Polyganz wrote:Ah I see! Thank you for your help Geekmaster.
I've seen those cables with two USB to one for high power usb power output but I would still have to replace the USB end with a DC barrel.
Do you perhaps know of a tutorial/guide for custom wiring the power of an USB cable? I'm a total noob on this and I don't wanna fry up my devices
I made a USB power splitter cable for my Rift. Those I showed it to said it looks professionally made. I took an appropriate barrel connect with a few inches of wire extending from it, and I slit the side of a mini USB cable a couple of inches from the miniUSB jack to pull out the red and black wires. I stripped a little insulation from the red and black wires such that the metal cannot touch when they are brought back together, and then I soldered the power plug center wire to the USB red wire and the power plug outer wire to the USB black wire. I dabbed contact cement into the split USB cable and around the outside. I also coated the inside of a short piece of power cord insulation split up the side, to be used as an outer protection wrap. After the contact adhesive dried, I wrapped it all together so the outer wrap covered the opening in the USB cable, and then I wrapped that with black sewing thread to keep it all tight with the wrapper seam cleanly held together. I coated it all in cyanoacrylate adhesive (super glue), and when dry I died it black with a black permanent marker.
I will post a photo when I get time.
It works quite well, and modding a USB cable does not void the Rift warranty like the internal Rift power mod posted in the past.
It is very convenient to NOT need to carry an extra power adapter, and to NOT find a place to plug it in in a hotel room (though I learned to carry a 6-outlet switched power strip on my frequent trips).
In your case, you would need to combine two USB cables (or more) to get the extra power. Though probably not used in cheap Chinese USB power combiner cables, I would put a series diode in each power line to isolate them, but be aware that there is some power loss in a diode, so use low power-loss diodes to minimize that.
Some computers can supply a full one ampere (1A) to some USB ports (charging mode), so you may get by with only two USB jacks if you can use those ports to supply your power.
If you are not up to that task, I recommend just getting a powered hub that can source that much current (but a custom USB power cable is smaller and more elegant).
