Ipad Charging

[Iain.Faulkner]

Morning all,

 

I'm after a bit of advice.

 

Our English Department is about to purchase a number of Tablet Devices....let's call them iPads. As part of the project, I want them to buy a lockable storage cabinet/trolley to store them in overnight and charge them (not too worried about having sync functionality at this point).

 

Any recommendations? Sadly, I'm looking for something as cheap as possible.

 

I've seen this

 

Kensington Charge and Sync Cabinet K67771EU for.. | Ebuyer.com

 

Which looks like it will do the job, but was wondering if anyone had anything else they recommend? (if you could give me an idea of what you paid as well, that would be amazing).

 

Thanks in advance

 

Iain

[Ant]

Can't recommend any alternatives as we have the same charging unit as the Kensington unit you listed, albeit RM branded. 2 of them stacked and linked.

 

For the cost compared to other solutions we looked at, I think it does a great job, so can recommend it. I also purchased the shorter cables rather than using the cables which came with the iPads. Keeps things tidy. CHARGE & SYNC USB TO 30 PIN -10 PACK | Ebuyer.com

[Edu-IT]

Not as cheap as the one you've linked to, but @VeryPC_Colin_M hooked us up with a Tabcabby which is good. We just went for the charge one. LapCabby Tablet Computer Trolley | Innovative laptop & tablet trolleys | New Thinking in ICT Storage

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Morning all,

 

I'm after a bit of advice.

 

Our English Department is about to purchase a number of Tablet Devices....let's call them iPads. As part of the project, I want them to buy a lockable storage cabinet/trolley to store them in overnight and charge them (not too worried about having sync functionality at this point).

 

Any recommendations? Sadly, I'm looking for something as cheap as possible.

 

I've seen this

 

Kensington Charge and Sync Cabinet K67771EU for.. | Ebuyer.com

 

Which looks like it will do the job, but was wondering if anyone had anything else they recommend? (if you could give me an idea of what you paid as well, that would be amazing).

 

Thanks in advance

 

Iain

 

Iain is your mind made up on iPads? I'd love to do a comparative quote on windows tablets and a charger. By the way just googled "diy ipad charging trolley" and there's some incredible money saving ideas out there. Best, Col

[DEfrostphone]

The Kingston charging option looks interesting especially with the cables. Do you know if it will fit in an iPad with an otterbox type case on it? The tabcaddy is what I use in all of my schools as it is good option at a good price and the trolley itself doesn’t seem flimsy like some.

[Ant]

The Kingston charging option looks interesting especially with the cables. Do you know if it will fit in an iPad with an otterbox type case on it? The tabcaddy is what I use in all of my schools as it is good option at a good price and the trolley itself doesn’t seem flimsy like some.

Not sure, as we use the Griffin slim cases.

 

Taken from the Kensington site, the slots can take tablets of a maximum of 197mm x 235mm x 16mm. I suspect the thickness of 16mm could be an issue for the larger cases.

 

Kensington - Products - Security - Tablet Security - Charge & Sync Cabinet for iPad Air, iPad® and iPad mini

 

I think these are good if you don't need to transport your tablets all at once.

[Iain.Faulkner]

Hi Col :-)

 

Sadly it's not something that I can have a huge amount of influence on. It's the English Department's money and they've decided they want iPads...so that's what we're getting :-(

[spadam]

After being pretty shocked by the price of storage solutions when we purchased a set of 10 Chromebooks about a year ago I ended purchasing one of these to keep them in for about £160 at the time I think - Storm iM2620 | Storm Case | Waterproof Cases.

 

The case came with perforated foam inserts which you remove cubes from to create the inserts required. I measured up the Chromebooks to work out what size case we needed.

 

I did a lot of measuring and talking with the supplier before purchasing to ensure we got the right size but they fit really comfortably. Not quite as convenient as a trolley but considerably cheaper. The Chromebooks only cost about £2000 so paying in the region of £800-£1000 for a box to keep them in seemed a bit silly really...

 

Here's some really badly taken photos of how they sit in the case

Edited June 12, 2014 by spadam

[Alis_Klar]

This company have loads or interesting options for charging iPads

iPad Archives - LocknCharge

[IT_Ninja]

We just bought a few iPads and decided to go for this...

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/639237-tablet-management-wall-mount-10-lightning-uk-sng-hk-my-dm10-1002-3

 

Seems pretty cool

 

Was considering this though:

 

http://www.misco.co.uk/product/213995/Griffin-MultiDock-10-Bay

 

>> http://griffintechnology.com/business/multidock

Edited June 27, 2014 by IT_Ninja

[eean]

After being pretty shocked by the price of storage solutions...

 

Yes, me to. The other thing I didn't like about the off the shelf solutions was that they stored the iPads in groups of 10 or more. We have our iPads in sets of 5 for the following reasons:

You can carry 5 iPads

Unlike computers, iPads are often shared in the class eg. Staff may give one per group for video work etc... Sets of 5 mean that staff don't book more than they need.

When the trolley stores 10+ the temptation is for staff to go to another class and say 'oh, can I borrow one or two'. That's when they get lost! I'd rather they get booked and kept in their sets of 5, regardless of how many a member of staff needs.

 

So, like @spadam, we are going for a custom built solution.

We are getting flight cases made up, with 5 slots and a USB fan. The flight cases are being made by a local company here in Korea (~£80 each) but there are also companies in the UK who will make them.

To charge, we have purchased some octofire multi USB chargers. Unlike any other product I can find, they will charge 8 iPads at a full 2.1 amp per port. Get from http://www.octofire.com. ~£60.

We will place the octofire unit inside the he flight case with the iPads and the AC adaptor outside, to minimise heat inside the case. I'm not sure how warm it will get inside, but I figure the cooler the better - hence a USB extractor fan.

We will keep all the flight cases on a simple tea trolley, so if someone wants all 20 they can wheel them in.

[Alis_Klar]

The other thing I didn't like about the off the shelf solutions was that they stored the iPads in groups of 10 or more. We have our iPads in sets of 5 for the following reasons:

You can carry 5 iPads

 

The Lock n Charge has removable baskets that hold 5 tablets that are stored and charged in the trolley. For DIY charging they also do a 15 usb port charging box which will charge iPads at full rate (faster than standard USB port)

 

 

This company have loads or interesting options for charging iPads

iPad Archives - LocknCharge