Etón SCORPION NSP100OR Multi-Purpose Solar Powered Digital Weather Radio (Orange)

by Eton

Product Details

Quick Start Guide [156kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.8 x 2.5 inches ; 8.5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B003BYRKIW
• Item model number: NSP100OR
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,799 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 1, 2010

Product Description

Color: Orange

From the Manufacturer

Tune-in to the Scorpion Multi-Purpose Solar Powered Digital Weather Radio

Etón Corporation makes some of the most highly regarded emergency radios in the industry. Their radios can operate without batteries. Turn the crank to power them up, or in the case of the Etón Scorpion, harness the power of the sun. Listen to AM or FM radio for important updates and use the built-in flashlight to find your way around in the dark. You can also charge up your cell phone so that you can get in touch with loved ones. 

A Radio for Everyday Preparedness
When emergencies or outdoor adventures take you off the grid, you need a device that can meet your multiple needs. The Etón Scorpion is a compact unit that you can easily store in a safety kit or toss in your rucksack and take with you anywhere you go. With the rugged exterior skin and aluminum carabiner, the SCORPION is designed to endure any extreme outdoor conditions or emergency situation you may find yourself in the midst of.

The emergency essential features include a crank powered handle, built-in LED flashlight, and USB/cell phone charger. The high-quality digital AM/FM tuner provides you with news, entertainment and public service announcements. Not only that, but it also integrates a NOAA Weather Band receiver that brings you weather forecasts, alerts and other emergency messages - information vital to backpackers and travelers.

In addition to the crank powered handle, the Scorpion also includes a powerful solar panel with a battery charge indicator to ensure that you’re always aware of the amount of power you have remaining. The digital tuner/display allows for precise tuning and optimal reception everywhere you go. And if that wasn’t enough, there is an AUX-in for the pure enjoyment of music from an iPod or mp3. It’s perfect for any room in your house or any outdoor venue.

		Solar/Hand Crank Generate energy to power this sleek unit by simply setting it under the sun or with a few turns of the hand crank. Free yourself and ease your mind with self-powered radio broadcasts anytime anywhere.
		AM/FM/NOAA Weather Band Easy tuning to any band whether it’s AM (520-1710 KHz), FM (87-108 MHz) or NOAA weather band. This keeps the listener tuned-in to weather forecasts, alerts and other emergency messages—information vital during severe weather conditions.
		AUX-IN and Headphone Jack Simply plug any iPod or mp3 player and take your music with you. Listen to your music without distractions.
	USB phone charger Charge virtually any phone or small electrical device with this added feature.
	Flashlight Three built in LEDs to light your way through the dark.

Product Description

Multi-Purpose Solar Powered Digital Weather Radio, Compact and Power Packed for Extreme Outdoor Condition

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Backpacking Radio, May 20, 2010

By 

Matt - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Etón SCORPION NSP100OR Multi-Purpose Solar Powered Digital Weather Radio (Orange) (Electronics)

I wanted a small portable radio for backpacking and had researched Eton's other products in the past. None of those radios had all the features I wanted. When I saw the scorpion I knew it was exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a radio that would not be too heavy to carry in my overnight pack but included features such as line-in, backup cell phone usb charger, and weather alert channels.

After receving my Scorpion the other day I have used it extensivly and am very pleased with the device. It is very well built and is perfect for some music around the fire after a long day of hiking.

As far as each features are concerned. Flashlight - Decent LED flashlight. Good for finding your way around in the dark. Not my primary flashlight but its on par with every other crank flashout out there. Radio - Digital tuner is great. Picks up stations very well (I live in the middle of nowhere). Sound quality - The sound quality is what I expected. It is about the same quality as most standard clock radios. It's nothing special but I wanted a rugged radio that didnt have the hassle of making sure you have charged batteries. If sound quality and size is a top priority look for portable iPod docks such as JBL's On-Stage. It does play loud. Note: when using the line-in function the volume control on the unit does not function. Volume is controlled by external device (ipod, phone, etc).

Overall its a great portable small radio for any type of outdoor adventure. I have since used it for picnics and bbq's where larger radios are more of a hassle then what they are worth.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Eton scorpion better than most., August 5, 2011

By 

Sirtestalot - See all my reviews

This review is from: Etón SCORPION NSP100GR Multi-Purpose Solar Powered Digital Weather Radio (Green) (Electronics)

I have had the Eton Scorpion for about a month.I use it everyday. Camped with it 4 times already.
Reasons I bought this was ...
1:audio input.To basically have a solar/crank powered speaker for my iphone (extends iphones battery life)
2. To crank charge USB devices.
3.Mainly to have something to charge stuff ( mainly iPhone 3GS ) during power outages, no sun, night time , emergencies.
4. Bottle opener. Because I am tired of not be able to open my drinks??? This space should have been used to store earbuds,an extra long wire antenna or perhaps a little raincoat/bag for the scorpion.
Verdict:
Solar charges itself in full sun in a few hours.
Crank charges itself to full charge with about 300 cranks(3 minutes) giving about 45 minutes radio time( much more if you use headphones) and Hours of flashlight time.
Even when the radio dies the flashlight will keep going for about 30 minutes or more.
Power input is there but no adaptor included. This unit doesn't take removable rechargable batteries(AA) but it could be incorporated through the power input if one knew how to add up AA or AAA batteries voltage to match the input voltage of the input.
Solar Charging iPhone: not going to happen without rewiring it from the inside. Panel is too small anyway and not worth it , would take days to charge. Get a Goal Zero Guide Ten portable solar charging kit. solar charges an iPhone in an hour and charges 4 AA batteries too.just awesome!

Crank charging is the only way they designed this device to charge an iphone. No charging from the solar panel or from the scorpions stored collected energy in its internal battery.

Crank charging iphone:tricky but it works.To get the iPhone to accept it and to make any sort of charging possible ,follow these steps:
1. use an iPhone cable not a knock off.
2. Set the phone brightness to the lowest setting
3. turn off wifi
4. go into airplane mode or at least turn off 3G .
5. Get comfortable becuase you'll be cranking for at least 7 minutes(2 songs on a radio, or a few commercial breaks on tv)
6. Here is where people get discouraged and fail.
As soon as you crank, the iPhone may reject the charging source with a pop up saying "incompatible accessory" and you'll feel the crank become too easy to crank.
The trick is you have to sort of jump start it to get the phone to accept the crank charge. To do this you'll have to do a quick half crank( like starting a mower or kick starting a motorcycle) and then you'll hear and feel the phone giving resistance on the crank which means it accepted it . You'll keep cranking after the first quick half crank but you'll slow down for a second to lock it in and then your in the zone. You can adjust your cranking speed from here forward.The iPhone will show it's being charged and the screen will eventually turn off so take a mental note of the battery percentage so you can see how you've done 7 minutes later.
Depending on how you've cranked ,you'll probably achieve an additional 1 or 3 percent of battery life. Yes this is not great or anything but it could help in an emergency to get that text or call out.
I figure to almost fully charge the iPhone would take somewhere between 3-4 hours of cranking.Good luck with that.
Even a bicycle crank generator would still take alot of effort and nit much less time to charge an iPhone because you can only charge it so fast before you damage the battery. So for the portability factor of the Erin scorpion as a crank charger , I would say it's doing it's job the best it can do.
Moving on:
I have taken this camping 4 times since I've owned .still works .I use the crank alot to charge the radio and light .mainly because I like to use the audio input so I can crank my iPhone music through a the scorpions speaker. This means 3 minutes of cranking for ever 45 minutes of using the speaker.
The light is great. Last a long time and lights up an area pretty well. When your walking , it shines a big circle in front if you and a med circle to the left and right of you.. A Nice spread.
The very end of the handle broke on my last camping trip so I had to learn to crank with out it. When I got home , I drilled a hole in the end of the handle and bolted the piece back on with a screw and locknut from skateboard hardware (last forever).
Pros and cons:
Pros:
-audio input
-Nice size solar panel to charge its radio/flashlight.
-cranks to full charge in 2-3 minutes.
-45 minutes radio(half volume)/ couple hours light.
-nice rugged rubber shell.
-antenna stores away safely.
- pretty water resistant( left it in rain for a day, after drying it still works although it shouldn't )
-does crank charge USB devices including iPhones if your desperate.
-The caribeaner hook thing is nice to have. If it breaks I'll bolt that back on too.
Cons:
- can't solar charge USB devices.
-can't charge USB devices from internal battery.
-doesn't take removable batteries.at night you have to crank charge to use the radio more than 45 minutes which goes by pretty fast.
- part if handle broke but fixes easy and now is stronger than before .
-radio tunes one station at a time , no station memory.

The new Eton Raptor is bigger and the next step up to the scorpion with a bigger solar panel and lithium battery but it has no crank charge ability. If the scorpion had no crank charge ability it would be useless.

Since I have already had to modify my scorpions handle , here are my plans to further modify it.
-remove the bottle opener and install a mini aa battery charger(from a solar garden light,they are basically mini solar aa rechargers) and wire it so they charge using the scorpions solar panel or crank charge .
- rewire inside so I can switch the radio from solar, internal battery,external AA batteries.
-rewire so USB devices can use solar charger, internal battery, or external aa batteries.
- Maybe change the internal battery to lithium ion.
- make a rain coat with a clear window for solar panel and pockets for a extended wire antenna, earbuds,and additional rechargeable AA batteries.
-if I'm feeling reall ambitious , remove the solar panel and make three solar panels that fold out from it ( like a book) to have better solar charging during cloudy days or triple it's solar power intake and charging time during full sun days.

If Eton did this instead of making the Raptor I would gladly pay $200+ and buy one (or two of them) because it would be all that I would need and I could carry much less with me when hiking etc.

Hope you liked my overly detailed longwinded review!

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Save Your Money, July 1, 2010

By 

D. Druker "Denis" (WI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Etón SCORPION NSP100GR Multi-Purpose Solar Powered Digital Weather Radio (Green) (Electronics)

During a week long camping trip-- The antenna is too short - the radio reception is poor no matter what band you are on. On a full charge at moderate volume your listening time is about 30 minutes. It takes alot of cranking or time in bright sun to charge. It was rained on- lightly for about 15 minutes, it stopped working and showed an odd display & condensation in the display window- however after baking in the sun for a few hours it dryed out an worked again. The buttons to change the station can't be located well with your fingers, they are all stacked together in a row. You cannot charge a phone via the USB port unless you are turning the crank [and turning and turning and turning]. Except for the rain issue it does seem to take shock/drops.

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