Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Does anyone have any experience of charging devices, carts, cases or whatever, that can charge a classroom set simultaneously, without taking up every socket in the house? I have come across a couple of US maufacturers (www.tribeam.com and www.mobl.com) but none in the UK. Anyone have any experience of these.

And would a home-made one be as easy as I imagine (take all the cradles, stick them inside a case, twist the wires together and attach a single transformer?). Anyone tried this?

At one time in the past, we had the brilliant idea to spend over $1000 (US) on a mobile cart for laptops that was wired for electric and even had built in cooling fans.  After using it for a few months, just for charging and storing, it became a hassle to unpack and repack evertime we took our laptops off site.  The big plastic (RubberMaid brand) tubs work much better for storing and the batteries were always too short a charge for a full day of training so we had to plug in after a while anyway.  I confiscated the cart and use it to house my PDA lab.  Since I don't need to have them plugged in when we are in the field, I can leave the chargers behind and then put everthing back and lock it all up.

In my area, a lot of people made that purchase and are now looking to get ride of their carts.  Might be able to pick one up cheap.  Have even seen ones that have a place for a laptop/desktop and printer to be connected, so you could sync if necessary.

I have seen suitcase style portable units that will hold 10 or so PDAs with room to plug each in and then a single cord out the bottom to plug in the entire case.  However, I can't find the name of the company right now.  Someone had one at the 2004 Kent State Handheld Conference in Kent, OH, USA last November.  Might try posting a message on this board for Mark van 't Hooft (ISTE SIG President for Handheld Computing and the coordinator for the Kent State conference.)

Update: Mine looks very similar to the page referenced below.

We have a home-made solution that while not portable, fits the "multiple charger" category perfectly!

We own and look after a large number of PocketPCs that we use for trials. Typically they get heavily used for a few weeks, then locked away for a few weeks more, then get pressed back into practise for some more heavy use.

Invariably they loose all their charge inbetween while, and we need to do a full re-charge and restore off backup for each and every one, which may not sound like much effort, but when you have 40 of the little darlings required it is a huge hassle.

Our current storage solution is fantastic! We bought a huge metal cupboard. Drilled in airvents. Added in extra shelves, so they are about the height of a PocketPC, and ran multiple electric cables and plugs into the cupboard, so we can plug them into their own chargers, and have almost 100 sitting permanently on charge!

We fitted a fuse, but in actual fact the power draw-down is really minimal, and our PPCs are ready when we need them.

if you are keen on any specifics, please post