Camouflaged Power-Source Liberator

A simple solution for powering up low-voltage DC devices in public spaces. When you plug this in, one of the plugs is powering an outlet on a decoy junction box and the other plug is providing a continual power source to a low-voltage DC device. This is something that I have been fiddling with for ages and it is not quite done, but I put it online due to the urging of some friends who find the information useful. Maybe you can figure out the final step (I will explain later).

PLEASE NOTE: This project uses high-voltages which are inherently dangerous. Additionally, I am not an electrician and can not verify if this project poses a fire-hazard. Lastly, I am pretty sure that the use of this project on other people's property would be illegal.

***Construct and use at your own risk.***

Step 1: Go get stuff.

You're going to need things to do this:

1. A standard wall socket
2. An outdoor socket cover
3. A cell phone charger (preferably 5V 500ma)
4. Two grounded wall plugs (like the one below)
5. A 1" x 2.5" piece of lucite that is of 1/8" thickness
6. Electrical tape
7. Thick stranded wire (the one below is from a strand of Christmas lights)
8. A plastic 1/8" pull-tie (not shown)

to be explained in final step:

9. Casing and paint (not shown)
10. Epoxy (not shown)

Tools:

1. A Phillips-head screwdriver
2. A pair of pliers
3. A Dremel (or laser cutter)
4. A utility knife
5. Wire strippers
6. Soldering iron

Comments

[badams2]

Have you tried an old-work exterior box such as the one found here (Lowe's)?

[Myself]

I've had the same thought, looking at the boxes installed near the bases of downtown sidewalk trees, where they plug in the strings of lights for the holidays. Just on a lark one day, I brought a 3-light tester with me and plugged it in. No love, the boxes are turned off when they're not in use. Now I wonder where the switch/breaker is! Wifi repeaters and network cameras are the obvious choices, and there are some damn small WDS-capable APs out there. Sensor networks could be fun, and any cellphone programmed to auto-answer in speakerphone mode could be used as a simple remote audio bugging device. I'm not sure why you'd want to watch or bug the sidewalk, however. Repeating free wifi into a poor-coverage area would be hilarious. It's a shame the standard is so ill-suited to that.

[Mikey8567]

Most of those outlet boxes you see near trees, walk ways and in light poles are controlled by either a photocell or a timer. That way they are not wasting power during the day. I'm a electrician by trade and a few things. #1 You will not be able use only part of a GFCI outlet due to it having an internal circuit board and solenoid, coil, and contacts that make it work. #2 if you simply half a regular duplex outlet you have internals that are very dangerous and will have to be insulated. #3 In the USA a standard out let is 125VAC at 60HZ, it's very noisy so attempting to put any receiver or transmitting device in the same box will have a issue. #4 Tampering with any outlet in a public place (park, ect) will most likely end you up in jail due to vandalism and theft of city services.

The concept is a kool one but not a wise one. As far as wifi repeaters you would spend major bucks and have to but then all over just to cover a small area. Not to mention that if your ISP catches you giving out free wifi with intent it's very bad news (cancel service, and might end you up in court).

The one statement about the romex wire being able to stab into the back of the receptacle is correct but it only goes up to 14awg solid wire. Most Boxes are of the 18cubic in type and don't have a lot of room in them you would have to have at least a 22-24 cubic inch box. They do make extension rings for the outside ones and it comes with longer screws. From experience no matter how well you seal the cover it will get moisture inside and if your making one that have a PC board in it you;ll have to epoxy dip that board to keep it dry.

To be perfectly honest with all you would have to do to adapt a outlet box and such to achieve what you want isn't really worth it.

Easier just to get a pinhole wireless cam and mount it inside something thats already there (clock, smoke detector, light fixture, ect)

[zachninme]

A actuall use for a group of wifi repeaters could be saving money on phone service. This way, you can use a skype phone while you are in certain places in the city You could probably get a group of people together to help out the cause.

[Neagle]

With a little effort you can do this "above board" involving local business, parks and rec. Organizations love opportunities to participate in public projects that cost little or no money.

[strmrnnr]

I don't really see a point in this as it is, because they will still see your cords coming out of it. But, if you were to leave the device there and want to conceal an outside connection for your use, I would think about removing the old plug altogether and hardwiring it into their junction box and using their face plate. A small spacer ring could be made to enlarge the depth of the box for your needs, say 1/2 to 1 inch ( longer screws would be needed also). Diable one plugs and take the back half off for more room also, or use a different face plate and take it out altogether. If it is for changeing a phone without a cord like one guy was having trouble with I would just place the phone charger in a thin box that could hold a spare battery for my phone. Make the top of the thin box look like a blank plate so people will think the plug has been removed or blanked off. Remember also that most outdoor plugs (at least here in Canada) have to be Gound Fault Safety plugs and it should look like one of them.

[critterfluffy]

I think wireless would be the best use.  If you could fit something inside that ran on DC that transmitted wirelessly, even over radio, then it could be useful.  A couple thoughts are: spy cam, network repeater/range extender, remote switch(that cuts power to the remaining outlet) to piss off the target, network traffic spammer(if you can connect it to their wireless you could DOS them).  I am not the type of person who would use this sort of thing and it is definitely not legal in most cases but I applaud randofo for the originality.

[qwertyboy]

lol, "bling"

[AllanButton]

You could do this with only using one male outlet jack. The fake outlet you are adding has two sets of screws on each side you could run the power for your device off the other set of screws giving yourself more space. Now for what you can do with this. If you make it so that it detachs easy, or can find a way to hide a slot in the casing, you could put a digital camera inside ( - the camera casing ) and wire the trigger to a 555 timer so that it snaps pictures automatically. then either make it so you have to come and pick it up to get the memory card out, or hide a slot so you can take the card out and put a new one in. Whats the point of this? Well you could launch a bunch of throwies at something, and set this camera up to take a picture every minutes pointing at what you've throwied, then come back when your card is full ( do the math, 60 pictures an hour, 1440 pictures per day, 2 gig sd card in 3mp camera holds about 4000 on medium quality, so you could run this for 4 days aprox, or chagne it to every 5 minutes thats 6 per hour or 144 per day, or same 3mp on medium, that would last you about 3 weeks, give or take. ) Now if you know the battery life or a throwie, you could adjust your 555 timer on your camera control circuit to take just enough pictures to fill your camera card during that time. When I get a chance im going to do all this, minus the thowies of course, they are just a little to expensive to make a batch like the GRL. - Allan.

[AllanButton]

Sorry, math is off, pictures every 5 minutes would be 12 an hour. Did the math a little to quickly in my head.

[randofo]

I suppose the second plug is redundant, but it provides a little bit of structural stability to the device. And you can't really fit much of anything in the amount of space it takes up. Also, you could maybe hook it up with bluetooth or wifi and never have to open up the case again. Once you install it, going back to the thing periodically would be a bad idea. Yeah... the GRL has a sugar mamma... with a laser cutter... and a budget.... we should all aspire to as much. You could always follow them around and take the throwies that they leave behind.... someone should make a "magnetic throwie remover" for getting all those throwies in hard to reach places (where inevitably the all end up). Then again, I suppose it would be kind of pointless to remove all their throwies and deposit them elsewhere.

[AllanButton]

I think I finally came up with a final plan for my camera/outlet, although its more then just an outlet now. I found a building near by with a high amount of street traffic that just happens to have an outlet just on the side of the building where all the people pass by, and has metal siding. The outlet is a flushmount outlet. ( with their permission of course, right? ) I am planning on making the Power-Source Liberator in a normal outdoor outlet box with the back cut out, and running a peice of tube up to a fake motion light, thats motion detector will snap pics of all the people going by. Instead of attaching this all to the wall with screws, its going to be all connected with those strong magnets ( whos names escape me right now ). My friend tells me he knows of a small network device that can connect to a sd card, so it would just be a simple circuit to connect that the card slot in the camera and also to some sort of small router or something and mouth a huge antenea down the pipe thats going to connect the two boxes together. Then just sit around the corner with my ppc and run the script to download and wipe the images. Neat stuff.

[evanwehrer]

eyefi SD card?

[randofo]

Yes.... you should be careful about going back to it once it is installed. People are dumb: LED Bomb Scare

This wasn't the first time for something like this to happen and it won't be the last. Be mindful that people are afraid of anything different these days.

[randofo]

That's pretty cool. You should post an instructable of that. The fake motion sensor light is genius.

[Sandisk1duo]

nice fence Oakland? New York? San Francisco?

[randofo]

Bushwik section of Brooklyn....

[Sandisk1duo]

nice

[mctylr]

Perhaps a plastic retrofit outlet/switch box from a building centre (e.g. Home Depot, Example). An exterior box model may be easier to weatherproof.

I'd also suggest paying attention to weatherproofing the box if it is intended for outdoor use. Water and electricity don't mix.

The wiring of the plug to sockets should be double checked with a 3-prong AC tester (e.g. U.S. model or U.K. style) - they are infinitely handy to have anyhow.

Heat-shrink tubing is more durable than electrical tape for insulating the wiring joints. And I find it easier to make a neat and tidy seal.

[robacarp]

Using something like this http://www.mouser.com/catalog/626/1468.pdf

You might be able to make something like this picture. (Sorry for the lack of detailed schematics.)

Now that I think about it, it might be easier to just put the thumbscrews in the top/bottom so as to allow more room for the circut board. It might be better to use 1/4 turn screws similar to those that they use on race car bodys, to make it less tempting to exploring little boys....then again, I dont know where you would get something like that.

[FireSnake]

Those can be had at a race car shop, or even a local hardware store...they have ALL KINDS of great fasteners. go visit one and your wheels will definitely begin to turn......Also, those screws don't need to be used. The outlets have very small holes in the back of them to accommodate standard Romex solid copper wiring. Simply strip the wire, and plug it in.

[robacarp]

oh boy...I just realized that the picture shows the screws penetrating the inner outlet.

[skonofvulcan]

I don't understand why this is needed. I always plug stuff in wherever I am at and have never had anyone ask me to not do it. When it's been in a store, coffee shop whatever I ask and have never been turned down. I've done this in Seattle, NYNY, Detroit, Denver, Boise, Salt Lake etc. Why do you need to hide the fact your charging a phone or laptop etc???

[randofo]

It could be used for powering homemade wireless electronic devices, discreetly, for long periods of time.

[skonofvulcan]

I still don't see the need. Just plug it in an outlet near the floor or ground in a open public area and most likely no one would even notice it for up to a year. Why even try to conceal it? Leaving things in the open is the easiest way to have it go unnoticed. Even employees will often assume management put it in, etc. I've plugged in a charger with my camcorder battery in it to charge in a food court before and forgot it latter. Didn't come back for over a week to get it and no one touched it. It was right at floor level and you could even see streak marks where someone had moped around it! If it has no labels, is just a little piece of black electronics they have no idea what it is and they often make stupid assumptions. So just be sure and peal off any stickers etc. In high crime areas it's generaly stuff that your trying to keep an eye on that gets stolen, not stuff that you just place in a out of the way spot and ignore...

[randofo]

You clearly have never lived in New York City.

[bethehammer]

Seems like with all of the effort and expense of doing this ... you could just get some solar cells or some other power generation (small wind generator??) and a couple of batteries and have the same thing with out messing with someone elses outlets. Especially since we are talking about only trying to power a low voltage DC device.

[randofo]

The problem I was having with that approach was that in New York City (where I came up with this) you never quite got enough sunlight at street level for it to be reliable and windpower devices were too visible for what I was doing.

[_soapy_]

Is NY so very bad that being seen winding a small handle will get you mugged?!?

You could perhaps go for one of the rotating magnetic charger designs that capture your movement and turn it into electric for your stuff. Or this - Stealth charger

[randofo]

It's not the criminal element you have to worry about. It's the "see something say something policy." People can sometimes get awfully worked up about nothing these days. Also, New York is rather horrible in regards to objects being left in the public space. Anything not chained down and left unattended longer than 30 seconds will walk away. I once saw someone try to runaway with a full-body mirror left in the doorway of a glass shop in broad daylight.

[_soapy_]

Hopefully they were dumb enough to run into something like a lamppost because they could only see behind them. :-)

[pablogavavla]

Great Instructable. I love the brainstorming that has followed!

[Grady]

Why not just try to get the subways to offer this kind of phone-charging; they could up the fare by a nickel, to pay for it & it would benefit many.

[killerjackalope]

well this has a great use in the uk trains have cleaning sockets at various point including where a bunch of mates may site just beside the bike area and toilet so its handy there as the conductor made me get off the train when he saw me charging my phone outta one of these so it has its merits

[hondagofast]

Theft of services!

[Mr.Cire]

i still dont get what you did here

[frollard]

he made a fake 'cover' for a power receptacle, which you plug in somewhere. It still functions for regular plug-in stuff, but housed within it is a cel-phone charger, which you could use to power things...but covertly.

[MadMechanicMike]

i still dont get it

[davidbacsik]

Bling indeed! Very Fly Project.

[neuralstatic]

this seems like an awfully long way to go to bleed off alittle power and leave an outlet sticking 1-2 inches off a surface. even if i could think of a real-world use for this on a lamppost or something, can't you just open the existing junctionbox and place your bleed in there?