USB hub / Charging station

[DJDave87]

Hi,

After some advice, not sure if im over or under thinking this. Id like to have somewhere to charge all portable devices in one nice and neat place. Im currently using each individual piece of charging equipment which at any given moment might take up 4 plug sockets and look messy.

Ive got a 3d printer and want to get in to designing a bit so thinking i should design a more bespoke station and slot in a USB hub and then just connect a load of small, more specific leads. As opposed to a generic one off amazon (anythign from £20-50 from a quick look)

Im asking because i had to (did) buy an iphone charger with the new phone, then ive got an ipad thatll need charging and also an android tablet, another iphone, an i watch, rc batteries, a couple of torches and power banks. Ive kind of thought that theyll all essentially charge when plugged in but im worried about potentially damaging or restricting devices due to delivery of power.

Is there an optimal route for me or would a basic usb hub (probably incl a few USB-c ports) do a job here? Its similar with the leads too, i know apple used to be properiety and you could get issues with data transfer using non apple am i likely to see any issues using non branded leads for power delivery?

Thanks for any help!

 

[EndlessWaves]

Anything standards compliant is fine. With USB everything connects at the same voltage and a low maximum power draw and then exchanges signals with the port to determine how much it can draw.

Although there are lots of manufacturer specific protocols that aren't compliant with the USB spec most of them work the same way so you just end up not being able to access the higher power flows because device and power supply aren't speaking the same language.

Other than generally unsafe construction (cheap, dodgy electronics bought from dodgy sellers on the likes of ebay or amazon marketplace) it's rare to see combinations that'll actually cause damage.

The last ones I know of that affected more reputable products was a misunderstanding about USB-C to USB-A cables when that connector first came out and I think it was possible to cause issues with some of the earlier versions of the power supply controlled charging but that's not very widely used, only Huawei really went down that road.

I wouldn't bother with a USB hub as you don't need data transfer, unless you want to keep the charging speeds down (they tend to support less of the manufacturer specific stuff). A USB power supply with multiple outputs would be the route I'd go.

 

[Golfnut]

I have a pretty similar question. I have ancient technology iphone4, iphone6, ipad, ipad2 and would like a plug in charger that has connections to suit these devices - not all at the same time- just to clear the mess of umpteen plug in chargers. I see a few on Amazon at about £10 - would one of these be suitable?