Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Hello everyone! This is my first instructable, and it will be a charger for your portable devices. It is fairly simple, and it should only take you an hour and a half maximum to do all of the wiring (not including the time it takes to drill holes and buy parts). Basically everything that I used is from radio shack, and it will cost you around about 20 dollars to buy all of the parts (not including the battery, because even normal people have 9 volt batteries lying around the house). But since Radio Shack sells most of the items required for this project in quantities of 2-5 pieces, the money is worth it. As long as you have even just one 9v battery, a 9v connector, a slide switch, wires, a 5v regulator, and an extra LED from the 2 pack, you can make another one (besides the bright blue LED part)!
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1Collecting your parts.
1: +5V Fixed-Voltage Regulator 7805 ($1.59).
2: 5mm Green LED ($1.49).
3: 5mm Blue LED ($3.49).
4: Heavy-Duty 9V Snap Connectors ($2.99).
5: Female USB Type A Extension cable (choose whichever one you want. Remember: you are chopping the female USB part off anyway, so get a low quality, cheap cable).
6: VERY SMALL Slide Switch.
7: VERY SMALL Momentary push-button switch.
8: CR2032 Battery(s) 3 pack plus CR2032 battery holder(s).
9: Metal 5mm LED holder (it has nuts and bolts on it, so it can be tightened to fit nicely in the box, and it comes in a 2 pack and is for the high power blue LED), plastic LED holder (for the low power green LED, it can't be tightened, and it comes in quantities of more than one).
10: 100 ohm 1/8W 5% Carbon Film Resistor (package of 5).
11: I recommend an Altoids tin because it is a strong, sturdy, light weight tin that is only $2.50 at Seven-Eleven (as a bonus, it even comes with the tasty mints). For those of you that go to Trader Joe's, you can also use Myntz. If you don't know what Myntz are, they are just basically really strong mints that come in an almost identical box as altoids, which means the same material, size, shape, and more. The only difference is that it doesn't have an indent like the newer Altoids cans, not the older Altoids cans. I am warning you right now that if you go any smaller than this size, it is most likely not going to fit, or if it does, the tightness of the way everything is stuffed in the container will break your connections, SO DON'T DO IT! For those of you that don't have access to both of these mint containers, you can improvise. Some people use metal cans used for fishing. Get creative. You can even spray paint the box BEFORE you drill your holes and place your parts inside.
Tools:
Soldering Iron
Solder
Drill and Drill bit (unless you aren't putting this in a box, or if your box already has the right sized holes)
Helping Hands (optional, but helpful, hence the name)
Wire (Red and Black)
Electrical tape or hot glue
Note: I tried using hot glue to hold together things I soldered. It didn't work. Within minutes I had a mess of glue and broken connections. When the hot glue made contact with the wire, it heated it up and disconnected it. Only use the hot glue to mount the USB and maybe the LED. Just hope the LED doesn't burn out, because then you have to break out your knife and start hacking away at the hot glue. The safe things to hot glue are the USB. Don't try to do it with the battery. Don't wonder why, JUST DON'T. Use electrical tape for everything else, IT WORKS.
OPTIONAL:
If you want to, replace the 5mm Blue LED with a Blue 2600 MCD intensity, T-1-3/4 (5mm) size LED. It is $4.49, but if you want to use your second LED on this project as a real light, this is the way to go. The green LED is only a power indicator, so you want it to be fairly dull, so that every time you look at your charger, you don't have to squint. Try to by the lowest brightness power indicator LED you can find.
If you want to go even brighter, to a blinding degree, I recommend getting a blue or white 10,000 mcd LED. It will consume more battery life, but on the other hand, it will be really bright.
2: 5mm Green LED ($1.49).
3: 5mm Blue LED ($3.49).
4: Heavy-Duty 9V Snap Connectors ($2.99).
5: Female USB Type A Extension cable (choose whichever one you want. Remember: you are chopping the female USB part off anyway, so get a low quality, cheap cable).
6: VERY SMALL Slide Switch.
7: VERY SMALL Momentary push-button switch.
8: CR2032 Battery(s) 3 pack plus CR2032 battery holder(s).
9: Metal 5mm LED holder (it has nuts and bolts on it, so it can be tightened to fit nicely in the box, and it comes in a 2 pack and is for the high power blue LED), plastic LED holder (for the low power green LED, it can't be tightened, and it comes in quantities of more than one).
10: 100 ohm 1/8W 5% Carbon Film Resistor (package of 5).
11: I recommend an Altoids tin because it is a strong, sturdy, light weight tin that is only $2.50 at Seven-Eleven (as a bonus, it even comes with the tasty mints). For those of you that go to Trader Joe's, you can also use Myntz. If you don't know what Myntz are, they are just basically really strong mints that come in an almost identical box as altoids, which means the same material, size, shape, and more. The only difference is that it doesn't have an indent like the newer Altoids cans, not the older Altoids cans. I am warning you right now that if you go any smaller than this size, it is most likely not going to fit, or if it does, the tightness of the way everything is stuffed in the container will break your connections, SO DON'T DO IT! For those of you that don't have access to both of these mint containers, you can improvise. Some people use metal cans used for fishing. Get creative. You can even spray paint the box BEFORE you drill your holes and place your parts inside.
Tools:
Soldering Iron
Solder
Drill and Drill bit (unless you aren't putting this in a box, or if your box already has the right sized holes)
Helping Hands (optional, but helpful, hence the name)
Wire (Red and Black)
Electrical tape or hot glue
Note: I tried using hot glue to hold together things I soldered. It didn't work. Within minutes I had a mess of glue and broken connections. When the hot glue made contact with the wire, it heated it up and disconnected it. Only use the hot glue to mount the USB and maybe the LED. Just hope the LED doesn't burn out, because then you have to break out your knife and start hacking away at the hot glue. The safe things to hot glue are the USB. Don't try to do it with the battery. Don't wonder why, JUST DON'T. Use electrical tape for everything else, IT WORKS.
OPTIONAL:
If you want to, replace the 5mm Blue LED with a Blue 2600 MCD intensity, T-1-3/4 (5mm) size LED. It is $4.49, but if you want to use your second LED on this project as a real light, this is the way to go. The green LED is only a power indicator, so you want it to be fairly dull, so that every time you look at your charger, you don't have to squint. Try to by the lowest brightness power indicator LED you can find.
If you want to go even brighter, to a blinding degree, I recommend getting a blue or white 10,000 mcd LED. It will consume more battery life, but on the other hand, it will be really bright.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
thank you!
marC:)
But if you read the following you can make it charge any iPod, iPhone:
http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/icharge.html