How to Hack Ps3 Portal of Power to Add USB Power

The original portal of power (pop) never had USB or DC power. Those 3 AA batteries every few days was getting annoying.

I am no expert in electronics but a little reading and a little logic seems to have worked here.

You will need:
A wire stripper
Pliers
Soldering iron
Solder
A Phillips screwdriver
a 1 ohms resistor
A USB cable with type A head. (see below)

Step 1: Where to Connect

Under the rubber grips, there are 4 screws. Take these off and the pop will easily open.

Step 2: Where to Connect

The Negative terminal has a black wire soldered on. On the opposite far side, although my pop did not have a red wire, I could tell from the underside something was soldered on.

It's possible to solder directly to these points. I just thought it was easier to solder to the battery terminals as you'll see.

Step 3: Where to Connect

I used an old usb wire that I had laying around.
Cut it at the tip and peel the cable back to reveal the 4 wires inside.

We only need the black and red wires which are what carries the power down the wire. I chopped the other 2 off.

Use a wire stripper to reveal the copper under the coloured wire.

I used a wood/metal file to make a small hole in the side of the pop as you can see in the picture to feed the USB wire through to the battery terminals.

I also held the wire in place with a cable tie.

Step 4: The Soldering Part.

For this bit I thought about the voltage that would accumulate from 3, 1.5v AA batteries. The pop needs 4.5 volts and USB carries 5 volts from whatever it's connected to.

I used a resistor to lower the power being carried down the usb by 0.5 volts using a 1ohms resistor.
I am really not into electronics at all. I used an online calculator to help me pick up the correct resistor. http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz 

As you can see in the image, I soldered the negative from the usb (black) to the negative battery terminal. I soldered the resistor between the positive usb wire and the positive cable terminal.

Step 5: Complete

I tested my the power from the pop with a multimeter while the pop was turned on. The voltage had indeed decreased from 5 volts to 4.6.

I now have happy kids not moaning that their batteries have run out and a portal of power that connects to the PS3 USB socket. :-)