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TwistVolt

$3,997 raised of $95,000 goal

0 days left

Campaign Ended

Campaign goal was not reached by November 8th, 2013 – See more projects

Twists to meet all your power needs

Until now our power strip choices have been limited to aesthetically challenged strips that hide under desks or behind the TVs. Our vision is to re-imagine the power strip to be highly functional and beautiful. Technology to show off on your desk, kitchen counter, living room, conference room, or anywhere where it can be seen, used, and enjoyed.

Seriously configurable

twistvolt transformable power strip

Each joint rotates 270 degrees and indexes at 90 degree increments. That's four possible positions for each of the seven joints, giving 16,384 positions. Many are not physically possible but that still leaves thousands that are - protein folding anyone?

Sleek energy efficient back-lit design

Ultra low power internal LEDs provide a soft glow that illuminates the USB power ports, and just looks cool!

The primary color of our first production run will be chosen by YOU, in our backer color poll. In this democratic process backers of our campaign get to vote for their favorite color. Once tallied, the winning color will be chosen for our first production run.

How it started

There I was, standing in my kitchen faced with a simple task of charging my phone, laptop, my wife's iPad, and my son's Kindle. Each device comes with a uniquely shaped power adapter and they don't play nice together, as I found out when I tried to plug them into a standard power strip with six outlets. Each adapter blocked the other and after several minutes of going through many combinations, it was clear, there was no way to plug them all in. Frustrated, I thought out loud, "Why can't I use all of the outlets?"

Brainstorming the problem led to several possible ways to move the outlets so that they don't block each other. As a kid I remembered a toy puzzle with blocks capable of rotating 90 degrees. Then I started sketching.

twistvolt transformable power stripHere are some of my first sketches of the idea.

My family rigorously tested and used TwistVolt daily. I can't believe how useful it has become for us. We have so many more applications with the available USB power. Not only smart phones, but, cameras, quad copter batteries and even USB powered task lights were just plugged in.

twistvolt transformable power strip

Charging my son's flip video recorder and camera battery and radio plugged in.

I was surprised to find that we have more devices that require USB power than we have available USB ports. We hardly ever use our desktop computers anymore, and finding a charging port is not that easy.

twistvolt transformable power stripWhen outlets are at different heights, the TwistVolt can adapt.

Direct Outlet or Extension Cord

Unique among power strips, TwistVolt has a built-in plug to attach directly to a receptacle on your wall or you can attach it to an extension cord.

What makes TwistVolt better?

The vast majority of the USB chargers are feeding your expensive electronics "dirty" electricity. Unstable voltages, under volt, over volt (yikes), spikes, and lot's of noise. Just have a look at some of the downright scary USB power supplies on the market (Blog review of power supplies, or USB Power Supply/charger Test and tear down).

So why is TwistVolt different? This may get a little technical, but, hang in there. We not only want our power to be clean and stable, we want it to have very good qualities. Today, the gold standard for device power supplies is held by Apple. Which is why they do NOT want you charging your iPhone with a cheap imitation charger (see their Power Adapter Takeback Program). These devices demand clean, stable, quiet power. Our approach employs integrated circuits to dynamically adjust and tune the power. And we don't stop there, we also use a smart chip to identify the device being charged and deliver exactly the amount of power it requires.

We have also included circuitry for high energy efficiency ~80% (most wall-warts are lucky to get 60%). And TwistVolt won't become a "vampire", when your device is finished charging from our USB port TwistVolt detects it, goes to standby mode and reduces the power consumption to 15mW (that's tiny)!

Patent Pending :)

We are happy to announce that our Patent Application has been filed with the US patent office! We are glad to be able to bring this design into the world and we can officially say that TwistVolt is Patent Pending.

We need your help

We will use the Dragon Innovation funds for production tooling of injection molds. And we can push costs down even further with a volume order of more parts.

Our USB power supplies need more testing and fine tuning. We will use these funds to conduct stress testing and rigorous device testing (tablets, phones, etc.) to ensure that they meet our expectations and make adjustments as necessary.

Finally, a UL stamp of approval is a big factor for retailers. And it's not cheap. We need the funds to continue our certification efforts and get that little UL mark. ETL provides an industry recognized certification that we'll be pursuing in parallel.

Going Global

Our initial efforts are focusing on the North American market exclusively, but TwistVolt is looking globally! Send us an email and we'll let you know when we clear the international certification and patent processes.

As a backer you will have immediate feedback on our progress as we move forward through the production plan and have access to our online community of backers for news and updates at TwistVolt.com

Let's reinvent the power-strip together. Thank you Backers!

Summary

The Transformable Power Strip

Let's face it, today we need easy access to power more than ever, and our devices consume both high voltage house current and steady low voltage USB.

Sleek and functional, this power strip transforms to meet all your devices power needs with integrated USB and non-blocking outlets.

Team

Tvlogo

TwistVolt Needham, MA

About Us

Michael_schroeder

Michael Schroeder - Founder

Michael has fifteen years experience in bringing vision to reality. He is trained as an Architect and received his Masters degree from Harvard University. He has designed and built his own CNC fabrication machine to develop compound curved surfaces in plastic for which he received the Snider Prize for innovation in design.

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