External Battery Options

[ceenhad]

I now have a number of battery hungry electronic devices, IPAQ, DVD, MP3 player all of which offer about 2 - 3 hours of heavy use from a single charge.

It occured to me that it would be great to have one external battery source that coud be used to power any of these devices depending on my needs. All it would need is to have some sort of voltage selector and changable power tip.

I know that laptops for less do such a device but it has a pretty weedy rating.

Thus my question is do any of you know of such a device with the juice to charge my IPAQ a couple of times or keep my DVDs going for another couple of hours!!!

Neil

[Sven Johannsen]

I have one of those. I keep it under the hood of my car. Even with the car off it will power a host of electronics for a considerable amount of time :) With a voltage selectable DC adapter and an assortment of tips you can get at Radio Shack, you'd be all set. It's inherently portable too. Comes with wheels.

I honestly haven't seen much that helps for a multitude of things. There are power adapters both commercial and homebrew that should work on anything that the voltage is right on, or is selectable. The reality is more power generally means more bulk and more weight. The consumer device manufacturers have to tread a fine line between delivering enough power to make the product acceptable and making it to big to be practical.

I'm sure you'll get some real advice here though, I'm looking forward to it myself.

[Jason Dunn]

We have a review of some Semson power options coming up this week - watch for it! :D