I was, as I’m sure a lot of you are, utterly sick of endless chargers and cables. A mess of wires that always seem to get tangled and it always ends up looking like Medusa on a bad hair day. I’ve tried various things over the years, I’ve tried to hide them in drawers, Velcro ing them to the wall or under a desk, it has always ended up in the same mess. They also tend to take up a lot of room.
Now, I don’t want to say this is the best solution as I’m sure someone else has made something neater (and if you have any ideas, please comment below) but for me, this setup works well and doesn’t cost much.
I had seen various pegboard setups in the past and have tried out a mini version before using a guitar pedalboard, but this is the first time I’m gone big with all the chargers.
VonHaus 45pc Metal Pegboard Set (Similar item)
I knew I would have to use longer cable ties, after some measuring; I bought 300mm ties to make sure they’d go around the wider chargers. I also ordered an 8-gang extension with USB ports and an on/off switch (this enables you to turn the whole board off at the board rather than the mains, way more convenient)
8-way UK power strip with USB sockets (Similar item with US plugs)
To make the best use of the space on the board I ordered a mix of short IEC C7 cables (0.5m) some with straight ends and some with right angles – this was to be able to get the chargers closer to the power block. After those had arrived it was a case of laying everything flat and figuring out the best way of doing it. I knew I wanted to hang this up on the end of a shelving unit to take up the smallest area (and an area that wasn’t being used) hanging it like this also meant I could use the shelves to hold the larger Profoto batteries when they were charging.
After laying it all out I started threading through the ties and securing the chargers when you do them tight enough most blocks only need one tie, the larger Profoto chargers did need two to stop them from twisting. To tidy up the board, I pushed the excess power cable through the holes on the board and zipped them using smaller ties to tighten up the extra.
And voila, a couple of hanging screws and there it was, a charger board that could be switched on and off, taking up space I never used and getting this snakes nest under control finally!
And to the people who are asking how I travel with it? I don’t. It’s too big and too much of a faff, I use a bunch of USB chargers from Nitecore for all my cameras and have separate travel chargers for my Profoto kit. Travelling this way means I can take the Profoto chargers, the Nitecore bits and an Anker USB C hub rather than all the IEC cables and a massive extension. It does end up being a bit more expensive this way but the weight I save not dragging loads of cables about, more than makes up for it. Here are my travelling camera chargers, as you can see they aren’t much bigger than the battery and they are super light. I’ve used this method for travelling for years as lightweight is the name of the game!
About the Author
Tom Barnes is a self-taught portrait photographer from London, England. You find more of his work on his website and connect with him via Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
