At this point in my life, I’m going through a Zen phase. Zen is all about relaxing and de-stressing. My biggest cause of stress is clutter, so as a result, I’m trying to get rid of all the things that cause clutter and disorganization in my life. As The Gadgeteer, probably the main sources of my clutter are all the cables and AC adapters that I have scattered about for my various devices. One solution to my mess of cables and wall warts comes from Gomadic. Their new QuadCharge Universal Charging Station allows you to charge four devices in a tidy manner that only requires the use of one wall outlet.
The station is made of Black plastic and has a footprint of 14 x 9.5 x 2.5 inches.
A neoprene mat is affixed to a raised shelf to keep your gadgets from sliding around while they are being charged.
The QuadCharge station has four separate sockets that can accommodate one of the wide variety of available Gomadic TipExchange Tips. If you already own a Gomadic charger, you probably already have some tips that will also work with this product. The QuadCharge station does not come with any tips, so you have to purchase them separately for $5.95 each.
I was sent charger tips for the Palm Treo, Apple iPod and mini USB chargeable gadgets such as the HTC TyTN. If you have a gadget, chances are that Gomadic has a compatible tip for it.
The tips can be easily and quickly attached to the four available sockets in any order that you desire.
I tested the QuadCharge station with my iPhone, Treo 680, HTC TyTN and iPod “fatty” (review coming soon!). The TipExchange tips all fit securely into the charge sockets of each gadget. To charge them, all I had to do was plug in the attached AC adapter. That’s right, just one adapter is required to charge all four devices. This means you only have one cable, not four of them, that end up tied in knots. All four devices charged at the same time as if they were all plugged in separately.
By purchasing tips for all your devices, you can easily swap them out when needed. One update I’d like to see with the next version of this product, would be a small drawer to hold any unused tips. I’d also like to see the cord for the attached AC adapter to be longer. It’s only about 46 inches long, which seems a bit short.
The QuadCharge Universal Charging Station from Gomadic is definitely a handy tool that can help you organize and de-clutter your office. If you’re also trying to find a more Zen-like existence, this product might be perfect for you.
Questions for all of you
What products do you use to organize your gadgets / life? Share your solutions with us by commenting on this review…
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Julie,
This is a neat idea. However, I am too cheap to buy that box, so I made one myself per the instruction from instructables.com. You can view my result here and here.
The downside to this homemade solution is aesthetics, but it saves money and takes advantage of your existing charging cables.
haivu:
Good for you for making your own charging station! 🙂 The advantage of the Gomadic product is that it’s not a ‘power strip’ solution. The QuadCharge doesn’t contain several small AC adapters inside the base. It just has the one adapter. This makes it a safer product because it should not generate as much heat inside the box as the instructable solution.
All you need are the USB charging cables for the devices, a powered USB hub and a DC adaptor. Connect the DC adaptor to the hub, connect all cables to the hub, and viola !
Most DC adaptors for USB hubs are 1A, and the USB hubs usually have 4 hubs, therefore you can charge 4 devices at 0.25A ( 250mA ). Since most devices’ batteries are < 1000mAH, it will take about 3-4 hours to fully charge them. There you have it. A cheap, single-AC adaptor solution.
chriszzz:
Sure, you could connect all those items together and fabricate a nice container to house them. Or, you can just get this product 🙂 The USB hub idea is a good one, but I can see one problem with it. It’s actually the same problem that the QuadCharger has… You would most likely want to located your DIY USB station next to a computer, so that you can also connect it to sync your devices. Otherwise, you’ll need 2 sets of cables. One for the charger station and one for your computer.
I long for the day when I just put my phone/PDA/iPod… on the desk and they are automatically charged and synchronized. Until hen, I guess you can solve the charging problem with QuadCharge or your homemade station.
We have used multipot (http://www.multipot.com) for some time. It it very cute and also serves as our hallway lamp. However it is limited to only a few devices, since modern power adapters are so bulky.
Haivu:
I share that wish with you! And we’re actually close to having it granted. There are already items that can charge just by placing them on a special surface. Adn there’s always syncing via WiFi and Bluetooth 🙂
obligateaerobe:
I really like the style of the multipot! Very modern and classy.
I thought I had found a great Christmas gift for my has everything IT guru husband, but…it does not support Nokia phones at this time. So sad…back to the drawing board. Glad I did a Google search for reviews of it and read the comments on those websites.
Wow, you’re right. I guess since I wasn’t using a Nokia device at the time of the review, I didn’t notice the lack of tips for that brand. Very odd that they don’t offer any tips for Nokia phones…