Replacing All of Those Pesky Power Adapters?

bobrobins asks: "I'm sitting in a hotel with a desk full of chargers: laptop, mobile phone, walkman, camera, electric razor in the bathroom, and a laptop supply for the plane, oh and one for the new sony speakers. Before you say too much I've been on the road for a long time and need them all! There must be more gadget geeks out there with a better solution, really all i need is a single charger/power supply that can charge all of these maybe 2 at a time. Any ideas appreciated - my back hurts from lugging this lot around!"

Comments

Not going to find an exact product

[clark625]

I've wanted something like this myself--but not for nearly as many devices. The basic problem is that there isn't really any standards across all manufacturers or devices. Think about your power requirements in more detail:

(1) Laptop: 19VDC @ 75 Watts (typically)

(2) Phone: 5VDC @ ~2.5 Watts (yours may be different)

(3) Walkman: Hopefully 5VDC, maybe 9 (Seen both)

(4) Camera: 5VDC, 9VDC, or 12VDC. Depends on camera.

(5) Razor: Mine takes 9VDC. I switched to Mach3s, recommend you do the same.

(6) Speakers: Who knows. Probably 5 or 12VDC.

Regardless, only you and maybe 50,000 other people have those exact same devices. For a company to design something for such a small market, they would need to charge an arm and a leg (and then pray people would buy it). Most people just deal with all their chargers.

Most people. But you're a nerd, geek, whathaveyou. You can't have all these chargers because you know there's a better way. And you're right.

Okay, my problem was that I had a laptop, nice external speakers, a small 5-port 10/100 switch, and my Palm. The laptop needed 19VDC at 75 Watts, which was by far the most demanding item I had. I picked up an electronics book that showed how to make a good AC-DC power supply from the library and then got a Jamecocatalog and worked out all the parts I'd need. I ended up needing a really big board for just all the parts to the 19V supply, but I could sqeeze in the other supplies I needed (5V and 12V) without too much trouble. Then, put the whole mess into a vented box and into my laptop bag. Now I just plug my bag into the wall and everything starts working. The whole deal probably cost me a hundred or so, but it sure makes everything look nice.