Another Altoids Ipod Charger

Alright this is my first Instructable and I made a different version of the Altiods ipod charger. I made my first version off of another instructable but i wanted to make it my own so i made this one

Step 1 Materials

Soldering Iron
Solder
Lots of wires
dremel or something to cut the altiods case
drill
drill bits
9vbattery
9v battery clip
5v Regulator
LED
Resistor (im not really sure which one)
female usb (www.http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Ntt=806-KUSBX-AS1N-B

this is a pic of the regulator

Comments

[guitarcrazy189]

will this work for the ipod touch 3g?

[29er sailor]

Good idea..

Here is something that would work for the touch and iPhone!

http://www.adafruit.com/index.phpmain_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=14

Master T

[hhankpelfreyy]

sorry man, but from what I've heard, the newer ipod touches and iphones and even the ipad use the data lines to charge in addition to the power lines in a usb cable

[shantanu007]

for some reason this wnt charge my ipone 3g and every thing is wired correctly even the light turns on.

[CaseBoy]

you have to connect the the 2 middle pins together.

[penuwana]

dude the iphone uses pin 2 and 3 along with the five volts from 1 and 4, 2 has 2.5volts and pin 3(of the usb or firewire) is 1.8volts look it up 1 found this out too

[shantanu007]

Thanks man this worked for me

[soundman3103]

You need to take the light off. thats my momentary fix ill try to figure out how to wire it in. When you turn it on the voltage goes down to 4 but you need 5 so if you take the light off itll go up to five

[shantanu007]

Would getting a 6v regulator fix the problem?

[soundman3103]

thats not a bad idea just check the voltage before you plug it into anything im not responsible for damaged stuff

[yano]

usb ports normally put out ~5v, so 6v would probably be too much. I don't know if it would do any damage, but I wouldn't try it personally I've heard that some of the newer iPods require you to ground the circuit, so you might want to try that

[DYLEGO]

6v regulator goes to 1v led first, bringing it down to5v

[tysonscott2002]

Just a word of advice to any of you who plan to use that circuit for anything of worth, dont! its not safe enough to charge them with out frying them over time. I have posted one that is basically the same, with some capacitors used as filters, the 330 ohm resistor can be anywhere between 100 and 330 ohms, and the 15k, can but substituted with a 10k, havent tried anything in between!

[tysonscott2002]

[tysonscott2002]

so that photo didnt pop up so big... http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FD2/RYG2/G79D48U1/FD2RYG2G79D48U1.png

[HungryJoe]

I'm trying to make a USB charger to run off a 7.2v battery (long story), how could/should I adapt your design for this different voltage?

[tysonscott2002]

well, simply make sure your capacitor (just the one before the regulator, the 100 uf) has a voltage that is higher then your input, for example. if your putting a 7.2v pack into it, those are about 9 volts full, for a new battery, so make sure your capacitor is at least 10 volts or so. after that, just keep an eye on the regulator, the higher the voltage you put in, the hotter it gets, so get a heatsink on it! cause any voltage above that 5 will turn to heat. any other questions, just let me know!

[binary_man_1010]

the resistor should be a 220(u)-1k(u) the 220(u) color code is a red, red, brown, gold or silver(tolerance) and the 1k(u) is brown, black, red, gold or silver. the perfected one would be thee 220(u) range. the one showed in the picture is a 10(u) resistor and it would burn out the ipod because the voltage would be to high. ~~~binary_man_1010~~~

[protonrules]

errr, no that's not right for two reasons:

Reason 1: resistors resist current not potential difference
Reason 2: the resistor is there to protect the LED and not the iPod its self

[dylan-drenner]

 will this one work? radioshack.com and product number is 2062317 thanks bro

[guitarcrazy189]

when ever i made the charger and i plugged my sisters ipod nano 3g in it turned on the ipod on but it didnt charge it and when ever i put my ipod touch 3g into it it did not do anything.  i was wondering if it was beacuse the new ipod touchs are like the iphone and i need to change the wiring.  also i used a 10 ohm resistor, is this to much or too little? someone help!!!

[pablosartor]

actually giving less voltage to the regulator by adding the resistor in front might be beneficial so that the regulator does not heat up as much. This works if you are sending more than 5v out of the resistor otherwise it is pointless and agree with bomberman 3 on his circuit. In addition this will not charge your iphone. for the iphone to charge you will need to use pins 2,3 on the usb with a +2.7volts and -2.7 volts in addition to 5 volts on 1,4. Good Luck People : )

[guitarcrazy189]

how would you make it so that pins 2,3 are getting a +2.7 volts and a -2.7 volts?

[jmcg_ian]

how would you go about doing this for an iphone?

[protonrules]

this will work exactly the same for an iPhone, they charge in the same way.

[kdyches17]

This does not work for my ipod touch 3rd gen. What would i need to do to it to make it work???? PLEASE HELP!

[guitarcrazy189]

what kind of resistor do yiou need to make the device?

[techman9]

i have a video nano and when i plug it in it lights up but does not charge, I thought that the ipod cables were wired different, mabe not ge back to me please

[tomtortoise]

I made this and used it on a usb light and the led flashed then went away it is not the bulb being burnt out because i can do it again also i nave nano 3g it lights up but no charging.i tried an enV 3 it sais charger not reccomended but starts to charge.

[xAxrules]

It's a cool charger, i used this mainly to figure out how to wire up the regulator. I found that the regulator get's warm, I haven't had it on for a long time yet, so I don't know how hot it gets, but I would reccomend a heatsink for the regulator.

[wassap]

Thanks Binary Man, you could have just saved my ipod

[wassap]

That pic is awesome!. Great instructable too.

[TarzanJr]

I forgot to put the resistor in and when i tried it the light bulb blow out so fast but it was very bright next time i am going to video tape it. It was pretty cool!

[roroanozolo127]

i did that and the led blew out so i replaced it but now it wont work

[roroanozolo127]

were can i get a female usb port

[blzzrd]

Here is just a better schematic and a few notes about the charger. Required Parts: 1) Toggle Switch – Single Pull Single Throw 1) LED 1) 150 Ohm Resistor (Brown, Green, Brown, Gold) 1) Radio Shack 7805 Voltage Regulator + 5 Volt dc 1) USB Female Cable End Purpose: Toggle Switch – to turn on the charger LED – to indicate the status of the charger (On or Off) 150-Ohm resistor – used to limit the current through the LED and the Voltage Regulator Voltage Regulator – to regulate the output voltage to +5V dc Notes: There is approximately a 1.7 voltage drop across the LED There is approximately a 0.6 voltage drop across the resistor This leaves approximately 6.7 volts entering the regulator The switch, LED, and resistor may be placed in any order because they are in series with each other. All three must be placed between the positive side of the battery, and the input side of the voltage regulator. (A higher resistor value drops the output voltage below the +5V dc output. For example, a 200-Ohm resistor reduces the output to 4.9V dc)

[Ananand]

(removed by author or community request)

[fourier]

It should have no problems charging an Ipod.  However, Iphones are a different story.  The iphone will "test" the charger by first trying to sink a large current on the data lines.  This is to insure your charger can handle the current that Iphone needs to charge (it has a bulkier battery) If your charger is able to sustain a certain voltage during this sink, it will allow it to charge.  Unfortunately, this configuration cannot charge the iphone.

[schmidtty]

i need some help... i used a small blue LED and i took out the resistor and im using a close to new 9 volt, (about 8.15 v) and im only getting 3.50v out of the regulator. i think my problem is the blue LED is drawing a little less than 4.5v, and that only leaves less than 4.5 v for the output of the regulator... that would explain why i get 4.93 out of the regulator when i put in a brand new 9v. i still want to use the blue LED, but i want this thing to acutally work for more than 5 mins with a new battery. thanks

[tonythemediaguy]

Blue and white both use 3.2 to 3.4 volts. If you MUST use an led (you should really use a green, red, or yellow) then you'll need something like a joule thief and a big resistor to bring the 9 volts down.