My DIY modular charging station | Hacker News Reader

My DIY modular charging station

arun.is

35 pointssurprisetalk19 comments

Speaking of charging setups: I have a wide selection of battery-powered tools all running the same standard of battery (Ryobi, but that's but immigrant, the other manufacturers have the same products). Week, actually, it's two, one for the big machines like the lawnmower and chainsaw, and one for the small ones like the drill. But one of the items is a battery dock using the big battery, a 4 amp-hr li-ion brick. It offers a standard mains socket (as well as USB-A and USB-C sockets) in which I plug my laptop when I work from home on my front porch or a smart-speaker when we want music outside.

For my laptop, one battery adds at least 80% to my battery time, plus I don't get down-throttled for being in battery power only, giving me about 4 hours at full power and another 5 on regular battery thereafter, plus the batteries are hot-swappable.

You can buy external battery backups specifically intended for electronic devices for significantly more money and they only give you one charge.

EDIT: example link https://www.ryobitools.com/products/46396026651

You can also buy adapters for the various brands too. So you can buy Ryobi and then use the same batteries on different tools. Don't feel locked in.

What I really want is for all of my outlets to have one A/C and one retractable usb-c cable. So the cables are exposed when in use, but coiled back into the wall otherwise. When will my dream come true?

When you make it a reality! For folks with even the most modest of DIY inclinations, there's never been a better time to try building things.

Generally I'm all for this, but newcomers to this stuff should be aware that DIYing 120v outlet or switch hardware can be a fire risk.

The maintenance would be a PITA. Imagine having to change your outlets every year or two when the retraction mechanism dies.

Every battery & charger & their uncle is adding retractable cables.

I get the attraction, but I detest it! USB-C male jacks are designed to fail. All of these systems are designed to fail!

Thankfully usb-c's a lot more rugged, lasts a lot longer than previous designs. But there's still limits! Throwing out a whole charger or battery because the cable goes bad like this is so gross. Ideally there'd be a design where the retractable cable could appear built-in, but would at least be replaceble. That would be fine! But this retractable cable trend: it's a forced push towards disposable electronics.

The retractable cable is overkill. I remodeled my house a couple of years ago and replace most of the wall outlets with the kind that have 2 AC outlets and 2 usb ports, a USB-A and a USB-C.

This neat, clean, and simple. I saw a few videos (on YouTube) some time ago, where the DIYer had Ikea Pegboards as a charging station. I really like that. It is extendable, unrestricted, can be isolated from workstations, desk, etc. Complete it with a fire extinguisher nearby should be a good setup.

Look for Ikea Pegboard Charging Stations if you want some inspiration.

I was expecting a fire resistant cabinet.

I keep my chargers and batteries in another building for anything with removable batteries.

I gather a burning battery tends to spray flaming debris in all directions. Even if it it's not full on flameproof, some sort of enclosure might contain debris and avoid spot fires.

I'm as paranoid as anyone but this is too much even for me. How do you two charge your phones?

Phones charge on fire resistant tile. I only use the other building for stuff with removable batteries which phones sadly aren't. If the phones had removable batteries I'd just get an extra set an swap with the ones on the charger when they run low.

I've been thinking of finding some kind of fire resistant box for phone charging though, so that's what I was hoping to find at the link. :)

There's bat-safe boxes ( https://www.bat-safe.com ) , but can't comment on effectiveness...

So you have a charging shed?

Yes, pretty much!

I have the same thing. You can find a variety of drawer pulls that work for you. I used ones that have ends sticking out. That way I can wrap the excess cable. They are called Bar Pulls, and mine have a 1” extension on both ends.

Need one of these but for 2 electric toothbrushes

https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Toothbrush-Charger-Braun-Ora...

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