On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 5:26 PM, Michael Watterson wrote= : > no point. The pad needs a cable. > That's fine. The pad can stay plugged in. > Why not just have a USB socket *and* a 2.5mm power jack for charging. > Then anything can charge it. > Use 2 x AA cells, so if flat a pair of Alkalines can be temporarily be > substituted. > > I find it very handy that my camera and radios can take Alkaline > batteries in an emergency. So I'd then use two AAA batteries, the same switching supply, but I'm assuming that for a device like this, the end user is too lazy to keep charged or properly maintained. So I'm trying to find the most selft maintaing solution possible. Solar would be best if it provided enough energy under room light conditions. Inductive is the next best thing. Anything that requires it to be plugged in isn't so great because I doubt m= y /clients/ would care enough to plug it in. --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .