28/04/09

Help! To much weight...

We just love gadgets.

But, (there is always a butt every where), almost every one is a electronic device power dependent.

It's easy to go for a simple weekend and have to transport more batteries, transformers, power connectors and cables  than clothing, or food. And to help things out, you need not once but normally two chargers for gadget. The thing to the main sector power and the thing to the car power.

If you think carefully about it, almost everything is powered around 12V and some hundered  mA. Even the laptop has a transformer from main to 13/14/15V, at something as low as 1,5 or 2 A tops. Of course the main battery is normally rated below 12 volts, around 10,5V. You 12V car, any car, could reach 14,5V at the lighter, so, you could feed almost every thing from the marvelous lighter.

Good, in the car you have enough power to light every thing. Bad, at home no 12V lighters, only 110/220 V alternate.

The solution is simple. Find a transformer capable of 13/14V and 4 or 5A and what you need is a lighter connector.

I have a old Toshiba ac adaptor, removed the low voltage end, put there instead a lighter female connector and I could use, indoors, my car chargers witch are much more lighter. Leaving at home "dozens" of iron core transformers.

Then any gadget could be charged using the same one. In case of urgent needs, a lighter adaptor could be used. The only care is not to pass the maximum output. amperage. The total sum of the amperages needed must stay below the output available.

In the picture there are two phone lighter chargers  connected to a divider connected to the modified transformer. The total was only one transformer, and two lighter chargers instead of two transformers for indoor and two lighter chargers for outdoor. And so on...

You only need to bring to the holidays the lighter charger and one "power lighter". Not both, main and lighter,  for every device.