I finally went through my box of cables and Goodwill’d or threw away stuff that I’m absolutely never going to use. Gotta say, the feeling of going to The Box™ and not having to dig through a million cables to find what you need is pretty nice.
The hardest thing to throw away was the mystery power cables/bricks. Even though everything I own has its power cable with it and labeled with no exceptions, and even though I haven’t touched the mystery power cable for 10 years, I still felt like I’d discover its purpose the moment I got rid of it. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’m still anxious.
My solution is to have two boxes: one for things i might actually use (USB-C, HDMI, standard power cables), and one for things i’ll never use (micro USB power bricks). Keep both obviously
The hardest thing to throw away was the mystery power cables/bricks. Even though everything I own has its power cable with it and labeled with no exceptions, and even though I haven’t touched the mystery power cable for 10 years, I still felt like I’d discover its purpose the moment I got rid of it. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’m still anxious.
I keep those but convert their use to replace disposable battery powered devices.
All those spare USB wall warts you have are 5 volt and at least 1 amp DC power supplies. Anything you have that takes 3 AA or AAA batteries is a 4.5v supply. Almost all of them can tolerate the extra .5 volt. Clip the mini-USB/micro-USB/classic iPod/lightening connector off the cable and run those (I usually solder them) to your device. Now you can plug it into the wall and never have to worry about batteries again.
6 volt DC wall warts can be used to replace things that take 4 AA or AAA batteries.
I finally went through my box of cables and Goodwill’d or threw away stuff that I’m absolutely never going to use. Gotta say, the feeling of going to The Box™ and not having to dig through a million cables to find what you need is pretty nice.
The hardest thing to throw away was the mystery power cables/bricks. Even though everything I own has its power cable with it and labeled with no exceptions, and even though I haven’t touched the mystery power cable for 10 years, I still felt like I’d discover its purpose the moment I got rid of it. Hasn’t happened yet, but I’m still anxious.
My solution is to have two boxes: one for things i might actually use (USB-C, HDMI, standard power cables), and one for things i’ll never use (micro USB power bricks). Keep both obviously
I keep those but convert their use to replace disposable battery powered devices.
All those spare USB wall warts you have are 5 volt and at least 1 amp DC power supplies. Anything you have that takes 3 AA or AAA batteries is a 4.5v supply. Almost all of them can tolerate the extra .5 volt. Clip the mini-USB/micro-USB/classic iPod/lightening connector off the cable and run those (I usually solder them) to your device. Now you can plug it into the wall and never have to worry about batteries again.
6 volt DC wall warts can be used to replace things that take 4 AA or AAA batteries.
Yeah but what about those at 7.2v or 12v or 17.8v?
Also maybe I’ll save someones life with that old 100MB Zip drive (and power block)!
12v are great for “car” accessories.
Someone at Goodwill hates you right now :)