Charge Box

Guys,

I hope you'll find my idea interesting and useful.

As you know smartphones and tablets consume a lot of power and we have to keep charges, batteries and wires.

Here's my idea of cheap charging station.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

For this project I used:

- IKEA box with cork top cover link

- USB hub link

- colorful microUSB or lightning cables

- drill, glue gun, rubber pads and plastic cable ties

Step 2: Drill

We take IKEA box and drill a hole on one side. For stability stick rubber pads on the bottom of the box.

Step 3: Assembling

Glue the USB hub inside the box and plug power cable.
Then you should glue the hole carefully. After that plug all necessary USB cables.

Take out all cables through the hole in the cork top cover of this box. If you don't plan to dismantle this I recommend to glue the top cover to the box.

I made this distributing construction out of spare plastic cable ties, put it to cover the hole and glued it. If you have any other materials you can do something prettier.

Step 4: Finish

As a result we have a charging station for couple of phones with comfy surface to place them while charging.

Average cost of all materials $65.

Good luck!

Comments

[kiran13xtreme]

Excellent idea and will be giving it a go myself... Newbie question but Is there any risk of overheating, the hub in the box? Should I add extra holes or does not matter... Thanks in advance for the advice :)

[konyashkin]

Holes are not needed. Will heat up the external power supply hub :)

[kiran13xtreme]

I made it with few changes. The key reason was that i did not have a hot glue gun but the tape seems to be working well and the power connection is okay, possible buy hot glue gun + bigger drill bit for future amendments but thanks for the idea and really pleased with my first make :)

[konyashkin]

I'm very happy for you, keep experimenting.
Please click I made it ;-)

[thebefish]

wanna know if the voltage does not decrease as power is split between many charging cables , or if the charging takes a longer period

[konyashkin]

That is what is written in the instructions to the hub:

---

SUPPLIED CHARGING CURRENT
5 standard USB ports- 0.5 A per port
2 USB fast charging ports - 1.2 A per port
It is recommended that the total power consumption of
the connected USB devices should not exceed 2.4 A, or 12 W.

---

Day
before yesterday I charge the phone Nokia Asha (port 0.5 A), iPhone4s
(port 1.2 A) and Nexus5 (port 0.5 A). Nokia and iPhone from the charge
as a normal charge, about 2 hours. Nexus sooo long been charged, and I
switched to the port of 1.2 A.

[adam.craig.370]

Do you find the charging time to be slower due to the splitter? Does the amperage get cut down at all?

[konyashkin]

That is what is written in the instructions to the hub:

---

SUPPLIED CHARGING CURRENT
5 standard USB ports- 0.5 A per port
2 USB fast charging ports - 1.2 A per port
It is recommended that the total power consumption of
the connected USB devices should not exceed 2.4 A, or 12 W.

---

Day before yesterday I charge the phone Nokia Asha (port 0.5 A), iPhone4s (port 1.2 A) and Nexus5 (port 0.5 A). Nokia and iPhone from the charge as a normal charge, about 2 hours. Nexus sooo long been charged, and I switched to the port of 1.2 A.

[seamster]

Very nice! I love the cork top idea, that's excellent.

I really need to make something like this to organize the charging situation at my house. Thanks for the ideas!

[konyashkin]

very happy if I can help you. I have another idea in the coming days, I will lay out the site.