Octopus-B-Gone
My wall-wart friendly power bar to be mounted to the Octopus-B-Gone (lower right).
Chargers have become a source of clutter in my life. Every cell phone and camera has it’s own junked-up-proprietary-wall-wart charging system. Then there’s AA, AAA and 9V batteries and chargers. It’s a tough problem. Companies want obsolescence to avoid reuse and devices have differing requirements.
Don’t panic! Octopus-B-Gone is a wall hanging that can handle all this including battery filing! Keep all your wires and wall warts in one beautiful artful wall hanging. Don’t despair! Embrace this junk! Turn the lights off and see this beauty light up with status lights galore!
It will save you desk space, will remain portable and can be operated off the wall (leaning somewhere).
Octopus-B-Gone Concept
Above, OBG is hanging on a wall. It has a convenient handle so you can easily carry it around to move it. You’ll want to transport this baby to show it off to your friends. You can loop the plug-in around the indents at the top right to to manage the plug-in wire.
The left side is a set of AAA and AA dispenser trays with a AA(A) charger below.
The right is a large wall-wart friendly power bar (pictured above). It’s mounting system stands off 2 inches from the surface and forms a storage space for cell phones and other devices while charging.
The center section has a couple of small shelves for square batteries (cell phone, camera and 9V). A camera or cell phone can be stored.
I’m ready for fabrication so I’ll let this sit a bit in case I get some more ideas. Any suggestions?
Plain Battery Holder
Here’s a version with just the vertical battery holder-dispenser and charger.
Here is the file so far but it has a few problems as described in the comments below: Octopus027publish
Previous Versions
This was a test run of just the holder. I’ve made a whole bunch of tweaks to the design after this test run.
I haven’t really thought about coins cells. Can they be recharged?
Regular coin cells, no. But there’s rechargeable lithium coin cells now, along with some charger circuits…for example, see the posts from these search results on hackaday.com:
http://hackaday.com/?s=coin+cell
Those coin cells are pretty small. I could imagine just having a tray for them. Perhaps make the tray thin enough that they can’t short each other.
Sure I can make one that is battery holder and charger. But what size is your charger?
It looks probably the same large size as the one you have on your design already; mine does have a pretty thick wire gauge extending out to a plug though.
Please let us know how the plain battery holder ends up working out! Can you design one (just the plain battery holder) with the charger (for AA/AAA) as well? Also, any thoughts on holders for coin cells?
As you can see I made a battery holder to test it out. I want to make some teaks. That circle cutaway at the bottom isn’t quite enough for my taste. I’m going to cut it all the way to the bottom and also cut into the base so you can get your fingers underneath the battery.
I just added the AA(A) holder/charger to my post so you can see it. I guess it’s just a matter of tweaking the charger bracket to fit your charger.
Dan, the more I think about it the more I like your idea of having one that’s just for AA(A) and the charger. Since I’m doing a test to verify my holder design for the AA(A) batteries I may as well include the charger with that. Then in the mean time I can enjoy it while I’m designing the rest of the contraption. 🙂
Hey Dan,
I made one as you suggested. The glue is just drying and I’ll test it later when I get home.
The only thing is if you want to make one like it you may want to modify the lower bracket to fit your own charger…
Darcy
It looks really great! I have this weekend off from work so I think I’ll try making this! Thanks again, and I’ll let you know how it goes!!
Great, let me know how it goes. Let me know if you want the latest design files.
Yeah, I could use a little direction on the measurements so if you have some time those design files would be very helpful, thank you.
It has some issues I need to fix. Do you still want it? The current issues are:
1) The cutaways for your fingers to take the batteries out of the bottom are a bit small.
2) There are some very small parts that need to be made larger so they’re easier to glue.
3) I need to adjust the ramp at the bottom a bit. That one works but it jams about 1 in 30 uses. I know I can get it to work 100 percent.
Yep, still want whatever you have. I’m planning to mock it up using cardboard first, which will allow me more flexibility for any potential changes.
I just uploaded it. Feel free to send pictures of anything you make…