blog.l-lacker.com » USB http://blog.l-lacker.com Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:52:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Project | MintyBoost http://blog.l-lacker.com/project-mintyboost/ http://blog.l-lacker.com/project-mintyboost/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 05:54:13 +0000 admin http://blog.l-lacker.com/?p=195 [...]]]> LadyAda sells a pretty neat kit to allow you to give your USB gadgets power from 2 AA batteries. To create the “Boost” (save for batteries) The capacitors, IC Socket, schottky diode, etc.. took roughly 10 minutes to solder onto the PCB using these instructions, and another 15 minutes and 2 Altoids gum tins to give it the “Minty” part. Note: I spent the better part of 2 days locating these gum tins in the midwest.  Eventually I found them at CVS of all places.

A couple of test gadgets; iPod touch (Gen2), G1, iPod Shuffle seemed to work just fine.  The tin does get hot, and there is a buzzing and hissing noise that emits from the tin.  Perfectly Normal.
From the F.A.Q

“How many charges/hours of use can I get out of a MintyBoost?”

This question is hard to judge because every device has different power usage. However, a simple way to calculate approximate run-time is: take the size of the internal Lithium-Ion battery (for example, many iPods have 750mAh batteries) and divide 1000 by that number. So for a 750mA battery, 1000/750 = 1.3. The MintyBoost will fully charge the device about 1.3 times, as a best case. Remember, this is only an approximation and has a lot to do with the quality of the batteries you use (expensive alkalines v. cheap rechargables) and the internal circuitry of the device for recharging the battery.

I would suggest this for anyone needing a quick burst of juice on the go.   This is also a nice beginners soldiering project.

As always, comment with questions or contact me via twitter.

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