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September 15, 2003
It's Not Battery Hell...
...but I think I can see it from here.
Possibly the most irksome aspect of mobile technologies is their voracious appetite for power. To feed this hunger, I've developed a system for maintaining a stable of various rechargeable batteries.
The case shown is one of 5 containers I use to maintain the various NiMH and Ni-Cad cells that we use in our mobile electronics. One case holds 12 'AA' NiMH cells that I use for various things (mostly my digital camera). Another identical case holds 12 'AA' NiMH cells for my wife to use for various things (mostly her CD player). A third container holds 12 'AAA' NiMH cells that I use for my MP3 player and various older PDAs. A fourth, much larger container holds all the cells that are depleted and needing to be recharged. A fifth container holds about 40 non-rechargeable cells of every type and size -- from 'D' cells for flashlights to some coin cells for my graphing calculator.
How do we keep all these recharged? Well, we have a system that relies on one 8-bank multi-charger (can recharge 'AAA', 'AA', and 9V cells) and two portable chargers that handle only 'AA' cells. At any one time, there are about 75-80 batteries of various type either waiting to be used or being recharged in my closet.
Man, there has to be a better way. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any real breakthroughs in battery technology coming down the pike. What about fuel cells? Nah, too big and bulky and we're still 10 years away from those being even close to ready for mass consumption. So, for the forseeable future, our little battery system will likely get bigger and bigger as more things require batteries.
Of course, there's all those things with internal (non-replaceable) rechargeable batteries. To handle all those, I, like you, have a small mountain of wall wart adapters and not nearly enough outlets. To help me use our power strip outlets more efficiently, I've had good success with a product called "The Liberator" (shown above) from Cyberguys! (who put out one of the few snail-mail catalogs I enjoy getting). It's a cheap, 1-foot mini-extension cord that basically lets you use 6 wall warts on a 6-outlet power strip. Pretty cool, eh?
So, in a nutshell, this setup keeps me sane, but it doesn't make me happy. Where are all those cool mini-nuke power supplies we were supposed to have? Shouldn't there be a Mr. Fusion for sale at my local hardware store by now?