Charging all your devices

The_Hawk · April 16, 2018, 9:48am

Continuing the discussion from "Bed-time lock" for iPad?:

In talking about locking up an iPad while it’s charging overnight I started talking about my charging solution(s) around the house but figured it was worthy of its own topic so have started this thread.

The main charging solution for us lives in the lounge room, it’s a Griffin Powerdock 5 and serves all the kids iPads and various other things. It used to be the ‘everything’ charger until everything sort of became too much with all the iPads, Kindles, 3DS, tiny helicopters, Garmin Watch, Sphero… etc etc etc… all the things that charge via USB. I mean 3 kids with iPads only leaves two ports for all the other things which are quickly overwhelmed. Luckily there I also have a small UPS for the home theatre which provides another two ports.
https://griffintechnology.com/us/powerdock-5-device-charger

I recently grabbed one of these and bolted it to the wall above my wifes lounge chair. I need to get a longer power cable and tidy up the routing a little to better hide it, but it provides 4 ports of power to charge her iPad, Apple Pencil, and Kindle (which have nice short cables) as well as one spare port for a longer lightning cable so she can run it down to the lounge to allow her to keep working/playing with a device while it charges. It also works as a nice little shelf to hold all the things out of the way rather than just sitting on the arm of her lounge chair. (She doesn’t have space for a table in “her corner”.
http://www.kmart.com.au/product/4-port-usb-charging-station/1640815

On my side of the room, I do have a table so I’ve added an Ikea Riggard lamp with Qi charging + 1 x USB A port. That covers the basic charging needs I have for my iPhone 8, the ATV4 remote and my blood pressure cuff.
https://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/20280679/

I’ve got one of these in the Kitchen, mostly because the old powerpoint died and I figured while I was replacing it I might as well spend the extra bucks to get this convenience. On a side note, I love this idea but only when the power point is accessible or permanently houses a dock (like behind a bedside table). For most older houses the location of the points makes these less useful much of the time.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/deta-240v-10-amp-double-outlet-powerpoint-with-dual-3-4-amp-usb-charger_p4331325

There are also a bunch of stock Apple chargers + docks and speakers of various kinds in bedrooms plugged into powerboards (I think one room has a powerboard with USB ports) but mostly not, again mostly thanks to the placement of wall outlets making distances the limiting factor unless you go out and buy 3m long lightning/micro USB cables.

So do other people have issues in providing enough USB power points? What is your solution(s)?

recd · April 16, 2018, 11:13am

I have a couple of those Delta Power Points, one in the Bedroom and one in Kitchen. Conveniently, the one in the Bedroom is next to one of the bedside tables, so leave the watch and phone chargers permanently plugged in.

Also picked-up a few of these secondhand.
https://www.flexson.com/by-sonos-product/sonos-play-1-all/flexson-illuminating-charging-stand-for-sonos-play-1. They are attached to the two rear Sonos speakers in the Livingroom.

The_Hawk · December 31, 2018, 8:10am

So almost two years later my Wife is still very happy with her little shelf in the corner for her devices and it’s still working away without any issues.

But the kids are starting to struggle with “only” 5 charging ports for all the devices and it was time to add some more so we could stop swapping cables over (and somehow losing them even though they never leave the corner… apparently…).

While the Griffin Multidock would be very very nice, its eye watering $1,000 price tag makes it something that probably isn’t going to happen.

Originally I started drawing up plans for a custom timber box which be pretty similar to the Multidock layout, but I quickly came to realise it was going to set me back a significant amount to build before I added any electronics to it and even so would take up a fair bit of space. I might still go down this path one day to hide everything away but this would be a piece of furniture in its own right!

For now I went with the much cheaper plan. 3 x Kmart charging stations screwed down to an Ikea lack table (which I already had). I now have 12 USB ports available and can plug in ALL the things at once. When the kids put their iPads and things on there I think I have 11 devices charging away at the moment (although that does include a visiting family members tablet + watch.

There are other things too (like the GoPro batteries and Phantom remote which need to be plugged in on occasion so those extra ports will get used from time to time). I’ve also made sure to spread the load across the various ports to try and ensure that the iPads aren’t sharing ports at any time (these chargers are 2.4A per two ports).

Not a bad solution for now: