Smart Mint the Solar Phone Charger

Hello everyone Techsavvy here , 
 it been awhile since I posted anything ,
and I  Thought I owe it to my Awesome subscribers to post something I'v been working on , 
Thanks again guys for your support  ;-)
 and fellow users 

so to start off by saying a couple of things ,


well for starters I wanted to make my own mint tin Version  of a cellphone charger that is powered by both sun and battery , 
I know there's few Idea's out there and there all great ,
but I wanted to see if I could make one cheaper and explain in a way that's easy for everyone to understand , 

Second I wanted it easy to make so that anyone could make it , even those who don't have that kind of know how ,
and three I wanted to make it easier by telling others were to find the altoids tins or other type of mint tin ,

yes that's a problem were I  live not to mention I don't have radio shack either I know scary right ,

and lastly I wanted it to be able to replace the battery anytime I needed instead of waiting for it to charge all the time , 

so with that said lets go make are own Smart mint  .

 

Step 1: Getting What You Need

OK so here's a list of thing's you will need ,

Things to buy .
1x 3 volt solar cell , ebay or buyincoins , I got mine from buyincoins for about $ 2.00
1x 1.5 volt to 5 volt boost module , you can get These on ebay or buyincoins , for about $1.50 to $2.00 .

1x Rectifier diode any will work fine , you can buy these on ebay or  for a $ 1 for 100 .
1x switch I used a rocker switch , but you can choose what ever you have on hand , this only costed me $ 2.00 for 10 on ebay .

1x (AA) Battery holder and rechargeable battery ,  this was bought off ebay as well for $ 1 for holder and battery two for a $1, 
1x Altoids tin or other mint tin , since were I live its very hard to find mint tins so I used a Sucrets tin , $2.00 found at dollerama or pharmacy or at walmart . 
1x 10 or 25 volt capacitor . ebay as well 

Tools and materials   
Note some of this is optional you can use what ever tool's you have handy ,
Glue gun
Soldering gun / optional
Epoxy
contact cement / optional
double sided tape
electric tape ,
piece of solid package foam / I used a piece that came with the module ,
Dremel or sharp Knife    ,
gloves and safety glasses ,
Black marker
 
Please note I'm not reasonable for any Damage or harm to one's self , please use all recommended safety percussion's and be safe .  

Step 2: Get the Case Ready

OK to start were going to need to cut out and drill the holes for are switch and usb port and the solar cells wires , 

to do the take a marker a trace on both sides of the usb and do the same with the switch , 
then make a mark on the top of your lid in the middle that were the wires for your solar cells will go in , 

once you've done that go ahead and cut out your hole for usb and switch and drill the hole for the wire's ,

now that that's done you can fit the parts that you going to put in to see how its going to fit ,

Step 3: Mounting and Gluing

OK now for the easy part , 

take a piece of the foam and cut it to fit the module , not only this will ground it from the case but it will help protect it if the case falls ,
Next take some epoxy and glue the foam to the inside of the tin were the module will go,

Next take a piece of double sided tape and put it on both ends of your battery holder ,
then place it inside the case pressing down firmly ,

When that is done you can put the switch in it place ,

Step 4: Putting It All Together

OK now its time to finish it off, 

Now I made a Diagram of were everything is to be connected ,
But i'll put it into words also  , 

ok first take your ground wire for your battery hold and solder it to the ground on the module , 
next take the diode and the cap and solder the caps positive to the the black end of the diode , 

then take the ground on the cap and solder that to the ground on module ,
and then take the solar cells ground and solder it to the ground on the module , 

now solder the grey end of the diode to the the off position on the switch ,
and then take the battery holders positive and solder it to the off position on the switch , 

Then solder the modules positive to the on position on the switch .

once done you can glue gun the module to the foam , and glue gun the connections to insulate them from touching ,
then glue your solar cell in place , I used the glue gun to glue the cell and then used some contact cement as a seal around the outside of the cells edge ,  

OK your done moving on 

Step 5: OK the Specs and the Testing

OK time to test it out , 

First I tested it with a voltmeter to see how the voltage looks ,
as you can see almost five volts it would have been more but I did want to wait for the battery to charge :-) ,

now in the pictures you can see the phone is charging well when plug into the smart tin , 

note if you have a Android phone it will say slow charging when plugged in  ,
that's fine it says the same when plugged into the computer ,

now it only took five minutes to charge the phone from 46% to 49% , 

since its winter it to soon to judge how well the solar cell will work ,
but like other's i'v used It should more than keep your battery topped up ,
so the over all project costed me around $7.00 to make .

so there you are now you can make your very own smart tin , Thank you for viewing 


P.s IF you have any questions feel free to ask :-)