Sunday, August 16, 2009

Power Octopus

One of the main impetus for my inventions is saving weight and volume of the gear I need when traveling to regattas around the world.
At the moment I am traveling with two camera battery chargers, an AA charger and the adapter / charger for my MacBook Pro (Another plus side to running an iPhone was no charger).
This requires several cables and hence requires adapters for the different sockets encountered around the world.
The Apple charger has a very nifty system of inter-changable slide in adapters to easily convert the charger from one socket type to another. This system uses the standard figure 8 style socket in the charger so it will also take any of the small computer / jug style cords supplied with most hardware.


The little octopus (Tritopus?) I have made is three male jug cord ends into one female jug cord socket.
So now all I need to travel with is two or three Apple plugs and the Octopus.

 I couldn't find a socket at any of the electronics or electrical supply stores at home so ended up recycling a socket from an obsolete appliance.
A bit of careful soldering and Voila. The rubber cover over the socket was a lucky find in the local electrical supply store, not entirely sure what it was meant for but it works perfectly here.


On a safety note. If you intend to copy this idea, I take no responsibility for any damage to you, your equipment or you burning down a hotel / home etc.
All the appliances I plug in will take 110/115 or 220/240 volts and draw less than 500mA.

2 comments:

  1. Nice work, and perfectly suited for its purpose. I may have to make one for my travel bag; a whole lot easier than carrying a power strip around.

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  2. Loose/burn that cable and you're in a heap of trouble!

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