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Traveling with Too Many Chargers?
MotorMachineMercenar wonders: "I just took a roadtrip over a long weekend and noticed that I need to lug around too many chargers. I have a charger for my cell phone, Nintendo DS Lite, my two digital cameras and an iPod. Sometimes I will have one for a portable HDD and laptop. In addition I have to carry a plug converter as some of them have been bought overseas. That's up to eight gadgets just to give juice my power-hungry devices, and they take precious space and weight in my bags. Is there any way to limit the number of chargers without gimping my roadwarrior gear? Most devices have more or less fixed batteries, 'smart' chargers and proprietary plugs, but is it possible as DIY, or is there an existing product? I'd like to see a universal charger for which plugs for any current device with the flexibility to add more in the future. What are the limitations and caveats with 240 vs 120, wattage, cutting and connecting cables, and so forth?"
I use Igo and USB cables to charge my devices. Igo junk is available at a lot of retailers. There are varying power source and wattage ratings of the chargers, including air/car/110~/220~ power supplies that automatically adjust voltage and current, and can charge four or more devices at once if necessary. It is based on tip adapters that deliver power specific to their respective devices. They are pretty fast to make new connectors.
There are also the alkaline/lithium battery powered auxillury chargers, most of which are universal with multiple connecters. You can also use the solar chargers, most of which include a DC car socket.
I think that sooner than later, everything small will charge from USB and everything larger will have automatically switching power supplies that can run from any typical power source without adaptation.
FairTax baby!
I don't think you are travelling with too many chargers - but that you are traveling with too many things that require chargers.
I agree with this. If the original poster is asking for a wonder-device to charge all the stuff he has already purchased, then best of luck, I can't help. I've been on a quasi-quest over the last several years to make sure all my portable devices can charge and/or run over USB, so I only need to lug around two chargers: one for my laptop, and one that spits out a USB-power connector (Something like the iPod chargers I've seen).
I did have to purchase a couple of USB-power adapters for devices that didn't already have one (e.g. my phone), but those take up minimal space, especially if you can find them in something like a zip-link auto-winder.
... And so it comes to this.
One assumes you meant "eBay sellers pedal plenty of them."
Yours etc.,
Slashdot Martyr Brigades, Inappropriate Homophone Encouragement Division
My phone, mp3 player, gps, and camera all charge and interface using miniusb. Perhaps you should consider purchasing products a little less proprietary?
If you haven't noticed, you've got the same problem at home too. I've got five computers and assorted battery chargers and cell phones and gadgets in my home office, and the fucking things have filled up 6 power strips. And I'm even using the 6 inch extension cords on all the bricks so I'm not wasting any spaces on the power strips. It's fucking out of control.
We need a power standard. We need standard plugs, and two or three standard DC voltages. Say 12 volts and 5 volts. Maybe 9 volts too. That way we can buy a single large power supply to power all these little devices from one source. Even if we used a regular power supply that a computer uses, we could probably run everything off that. Scanners, USB drives, cell phone chargers, switches, hubs, Linksys firewall appliances, EVERYTHING.
And, it should be a standard that every device has an IN plug and an OUT plug so not everything has to be plugged directly into the main DC power source. You should be able to chain a few USB drives off your little 8 port ethernet switch, all of them drawing power from the big DC power supply.
I think that this is something I could make some money with. Put a computer power supply in a box. Sell it with some connectors and adaptors. You're done, and you've got lots of plugs and much less wire tangle.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Guess he is encouraging you to use an inappropriate homophone.
Those phones are pretty gay.
... and then they built the supercollider.
A very, VERY, VERY standardized solution to your problem already exists... One that will work in any device from any country on the planet, regardless of local voltage, frequency, and even reliability of AC power availability:
Make sure to only buy devices that take AA/AAA batteries. Then you just need to carry a few extra NiMH recharcheables, and a single charger will take care of all your portable electricity needs every night while you sleep.
You can also get AA-to-12VDC converters, which will work with anything that can accept a car cigarette-lighter plug (make sure to get one that works with rechargeables, though, which for NiMH run at 1.2V rather than 1.5V... That doesn't matter much for up to four batteries, but at 8+ batteries, it can make some unprepared devices fail).
It amazes me that so many people put up with devices that have their own built-in non-replaceable incompatible-with-everything batteries. Rechargeables do eventually die. In exchange for five minutes of research up-front, you can save yourself a dozen different chargers and the need to replace various portable products (*cough* early iPods *cough*) yearly for no better reason than a dead battery.
Personally, I follow the above advice religiously. If my phone dies, I pop open my GPS and bam, I can call for help. If my GPS dies in the middle of a long hike, my camera makes the (temporary) ultimate sacrifice, and I can once again find my car. If my camera dies just as a UFO full of Elvis impersonators lands in front of me, always have an 8-pack of spares available, compatible with every device I carry. And when I get home or back to the car after draining every battery I own, a single charger restores them all to life in just a few hours.
I carry along a USB hub and power supply as my "charger". I can plug 4 devices into it for charging. Works great.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?