Quick and Dirty Multi-USB Charging Station

Tired of using a 600 Watt computer just to charge your mobile phone? This is simple and there's no need for you to go anywhere near the computer just for charging.

What You'll Need:

1. An old non-powered USB 1.1 hub (like you have any other use for it, right?) *
2. A wall-wart 5V USB charger.
3. The appropriate cables for your equipment.

*Being 1.1 is not really necessary but, if you have one laying around why waste a 2.0?

Now Assemble It

If you try to use a powered hub to do this, the hub usually will not power-up until it recognises a computer connection, that's why a "dumb" hub is used--it just passes the power straight through and relies on the computer to say "too much power" and shut down the host port.

I've included a USB extension between the power supply and the hub just so that it doesn't all have to hang from the power outlet.

Your devices are not going to charge in record time because the limited output from the supply has to be shared around but, it certainly comes in handy just to keep a device from losing memory--like my Palm Pilot did :(

As the title says, this is a "Quick and Dirty" solution. If you want to tidy it up, there a plenty of related 'ibles for boxes, hiding cables and the like.

Mic