiver flash MP3 player on
my 2-3 hour rollerski workouts and like it so much that I'm thinking of
getting one of the larger multi-gigabyte hard drive based models so I
can put all of my music on there once and be done with it.

Does anybody know what effect cold weather has on battery life for these
things? I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more accessible.

Chris

I did a 50 km roller ski skating listening to music on a 2.4 mile rail
trail. It helped a lot.
Roller skiing at the Ashokan Resevoir with music is blissful.

BTW, Andrey- What's a semi-polite way to warn Russian speaking users of the
Marine Park loop in Brooklyn to "Watch out I'm behind you, and you're in the
wrong place, and I'm about ready to run into you." Preferably one or two
easy words. Thanks. gj)

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

"revyakin" wrote in message
...
Can you actually get a good workout the music? The only people who
seem comfortable exercising with music seem to be power walkers.
Personally I can't focus on the workout with the music. I actually
tried rollerskiing with a player and almost crashed after 5 min into
the workout.



Chris Esposito wrote in message
...
Hi All-
I have taken to wearing my little 128MB iRiver flash MP3 player on
my 2-3 hour rollerski workouts and like it so much that I'm thinking of
getting one of the larger multi-gigabyte hard drive based models so I
can put all of my music on there once and be done with it.

Does anybody know what effect cold weather has on battery life for these
things? I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more accessible.

Chris

"Chris Esposito" wrote in message
...
Hi All-
I have taken to wearing my little 128MB iRiver flash MP3 player on
my 2-3 hour rollerski workouts and like it so much that I'm thinking of
getting one of the larger multi-gigabyte hard drive based models so I
can put all of my music on there once and be done with it.

Does anybody know what effect cold weather has on battery life for these
things? I suppose I could bury it underneath clothing layers to keep it
warm if I had to, but I would rather the controls were more accessible.

Chris

Chris, there's no doubt that cold temps will reduce the life of your
battery. The good news is that, in my experience, they revive when warmed
up.

From many, many years of using headlamps, cd and tape players, and now my
little Sony digital player (NOT recommended, by the way), I have to say you
need to keep the batteries warm. Not next to the skin warm, but in an
outside pocket, or such. When it's cold, I usually wear a windstopper vest
with an exterior chest pocket - and keep the player in that pocket. If I'm
wearing a shell, an outer pocket usually suffices for even the coldest
weather. I have no problem getting a couple hours, several times, out of my
batteries. It's easy to reach and fiddle with if necessary. but whether the
thing is inside or outside, you need to stop to fiddle with it, or risk
falling or spearing a pole. Just speaking from experience here. However, I
think it's key to exercising with a player that you get it set up (volume,
tunes) before you start, or early in the session, and don't fiddle with it
unless you have to stop for some reason.