Im trying to make an iPod charger myself. (an Idea I got from the hackaday website) It doesn't just charge ipods either! it'll charge anything that charges off of USB First I set out in buying the equipment needed, I went over to radioshack and bought a 5V regulator, and a 9V battery. The other things I already had around the house. A 9V battery connector I ripped out of an old toy, and an old USB extension cable with the male end smashed. First things first, I went and chopped the USB cable in half. After this I hooked the battery connector up to the regulator. Easy enough. I tested the connection with the multimeter. yep! 5.01 volts. Close enough for what I needed. I carefully took the multimeter over to my computer and stuck the contacts to the pins of the USB port. I needed to put the power through pins one and four. I tested the USB cable to find out what wires went where. I then stripped the two that I needed and hooked them up to the output of the regulator. I plugged everything in and it worked perfectly. Not having any soldiering, or shrink tubing, I decided to just use vinyl electrical tape to keep the wires attached. Now for the hard part, the case. I wanted to do something simple, so I just took an old floss container and used an Xacto to cut out the hole for the USB connector. At first I was just going to use the electrical tape to wrap the whole thing up and make it blak, but it didn't turn out looking so well. I wanted an aluminum case, but didn't want to have to pay ten dollars for one at radioshack, and then have it mostly empty and really big. I decided to use some tinsnips to cut open an empty can of sunkist. I cut it open and flattened out the Aluminum (not easy). I cut the aluminum to the right size and then decided that I want the sunkist logo showing on the front of it. I just taped it on for now. Maybe later I'll use some epoxy to bond it. the whole thing only cost me $3.30 including the first battery since most of the stuff was what I had around the house. I would say it might cost about $8.00 if you had to go out and buy everything (and you'd get a soda out of it too )
Here are some pics I changed my idea for the case, it all started when I wanted to make one out of plexi, then I decided it would be cooler to have it out of Aluminum, fut when I looked around in my garage the only thing with an aluminum case was an old floppy drive & it was an ugly brown color. I sanded that down, but then decided to have it be white. so then I just went and used some epoxy-based white high-gloss spraypaint. Here's the wires without the case. and the case (which I have not yet put the components in) is here. In case anyone was wondering about the pins, here's the setup on those (very straightforward) Also, since I'm going with a case as big as a floppy drive I've decided to put some Lithium-Ion RC batteries in there instead of the single 9v.
Nice little mod you got here. How many fulll charges can a 9V last anyway?(iPod charges). -CollinstheClown
well, I estimated about one and a half charges per battery. I haven't really tested it though. It would be less charges if you let it charge all the way, since the ipod charges quickly up to 80% battery life. I do know for a fact that its been about 26 hours I've been running my iPod without hooking it up to a regular charger. but I think the battery is ready to die soon. but when you think about it, its not really that expensive. A 9v battery costs about $2.00, but you get at least 8 more hours of playtime. that's only about 25¢ per hour. EDIT: Keep in mind that my iPod is a mini, so it's power consumption is less than a fullsize iPod.
I've also been thinking about running it off of some rechargeable NiMH AA batteries I have. Since I have about 15 or 20 just lying around the house, it would be better to use the rechargeables since I wont have to keep buying 9v.
I just completed a full portable 12v socket (as I have a car adaptor) using 8 AA batts, so I can charge my ipod and cell on the go. No idea on charge length though (I'd need to fully drain my ipod first, and it spends most of it's time on the dock), but I'm using rechargable AA batteries anyways so it shouldn't matter too much. Maybe I'll post some pics too. It's cool how the timing of us doing this worked out so similarly, of course yours is very compact where mine is a bit more versatile (although more expensive too)
I decided to put it in an altoids box, and now im using AA batteries instead. Since I have about 20 rechargeables lying around. It'll be able to be plugged into the computer for rechearges
New Batteries I put some old cell phone batteries into the altoids charger. It gives the ipod about an extra 50 hours of battery life. Pics coming soon. sorry about the broken pic links. I'll fix them soon.
Hmmm yuo just gave me an idea. If i get some resistors i can make my own car charger for my Zen micro. Would be alot cheaper then spending 30 dollars on the only one that i can find.
Why not wire one up inside an altoids tin so that you plug it into the computer, and then the ipod into the tin, so when you go somewhere you take both parts, and the batteries recharge continously. BTW, NiMh batts are way better than 9v ones, they will last a lot longer, just stack as many as you want in series (so it totals at more than 6v) and buy a switched regulator.
I finished cutting out the holes to use in an altoids box (stabbed myself with the Xacto like 50 times in the thumb) and it doesn't look too bad, I suppose it could have been worse. I found out I dont need to use a regulator because the ipod will take any voltage from 5-30V. So, anyways, here are the pics In this one you can see where the box is worn away from already being in my pocket for way too long. These are the two batteries (taped together) I'm going to use. They're 3.6V out of motorola phones. Here's a close up of the plug. I'm gonna put more pics up soon I swear.
Broke my computer well, Last night I plugged it into my computer and it charged just fine. But now the USB port on the front of my PC is broken . Anyone have any ideas for fixing it?
Found out the problem It was not my USB port that was broken, but the cable for the iPod. I had sent too much power to it. Im going to just use two 5V regulators (one to recharge & 1 to power the iPod) that way I won't run into any more problems.
