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by johnwalkr 14 days ago
I think your suggestion and also the author's are too big for my taste. I carry a US-style 45W GaN charger, a couple of usb-c cables, and an EU adapter (which, off the record, also works for UK outlets so it covers anywhere I normally travel to). I carry this daily and for travel even though I live in Europe as this combination is the same size as the EU version of my charger by itself.

For devices I have a work laptop, work phone, personal laptop, personal phone, headphones, usually a couple other small devices, and a mobile battery. I usually only heavily use my work laptop and personal phone. For phones and smaller stuff, I can charge them from the laptop while the laptop charges overnight so I don't typically wish for a second charger. If your laptop has decent battery life, charging at less than max speed is no big deal (I have two 16 inch MacBook Pros).

Additionally, I've converted most of my old favourite micro-usb devices like mouses to usb-c. A search for "usb-c 4.7kohm 5v female" will give you some options for replacing micro-usb with usb-c, with hobbyist soldering skills.

For a beard trimmer, I got an Enchen boost usb-c model for $10 for travel. It works well and even has ceramic blades but I had to add 4.7k resistors to work with a c-c cable[1].

[1] Cheap devices often omit some 4.7k resistors that tell a usb-c charger to output 5V, so it outputs nothing. This is why some devices work only with usb a to c cables, as usb-a outputs 5V by default. If you can manage to add the resistors to the correct pins or replace the connector with one that has them built-in, you can fix this problem. The difficulty of doing this varies a lot by device.

1 comments

> and an EU adapter (which, off the record, also works for UK outlets so it covers anywhere I normally travel to).

What type of adapter is this? EU and UK plugs are very different.

I think they're describing how you can force the two pins of a europlug into a type-G socket, if you first stick a screwdriver or key or something into the earth pin to open the shutters.

This will give you access to electricity, but the contact area is much smaller than it's designed for (round pins in a rectangular hole), so using it for anything high wattage will end poorly.

An often overlooked part of the BSA spec for type-G sockets is they're supposed to have a flat surface surrounding the socket large enough to prevent you using the earth pin of an upside down plug to do this.

(Not recommended at home kids) use a key (or, safer, an upside down UK Earth pin) in the Earth hole to open the Live/Neutral shutter - then insert the EU prongs. The width of the EU prongs is handily the same as the UK holes.

Touring musicians do it if venues don’t have convertors.

Doesn’t work if the EU plug needs a live earth of course.