Hi, I'm new here, and Iv'e been reading a lot.

a while back, there was a thread about what to put on a USB drive, but it mostly covered personal info.

If no one objects, I'd like to put together data that anyone can use.

Once it is compiled, I'd make it available asa zip file.

I plan on using a 1GB drive, and incuding portable apps to view/run anything on it.

Since I will be be distributing it, all the info should be free of copyright problems.

Off hand, knot tying, first aid, and plant identification come to mind.

Maybe recipes as well, for food or firestarters / chemicals.

how does this sound?

Keep it to 700MB which lets you easily distribute it on cd-rom, and leaves people with 300mb free for their own data if they transfer the cd to a 1gb usb key.

There are some good US military field manuals on survival linked from the ETS main site, if that helps.

Even that is a LOT of data.

Keep the data simple. HTML with GIFs and JPGs, using gifs whenever possible. Smaller files than PDF- anything that you might want to do as PDF, try it as a GIF and compare sizes.

If it is to be downloaded, even 64MB is a LOT. It is a lot on broadband, and lot of people here are still on dialup.

I think that sounds like a great idea. My only thought is that 1GB of data is a MASSIVE amount of data. I did a bit of number crunching, and came up with the following, just for fun <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A 1,000,000 word text file is just under 5mb. That means that in 1gb, there will be about 200,000,000 words. The average human reads at 150wpm, so that means it will take the average person 1,333,333 minutes, or about 925 days to read 1gb of text files. Whem you take compression into consideration, you can pretty much double that 925 figure, taking you close to 2,000 days.

Maybe it might be a good idea to set your sights a little lower than 1GB? Even 128MB would probably be sufficient, and it will allow people with smaller USB drives or CD burners to make a copy as well. Plus a 1GB download will be kind of a pain, and will cost you a lot of money (bandwidth) if you end up hosting it yourself on a website.

Anyway though, I think that this is an excellent idea! Make sure to keep us updated on how it goes.

Actually if it's pure text, it will compress way more than 2x. In fact, the reason that manufacturers often advertise that number is that binary (executable) type files barely compress if at all, but together with the text files that compress at 10x they can get away with saying it's 2x if the average user has a LOT of data files.

Anyway, I agree with all the posts thus far... shrink it down. Even using a lot of images and maybe even a little video, 1GB is a lot of storage.

Nice idea... I look forward to your product. Make sure you put a nice legal statement clearing yourself of any liability for following your instructions and be sure to quote sources (bibliography) such as Red Cross, ETS, etc. and provide links to any content you include in this manner. You probably also want to review the different Open Source documentation release copyright(left) type of release - http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#DocumentationLicenses

So this is a backup of survival info? I think it's a good idea, but my first impression in reading this is that the intent is to use the information in a survival situation, in which case many survival situations will make using any kind of electronics impractical or impossible. It would do any good to have every survival guide you could ever want on a flash drive if you don't have anything to access it with.

Now if the intent is preservation of information and a way to have several survival tips in one place, then I'm all for it!

I'm not trying to be rude Bill, especially to someone new to the forum (welcome btw!), it's just that when I read the original post, it seemed that you might be intending it as a compact version of a bulkier guide.

You may want to solicit opinions from people here on the forum. For instance, one week post a request for opinions about methods of firemaking. Tips and tricks, favorite tools, improvised methods, what makes good natural tinder (in case we run out of Tinder Quik or Vaseline cotton balls!), etc. and compile those results. Then move on to opinions on what knots might be most useful ED and in survival situations. There are a lot of people with a lot of experience here, and I think they would be a great resource for this undertaking. I think that also helps with the copyright question, because people sharing there opinions on topics I believe falls under the "common knowledge" category and therefore is not copyrightable. (Note: I'm just a musician who's looked at copyright from that aspect, I'm not a copyright expert!) Here endeth the disclaimer <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyhew...let us know if we can help out, and again, welcome!

It dosen't have to be 1GB, I just didn't want to limit it to 8MB or something smaller.

If we keep it to simple formats, we could also run it on PDA's.

You want it to be little then, if you want it on PDAs. 8 megs is an amazing amount of space if you use it right. If it is just TXTs, that is a couple hundred pages of stuff. PDFs are pretty, but huge for what they are.

Don't code like Megel- I mean, Microsoft. Smaller is better.

Using HTML would seem to make the most sense, that way you do not need any additional software.

You could even have a wap version so you could put it on a card and use it on your phone.

I have started a Technique and Information Binder myself, so I can have the stuff I want with me, but also change and add to it. The 20 or so books I found myself carrying started to get on my nerves. This way, I can have as many plant id photos as I want, but only of Plants I want to id.

Yes, I know, 20 books sounds a lot but once you consider the 5 plant-ish Id books from collins gem and the survival books and the bushcraft books, it starts to get silly. That is not counting the Medical/Herbal books. The problem I found was the good herbal book has bad or no id pictures, and the good plant id books have little or no herbal information or preparetion information.

I really like this idea.

You know, I started thinking about this... why doesn't ETS start a open source documentation project for things like this? Nuclear fallout, Bio-weapons attacks, Natural disasters, Equipment and kits, Long term food storage, First Aid, Emergency Medical Procedures (for when you aren't going to get to a hospital), Marine survival, Home Defense, Disaster preparation, Field living, Natural remedies, Hunting, Edible/poison plant/animal identification, Desert/arctic/tropic survival... the list could go on.

The beauty is that multiple people could put in their expertise and the end result could be combined into a really nice living document all with cross referencing. Users could add/take what they want and it could be distributed in multiple formats: WML, HTML, XML, PDF, RTF, and any number of others. With good pictures (donated or taken specially for the project) and text, it could be really a great project.

I like the idea of having this available and I don't like thinking that all that work falls on one person... Really, this site is already very much the raw basis for such a project and a lot of that information is already available, though perhaps not as organized or cross referenced with a quick-lookup index. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Any thoughts on the viability of such a project?

Like a survival wiki?

I had remember seeing this a while ago, just found it again:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/

External battery pack for PDAs and phones than can charge from USB. Any one with basic soldering skills can bash together, and if you could modify it easily enough to use other styles of power and/or connector, if you you know basic circuitry.

Sort of, yes. The problem with Wiki's is that they can be a little unruly. But for an entirely electronic environment, that would work well. You can run mini web servlers and even mini-DBs on a PDA, but I don't know how well a wiki would run from there. Thus, a static doc organized into sections and chapters and such may prove more useful. Plus, if done correctly, could even be printed.

I know of several Linux doc projects that have gone to the printers and you are basically paying for the media. So, maybe after a certain point, ETS could get it printed and take some profit from the book sales? I don't think that's precluded in most of the licensing schemes....

I read that a while back and built myself a couple of these babies.
Lessons Learnt:
1. Soldering is not as easy as it looks
2. I am not a solder ninja
3. Forget the 9v battery, use a battery holder for 4 AA 1.5v. More juice in the 4 AAs and less heat. After charging the PDA / phone for a while the case will be hot.
4. The altoids tin makes a nice project box

The only issue will be the ability to view the data. I was ata client site recently and we were installing software off of a couple USB flash drives, mine a lexar jumpdrive and someone elses sandisk cruiser. We found that about 1/2 the windows pc's would actauly recognize the flash drives without problems, others would recognize one or the other and others still we would have to download the inf file from lexar or sandisk's web site and even then one or two old pc's had issues.
Other alturnatives I have thought of are:
1. PDA, palm/pocket pc whatever, these are popular and very entry level models can be bought for under $100, this way you can read your data.
2. mini/business card cd's. These couls fit in a PSK and even double as a signaling mirror, they hold ~200M.
3. Cell phone. Most of us carry one for one reason or another. Most cell phones made in the last few years have some basic pda functionality. Utilizing a cheap synch cable from ebay and free software called bitpim I've been able to send my address book, calendar and simple text memos to my phone so I have some basic data there as well.

How did you mount the voltage regulator chip? It looks like there is a screw hole opposite the contacts. IIRC this is for mounting a heat sink.

Realistically, the mini-CDs are still you best choice. Flash drives are great for EDC, but realistically, they have to take a back seat to a CD full of TXT files for portability. Much better for recovery information

The PDA is usable, until it fails, but they do fail. Never seen one that could take a bath. When something goes wrong, I figure I'm going to be wet, cold and bruised, none of which electronics like.

Haven't built it yet, but I thought I'd pass it on.

I'm not so keen on PDAs, myself, and I cac remember music almost as well as an iPod without the need for recharging. I figured some here, though, might find it nifty. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Basic circuits was a long time ago for me, so someone shout out if I get this wrong. I probably will; I should check my external memory (books).

Input on the reg goes to the positive terminal, output to the device, ground to the negative on the battery. I'd build it, and then hit it with a meter to be sure, though. As I said, it's been a while for me; even if it wasn't, test everything first. These bits are cheap.

Silly me- twice I forgot to put this in:
http://misc.hackaday.com/entry/1234000520028239/
They also have this guy, which is a bit simplier. But maybe a bit too simple for my taste. It NEEDS a switch, or just take the battery off when not in use, becuase it will make a little heat for a while, then the battery will be dead.

Lots of good ideas here. I'll say this... Assuming youre going to put account numbers, SS number DL number etc on it, no matter what media you end up using, make sure you use excellent encyption. Otherwise if you lose it then it's just like losing your wallet or maybe worse. The good news is that quality file-level encryption software is both common and inexpensive.

I'm going to try building one with jacks to allow different batteries & device options. Using jacks wil allow using a small usb hub to run several items at once such as charging a PDA & an led light.

The Voltage regulator chip was soldered to some short wires connecting to the usb female plug. THe entire mess of wires, usb port was mounted (black electrician's tape) into the altoids type tin. A small opening was cut into the side of the tin to allow access to the usb port.
See the following pictures.....




Showing the usb port on the side of the tin.


The inside with the 9V + connecting wires, retractable charging cable


The not so messy inside with black electrician's tape.
For the final mounting, the usb port was taped to a piece of styrene (plastic modelling material, the white stuff you see in the tin) which was cut to size to fit the tin, This was to give it some rigidity and stability when plugging and unplugging the usb cables. The voltage regulator and wires were also taped on top of the styrene and the entire thing taped into the tin.


Now with a sync and charge cable for my treo, I'm all set for emergency power....
<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

yeah, you need to take the battery out or it will soon be drained from all the heat generation.
Then again, I could be a nice battery powered pocket warmer.... <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

The probably not enough omph and resistance here to do that. Either that, or your pocket will be firey-warm, which is bad to.

9V in a pocket full of change will have you wondering who set your pants on fire in about a half hour. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> I don't know if it will generate enough heat to actually start a fire but you will be removing it quickly BTDT.

Thanks for the pictures. I'm going to try a slightly different method & use it to power a USB hub. If it works the way I think it will, I'll post the results. Otherwise, it will get converted to something similar.

sounds like a great idea, what about using the swiss army knife with this file storage project?

That sounds like a good idea, get a tiny usb hub and add external power (even some without the jack have the pads on the PCB once you open the case).
I would power from AA's or AAA's instead of a 9v battery. A 9v battery has a very low mAH rating which makes is a poor power choice. Most USB hubs are 5v internally anyway so 4 AA/AAA's giving 6v and a lod drop out regulator would be ideal as there would be less waste in the regulator as well.

I was thinking something with seriously more run time like 4 D cells. Trying to set up a one set of batteries per vacation fan & reading light and also use w/ AA's for normal charging. Got the idea from using a 4 AA PDA extender w/ a USB port. It will run a fan most of a night (high humidity & 80's+ temp w/ no breeze)

I'd go with the alox models unless you want to try to modify the blade combination. One of my "round to it" projects is to take a minichamp & add the usb portion to it. It's a case of got the parts just don't have the time right now. I'm thinking it would be good for nights I've got class or need to dress up for something.

I love the mini cd's those are so nice.
Could take one of those and write data and put it in your psk and use it as a signal mirror also