Minty + LiPo + Solar + ideas = lots of questions

[john_duh]

Hello

First of all I really need to thank you guys for providing a nice starting ground for noobies like myself

Now on to the idea and the plan.

For the moment I'm carrying around a whole array of chargers for various 5V & 6V devices, which i would like to loose and replace by a single tin / power brick.

The plan is to put following in a box :
- mains -> 5V power source : i'll probably gut one of these
- 4 x Ultrafire 18 650 (3.7V & 3000mAh) in parallel
- lipo solar charger
- a couple of USB connectors of the load side of the charger
- minty boost -> to get 5V without power supply

Now on to the questions :
- is ther an easy(er) way to get mains -> 5V without having to tear up the above mentioned charger
- One of my gadgets needs 6V (cursed it a million times already). Is there a way to get this out of these batteries ? I know i'll need some extra chips, but i havent got a clue which.
- Instead of the 5V mains supply, could i also use my laptop charger (which i always have) ? It's rated at 20V - 65W to charge both this power brick and my laptop. Put otherwise, how can i figure out what the effective power draw of my laptop is so that i can judge if i can safely pinch a couple of amps from the PSU
- any other suggestions ?

[john_duh]

did some digging in my laptop settings. The max battery discharge rate i've seen is 25W.

Am i correct to assume that in an ideal world i would still have 40W left before the charger hits his max capacity ? Or is this too much of a shortcut ?

Tia

[john_duh]

anybody ?

[adafruit_support_bill]

You can find laptop bricks that are rated for 200W or more. Usually 19-20v.
These buck converters will give you 5v@1A - very efficiently: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1065
Dimension engineering makes adjustable switching regulators that can give you the 6v:
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/products/de-swadj
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/products/de-swadj3