Discussion Techniques for wiring things up at your desk

[mikeymikec]

I've had a desktop PC as my main PC for many years, but some aspects of my setup remain unwieldy. For example, plugging phones in for charging or file access. Currently I have two cables running from the mains (located at my feet beneath the far end of the desk), one for USB micro and the other for USB-C, to charge each of my mobile phones. I keep two spare USB cables on top of my PC in case I want to plug either phone into my computer for file access (if I do that, I plug into one of the front USB ports on the PC). One thing to point out with the charging cables though is that they go up the back of my desk with the plug pointing towards me which results in an upside-down phone (I purposefully have auto-rotate disabled, I hate it) when charging. It encourages me to only burst-charge them rather than full charge, but if I do want to use the phone while charging, it's unwieldy.

Using my phones during file access is easier because they're not upside-down, though if I wanted a bit of finesse here then I should use a shorter, "just exactly long enough" USB-C cable because the current one is about 2m too long.

Any tips?

Side note -
My setup has evolved a little over the years, for example I have a USB 3.0 extension lead going to a 3.0 port at the back of my PC which was particularly useful with my Haswell rig as the only 3.0 ports were rear ones, and even though my AM5 setup has a front USB 3.0 port which is quite easily accessible, I tend to stick with the extension lead, mainly for plugging in USB 3.0 memory sticks. I also have USB 2.0 hub which sits beside my monitor that my mouse receiver is plugged into, a wired USB mouse for gaming, and occasionally a USB BT adapter or whatever else. I also have a USB3-HDD cable going from the back of my PC to the dock on the floor as I frequently am plugging in external drives. In theory I could put the dock on the far side of my desk but sod's law says I would need to unplug the dock and use elsewhere and then I'm not sure I could be bothered to wire it back in nicely afterwards.

 

[In2Photos]

Why not just charge the phones off of the USB cable plugged into the PC?

I only have 1 phone to contend with, but if it needs charged I have a cable running from the USB-C port on my Dell dock. I also have a phone holder that allows the cable to be plugged in but the phone sit upright. So it doesn't lay flat on the desk.

 

[mikeymikec]

Why not just charge the phones off of the USB cable plugged into the PC?

I only have 1 phone to contend with, but if it needs charged I have a cable running from the USB-C port on my Dell dock. I also have a phone holder that allows the cable to be plugged in but the phone sit upright. So it doesn't lay flat on the desk.

I'd say about 33% of the time I'm charging my main phone at my desk because I forgot to charge it overnight and then it's seriously low on battery and I need to leave in say an hour.

I also use the micro-USB cable to recharge AA/AAA batteries which can take *ages* and my computer isn't necessarily on the whole time.

Hmm, my wife certainly had a phone holder once, I'll ask where it has got to I think!