About the new Sony battery charger (BC-ZD1) - the choice of power block

[AlphaWorld]

There were a couple of threads on other sites about problems with the BC-ZD1. At least one person thought they'd received a faulty unit.

You are supposed to use a 30W power block. I have a 35W Apple charger with two ports on it, and I thought I could use that one, because I'd only be using one at a time. Turns out, if you have a cable plugged into both ports, you only get half the power to each. So I got to see what happens.

Anyway, if you use an under-powered block, the BC-ZD1 will flash its yellow lights alternately. Quite disconcerting.

I unplugged the second cable, and it just worked.

I had originally thought it might just charge more slowly if it didn't have enough power, but nope.

 

[Unframed Dave]

Not a very flexible bit of kit then.

I'm a big fan of the hahnel cube and also because I spend a lot of time off grid, the Llano, which will charge 2 batteries from flat using it's own internal battery.

 

[iamdlewis]

I wish all of these power blocks/plugs/widgets all gave the same info about capacities and all the gadgets needing them gave clear requirement details that matched the info stated on the blocks/plugs/widgets.

The Sony site has these notes about the charger:

1. Simultaneous two-battery charging requires a USB PD (30 W min.) compatible power and cable (3 A min.)
2. The CHARGE lamp will turn off when battery charge level exceeds 90% (operational charge). Continue charging for another 30 minutes to achieve a full charge. Actual performance varies based on settings, environmental conditions, and usage.

Think this will just really give the needed excuse to replace the outlet with one that has standard plugs and USB plugs. At this rate in another 5-6 years I'll have them all replaced.

 

[AlphaWorld]

For me there are three advantages to this charger:

• most importantly, I can put two batteries in it and not worry about them - I generally only want one charger on my desk, but it’s not uncommon for me to return from shooting with two batteries to charge - with the old charger I had to wait for the first one to finish, then swap it out for the second.
• The new one is a bit smaller - reason I only want one charger on the desk is because it’s cluttered - this helps a teeny bit! (ok, I am fooling myself!)
• I have lots of usb-c power supplies (iPad, iPhone, MacBook, headphones, etc) - most are only used intermittently. I am looking around for a larger, better quality power source to use for several things at once - there’s a large Anker unit that looks good. I think the smaller wallwart chargers have a limited life (although the Apple ones seem to last better) - one bigger one with 4 or 6 outlets sounds sensible.

Does anyone has recommendations / horror stories about multi-port USB-C chargers/power supplies?