Charging Station....

rrmccabe · Jul 18, 2015

If I was going to build another house (which I will never do again) I think I would build a charging room between the garage and the house. Lots of outlets, tile floors and timers on the receptacles like I did in my garage.

My entire life seems to run on charged devices. There just never seems to be a neat way to do this. I have USB cables poking out everywhere. Home office (mini USB and Micro) poking out where I can gain access, night stand, garage, vehicle, tractor. They are everywhere.

The UAVs need controllers charged, batteries charged, GoPro charged, tracker charged. Not to mention to get a decent USB charge rate you either need to use something like a wall charger or something with a decent charge capable port like my StartTech card reader.

So I have charging going on everywhere. Cant say I am really happy with any of it yet. Work in progress maybe.

Anyone else have the same battles?

@Jacob can we get some other categories on the site? Maybe an off topic forum and a UAV other or something? Right now its hard to post certain topics.

Jubalr · Jul 18, 2015

Yep, Same issue here! Everything cordless now days and everything needs a plug, with many being proprietary that only works for 1 thing.

I did make a cable for the Solo battery today with some banana plugs on it so I can use a different charger. I can at least charge 2 batteries at the same time now.

Jacob · Jul 19, 2015

Thanks for the tip. Moved to the new General Discussion forum.

rrmccabe · Jul 19, 2015

Jacob said:
Thanks for the tip. Moved to the new General Discussion forum.

Thanks Jacob. You da man.

Pogo · Jul 20, 2015

rrmccabe said:
If I was going to build another house (which I will never do again) I think I would build a charging room between the garage and the house. Lots of outlets, tile floors and timers on the receptacles like I did in my garage.

My entire life seems to run on charged devices. There just never seems to be a neat way to do this. I have USB cables poking out everywhere. Home office (mini USB and Micro) poking out where I can gain access, night stand, garage, vehicle, tractor. They are everywhere.

The UAVs need controllers charged, batteries charged, GoPro charged, tracker charged. Not to mention to get a decent USB charge rate you either need to use something like a wall charger or something with a decent charge capable port like my StartTech card reader.

So I have charging going on everywhere. Cant say I am really happy with any of it yet. Work in progress maybe.

Anyone else have the same battles?

@Jacob can we get some other categories on the site? Maybe an off topic forum and a UAV other or something? Right now its hard to post certain topics.

View attachment 359 View attachment 360 View attachment 361

I know exactly what you mean. I had the exact problem and last week I took matters into my own hands. And let me tell you, I now enjoy charging all my crap and I have lots o'crap!. See my pics attached. So I started with a half height book shelf that I already had in my office. You can use any other suitable surface. I then cut out a piece of anti-slip shelf liner and laid this on the surface so my toys won' t dance around. Next, I installed 10 of these cable clip organizers on the BACK of the shelving unit spaced them about 2" apart. I added an Iselector charging station to power all the USB cables and give me two regular 110 outlets for my battery packs and other direct plug chargers. I have a power strip behind the shelving unit for the long 110 charges like the Solo battery and Solo controller charges. When I want to charge something I just pull up on the correct USB cable and then tuck it neatly out of the way when not in use. This was an easy, quick and very satisfying project. All in, about $40.

rrmccabe · Jul 20, 2015

Big difference. I am glad I am not the only one having this issue !

EyesOpen · Aug 3, 2015

Very creative! For any USB charging, I use Anker products. All the ports have PowerIQ technology where it detects the amps needed for your device and delivers the fastest charge.

DevRogue · Aug 3, 2015

you guys need some type of server rack mount outlet strip. can spread across your entire work station and make cable management easier.

http://www.sellntell.com/images/xm/rackacc/9412-0801.jpg

alternatively, getting a dedicated multi-USB port for those types of charging may be good, especially with multiple gopros.

for my wedding videography shoots i always carry one of these (mine has 4 outlet ports vs 8):

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61tTklZXlgL._SL1500_.jpg

Brian Simmons · Jun 8, 2016

Jubalr said:
Yep, Same issue here! Everything cordless now days and everything needs a plug, with many being proprietary that only works for 1 thing.

I did make a cable for the Solo battery today with some banana plugs on it so I can use a different charger. I can at least charge 2 batteries at the same time now.

Greetings fellow SOLOeer' I bought my bird used from a not so happy customer and have issues with charging abilities of the controller. I get mixed voltages when reading from battery and am wondering what wires you fed with presumably 8.3 volts (from 3DR charger)?
When I read common on white I get 3.52 volts and that I assume is one of the cells but The only other reading i get is from white to red which is 7.2
the balancing circuitry must be in the battery and the tail takes a single voltage input?
Seems as tho perhaps black as common and red as positive might be safe but want to try to keep the magic smoke capsule in the battery (or the magic fire) as the case could be!

Thanks ahead of time for your help, cheers

Brian Simmons · Jun 8, 2016

Brian Simmons said:
Greetings fellow SOLOeer' I bought my bird used from a not so happy customer and have issues with charging abilities of the controller. I get mixed voltages when reading from battery and am wondering what wires you fed with presumably 8.3 volts (from 3DR charger)?
When I read common on white I get 3.52 volts and that I assume is one of the cells but The only other reading i get is from white to red which is 7.2
the balancing circuitry must be in the battery and the tail takes a single voltage input?
Seems as tho perhaps black as common and red as positive might be safe but want to try to keep the magic smoke capsule in the battery (or the magic fire) as the case could be!

Thanks ahead of time for your help, cheers

Oh, phooey, I just noticed you were talking about the SOLO battery and not the controller batt, disregard, thanks!