Looking for a Gadget Part II

[hacker]

I'm in the quest again for yet-another-gadget...

I'm going to be travelling outside the US quite a bit this year on business and personal ventures, and I realized that my standard Radio Shack 50W Travel Adapter/Voltage Converter for the various different plug types isn't going to be enough.

I've seen the Kensington International Plug Adapter, the Targus World Travel Power Adapter, the APC Universal Plug Adapter and quite a few others. The problem is that these simply convert the plugs to a different format, but they don't convert the voltage to the matching country.

Has anyone seen/used an adapter that will take US 120v and step it up to a 220v/240v and vice versa (220/240v stepped-down to 120v)? If so, which one did you use?

My concerns at this point are weight, size and broad capabilities. I don't want to have to purchase "tips" for every country I happen to travel to. Losing all of those tips would really make things much more difficult.

Thanks!

[hacker]

I should just list the gadgets I'm in need of and let everyone pick and choose and pour over them. I'm a pretty intense gadget user, and I go through phases of consolidation. This year has been one huge consolidation phase, trying to eliminate wires, cruft and as many redundant gadgets as I can.

One great example of this consolidation is my Delkin DVD Burnaway, this thing is awesome and works flawlessly with Linux, Windows and OSX. CD/DVD burner/player, media reader, mp3 player, and works with or without AC power. You can burn CDs directly from the media card slots if you want, no computer required.

I've also snatched up four (yep, 4!) Ministack II enclosures from NewerTechnology. These hold a 3.5" drive (very tightly), and has a heat-controlled cooling fan (thermistor), 3 USB ports, 3 Firewire ports, and really works great. You can daisychain them as I do, or run them standalone. I don't have a Mac attached to them, so 3 of them sit on my desk next to my laptop and 1 is being used by my wife to hold our digital photos and a clone of our mp3/flac/ogg collection for her iPod/iTunes needs. I've got about 1.8Tb stored in all 4 of them.

I used to use a Logitech MX1000 Wireless/Optical mouse as my primary mouse, but I was frustrated because I couldn't really travel with it without bringing out that usb receiver. I disassembled it and noticed that its actually two separate parts inside, disconnected; AC/charger and the actual RF transmitter components. I could make it smaller by splitting those and putting it in a tighter usb enclosure, but... why go through the work?

Instead, I decided to buy a Logitech V400 mouse for travelling and use on the road. This thing has a SMALL transmitter. I can't stress how small this thing is, so here are two pictures of it (yes, that's really my hand).

As you can see, I have pretty big hands, and this mouse fits under my hand completely. Its smaller than I prefer, but... its one less wire on the desk!

So I'm trying to reconfigure my "remote" office environment, and this now has to include a lot more power while away from AC (so something like a Universal Battery is a must, though I haven't settled on one yet).

I also need a way to use all of my gadgets in countries with... how shall I say... "questionable" power quality. This means a surge protector (I have a very small Targus one already, but this isn't really a high-quality surge protector, and it only works with my laptop's PSU), power strips, multi-outlet tips, and a voltage converter. Oh, and it should also include the ability to power the laptop/phone/ipod from the airplane seats and automotive cigarette lighter too. Bonus points if it has a battery so I can charge it from the plane and use it to continuously power the laptop/phone/ipod when away from an outlet.

I have a Sima SST 325W/650W peak inverter that has a cigarette adapter and jumpers to hook directly to an automotive battery for power, but its a bit heavy/bulky for long travels. It works great for long drives several states away, but its not good for lugging around in luggage.

So in short, here's what I need, to round out my gadget collection for overseas/non-US travels:

• Universal battery to power and charge laptop/phone/ipod while away from power outlets. Bonus if it works with airline power and automotive cigarette lighter adapters.
• Multi-country power outlet converter, so I can use US gadgets with 120v power in outlets designed for non-US gadgets
• Voltage converter, so I can plug something expecting 120v into something delivering 220v, without destroying it, and vice versa (plug a 220v device into my 120v power strips and outlets)

Pretty simple, right? <grin>

[TadW]

Originally Posted by hacker

IHas anyone seen/used an adapter that will take US 120v and step it up to a 220v/240v and vice versa (220/240v stepped-down to 120v)? If so, which one did you use?

In Italy, where I have relatives, people are using 220V. I remember I bought a transformator once that converts 120V to 220V so that I could power US-devices there. The problem is that the transformator isn't portable. It's half the size of a shoe box and it's quite heavy.

But shouldn't most gadget devices nowadays be able to automatically deal with the voltage differences?

[Bob Russell]

This seems to be interesting along these lines also...
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001290.php

[hacker]

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

This seems to be interesting along these lines also...
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001290.php

After much searching, reading and reviews... I finally decided to get this one from Thinkgeek for my travels. I also picked up a 220v -> 120v transformer adapter to plug into it, so I could then plug my PowerSquid or power strip into that and drive several devices at once.

It seemed to work perfectly for my trip to St. Martin, and I'll be using it again when I'm in Canada in a couple of weeks.

I also picked up a Targus Universal Notebook Adapter for my laptops on the road. I grabbed the side dongle too, so I can tee off an power my phone, iPod and bluetooth headset from the same 120v outlet.

I'm trying to get myself to having just 1 plug to the wall. I'm almost there.

Now I need to figure out how to get some l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g length batteries so I can work while away from this contraption of wires.

[VillageReader]

Originally Posted by hacker

I'm in the quest again for yet-another-gadget...

I'm going to be travelling outside the US quite a bit this year on business and personal ventures, and I realized that my standard Radio Shack 50W Travel Adapter/Voltage Converter for the various different plug types isn't going to be enough.

I've seen the Kensington International Plug Adapter, the Targus World Travel Power Adapter, the APC Universal Plug Adapter and quite a few others. The problem is that these simply convert the plugs to a different format, but they don't convert the voltage to the matching country.

Has anyone seen/used an adapter that will take US 120v and step it up to a 220v/240v and vice versa (220/240v stepped-down to 120v)? If so, which one did you use?

My concerns at this point are weight, size and broad capabilities. I don't want to have to purchase "tips" for every country I happen to travel to. Losing all of those tips would really make things much more difficult.

Thanks!

What device do you need to power? Most recent electronic products work from 100 to 240VAC at 50/60Hz (look on the transformer - info will be there). Make sure you look at what you are traveling with before spending money & adding one more thing to the luggage.