Make a USB phone charger for almost any cell phone!

My charger burned up, so I thought,"Why not build your own?"

Step 1: Get the parts:

1. Altoids tin.
2. Old wall/car charger that fits your cell phone.
3. Male USB.
4. 220 ohm resistor (red-red-brown).
5. LED (color is up to you).
6. Power Switch.
7. USB extension cable (just in case you can't fit the USB plug directly into your computer).

SIMPLE, HUH?

Comments

[pancho del rancho]

would this work with a i phone 3g

[dhammy0110]

Not with an iPhone 3Gs or 4. On those phones, the USB data pins need to have a voltage on them. D- should be 2.0V and D+ 2.9V to make the phone charge in high speed. If your wall wart is less than 800mA, you may want to have the phone charge in low-speed mode, with both pins at 2.0V. Ladyada, maker of the mintyboost, goes over this nicely. As well, this dude: http://tzywen.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=696

[toogers]

it doesnt matter, this is the same as the apple usb cord but this has switch and light.

[talha91]

if u can make two terminals positive (+) and negative (-) which can be easily attach to your cell phone`s battery so u can recharge any kind of cell phone battery but be sure your cell phone battery gives output of not more then 4 volts because to recharge the battery u must need more volts then it deserves 5volts are enough to recharge a normal cell battery (now a days cell phone`s are using about 3.6 to 3.7 volts)

[pancho del rancho]

yay finito

[roughwirez]

No. The resistor is just for the power LED. You can completely leave out the resistor, and LED; and hell, for that matter, you wouldn't even need the power switch! Just make sure that YOUR phone charges of 5v! If your phone charges off a 12v charger, then you would need a step up regulator. (less than 5, a step down regulator.). So yes, if you have the power cord, all you would do, is simply connect the red to pin 1, and the black to pin 4! BUT PLEEZ, CHECK A WALL WORT TO SEE WHAT IT USUALLY RUNS ON!

[pancho del rancho]

o if its none volts can we use like a bunch of batteries like a separate battery holder

[Lambeau]

Can you just connect the male USB to your phone charger cable? Or do you need the resister and stuff.

[Derin]

look at post under this post

[roughwirez]

Correctomundo! I was thinking though about maybe putting in a filter capictor anyway, But I do think that I'll try just making it portable, with batteries inside it next time. This was a 'sample' version, as with any project, they just get better with experience!

[therian]

"almost any cell phone" today have mini USB and can be charged directly from usb. Altoids, especially this one looks too big, I doubt that you will find place in you PC where you can plug it in. And if it is capacitor in the center then Led connected wrong, in best case it will light for few seconds what the point of switch ?

[themadman]

it's not a capacitor. it is to show that the wires that cross each other aren't connected. the LED is running in parallel and the switch is there so that the operator can control how long their phone is charging for.