Tags: jawbone psp charging station ipod ds
Published : 10 months ago (Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:44:05 PDT)
Searched: ipod
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When last we left our intrepid charging station, it was powering up my ipod, bluetooth headset, Nintendo DS, and PSP, with all the wires tucked out of sight. It blended nicely with my dresser. I was happy with the design.
Even so, there was room for improvement. It was a rat's nest of cables inside, I had to use an extension cord and a plug multiplier to get everything connected, the box barely closed, and with four ac/dc bricks inside of it, there was a lot of heat and a lot of power drain, even when I wasn't charging up any device.
 
Those four bricks consume, left to right:
- 5V 550mA
- 5V 1A
- 5V 320mA
- 5V 2A
So all four devices charge on a 5V rail, making this problem trivial to solve. With the right cables, I could charge everything via a powered USB hub! This will cut way, way down on the clutter. From this:
To this:
Two new cables for charging the DS and the PSP later, and everything went back in the box:
It all works like a charm. Total power drain is now 2A.
Total cost: About $13, $5 for each cable and $3 for a used Rock Star 4-port USB hub from Gamestop.
Total time: About 15 minutes. Would have been 5, but the Rock Star hub didn't work, so I had to go get another one out of a box upstairs.
Quality: It'll charge the devices more slowly than the brick chargers will, because each device is going to get a maximum of 500mA instead of as much as 2A that the PSP wanted, but this is designed for overnight charges. Plug all my toys in at night, and they'll be good to go when I wake up. Now the idle power draw is much lower, there's much less heat in the box, and there's much less fire danger. Also now all my traditional chargers are free to come with me on trips. I call it a win.
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