Survival Kindle

Outdoors / Survival Kindle.

eBooks for the Homesteader/camper or preper/survivalist/madman.

I'll be honest, my brother and i nicknamed this project the "Apoca-Kindle" :)

Supplies

An appropriate Kindle

Solar Battery Bank

Charging cable

Storage Tin

Craft Foam

Packing Foam

Step 1:

Step 2: Pick a Kindle

This is a generation four kindle with no keyboard. It's suffered a fair bit of abuse, and some less than tender repairs. It still works, but it's ready to retire from active duty.

refurbished e-readers are available from some sources

things you don't want

A keyboard : it's kinda useless on a kindle with the wireless off, and it does eat a small amount of battery

The wireless turned on : it just eats the battery.

a backlight : battery eating, again. I can read by candlelight, but I can't charge the battery from it.

things not to start the project with

a color screen : way too much battery eaten

one of the "kindle" android tablets : they're android tablets. they use a charge-daily amount of battery.

Step 3: Load It Up

Decide what books you want with you on your camping trip/adventure/attempt to be an action hero/pointless death*.

There are many sources for eBooks, and the internet is full of legal and less legal ways of finding them. Don’t use the less legal ones**

You also need to think things through. Kindles have only so much space, and until someone devises a mil-spec e-reader that can accept micro sd cards, space will be an issue.

also a great heap of manure has been written about survival over the past years. some people who wrote these have no qualifications, and no business putting pen to paper. it is up to you to decide what to pack.

I really recommend the US military survival manuals. maybe some of their other manuals, too.

Other Considerations

a book of knots

homesteading manuals

navigation

vehicle repairs

woodworking

blacksmithing

basically, the books you think you'll need in a emergency and don't have a physical copy of / can't carry.

wherever you get them, some of these will undoubtedly be in the wrong format for your e-reader, so a format-conversion program like Caliber (insert link) will be useful in making them available.

*What will probably happen to a lot of survivalist types if something actually does go sideways.

**it wouldn’t be legal, after all!

Step 4: Power It

Find a Solar Battery bank

We used a simple solar charger off amazon. most of these devices charge very slowly, being largely gimmicks. It would take them three days in the sun to partially charge a phone.

But an eBook? In decent sunlight, they will be charged WEEKS before the kindle needs a recharge.

Step 5: Protect It

It's time to armor up.

a kindle itself is pretty well protected. this one was routinely pitched across the room for six months or so. but even then it needs a little extra protection. And any type of armor is actually divided into two levels

the outer armor/strike-face

the hard outer surface that deflects the impact and spreads it out over a wider surface.

the inner armor/padding

this is the part everyone forgets. a softer layer inside the armor, to prevent a impact from throwing things around so badly they're destroyed anyway. there's a reason medieval knights wore thick padded clothing under their armor.

Step 6: EMP Proof It

because Carrington-class Flares are a real concern. Our Sun hits this planet with a flare energetic enough to eliminate electrical grids every few hundred years. it wouldn't cause a fallout-type apocalypse, but things would be bad for a few years if we took a direct hit. and with the simplicity of good EMP proofing, it's well worthwhile

A farday cage is fairly simple. It consists of a conductive metal container with a non-conductive liner.

In this case, our tin box provides the conductive outer layer, while the inner foam provides the non-conductive layer.

IMPORTANT: If the contents touch the outside of the container at any point, it won't work.