How Many Chargers Do You Travel With?

[Suhit Gupta]

I recently travelled to Seattle WA and to Oxford, England, for a week each and both times that I travelled, I had to carry a really large number of chargers, one for all of my electronic devices - laptop, cell phone, iPaq (PDA), iRiver (HDD based music player), EOS 10D camera battery and toothbrush. In fact I am about to get a SPOT watch which will need a charger too, argh!. Anyways, this was very inconvenient as they added weight and subtracted space from my suitcase.

They all vary in sizes, DC input, and plug/pin size (i.e. the size of the connector on the side of the device). In fact, when I travelled to England, I had to even carry a number of 2 and 3 pin socket converters due to the difference in US and British systems (Thank God all my chargers could do both 110V and 220V). Ok, forgetting the outlet and power incompatibilities across different countries, there doesn't seems to be any plan to standardize the other parts of a power adapter. Does anyone else find this frustrating?

So I figured I should ask, how many chargers do you carry when you travel?

[Bob12]

I carry six - one each for two digital cameras, flash unit battery pack, cell phone, notebook PC, and handheld PC.

[Suhit Gupta]

Interesting that 3-4 has such a high lead over the rest of the options in the poll. I realized that not everyone would carry a chargeable toothbrush and SPOT watch ;-) but the rest, I thought, were fairly standard now. Hmm..

Suhit

[dhpss]

I carry the main power supply for my Laptop and use its USB ports to power all my other devices (e.g USB Sync&charge for PDA, USB charger for cell phone, etc.)

If I need additional power for my portable devices when I am in flight, I use the Pocket Power bank as seen here: http://semsons.com/pocpowban.html

This can provide offline power and can be a battery charger/portable device charger.

I carry a cigarette lighter & USB port just in case. I am in a long car trip..(BlueTooth GPS, PDA)
http://semsons.com/unusbcarchar.html

These satisfy all my power problems. Everything works in 110V-250V

[lawson]

Ditto on the "one charger" solution -- I use "Zip-Linq" USB connectors for my Pocket PC and phone to charge them from my notebook; the iPod charges via firewire. I have a small aftermarket "travel" charger for the notebook.

Depending on circumstances, I may also toss in a "Car->USB" and / or a "110v->USB" charger as well, just in case.

- Chuck

[SassKwatch]

There was an article on PPCT a while back about a case that was basically a laptop case that allowed multiple chargeable devices to be charged while in the case.

It looked pretty interesting, but damned if my weak search skills can produce the article right now.

[ctmagnus]

Not a PPCT link, but here ya go (http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=224&fs=Mobile%20Computing).

[Philip Colmer]

Laptop, PDA, camcorder, mobile phone, digital camera ... not too bad.

Dell have started selling a re-badged Juice multi-purpose mains/car/air adapter that, as well as charging the laptop, can (with suitable tips) also handle the PDA and mobile phone so I'm hoping that I will be able to reduce the number.

--Philip

[marlof]

- Mobile phone
- Pocket PC
- Digital Still Camera
- Digital Movie Camera
- Laptop
- CreativeTravel Sound
- iPod

I once had to unpack my backpack in Kenya, to proof this was all working as a charger in stead of being a bomb. The fact that my complete backpack looked wired (they showed me the pic) might have something to do with that. ;)

[Kris Kumar]

Well it was a big mess for me, but I recently got myself one of these..and now I love travel...

http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=PAPWR300U

Targus (air/land/water) power adapter with power tips for laptop, pocket pc and phone.

Trying to see if I can make myself a custom power tip for my camera (Canon Rebel Digi).

But I still have to worry about charger for my Electric Shaver (which has a proprietary power tip :-().