Cheap way of recharging your Zune or other USB devices on the go

[ozman69]

Saw this on the internet and am thinking of ordering it. No clue how good it is, but the way it works isn't complicated and makes it very easy to recharge when you are on the go.

If anyone has used this or knows anything about it, feel free to post here. I'd like to know what expericiences people have had with this.



Here's some info on it from the site:

Make your own iPod Zune battery-pack and recharger! Build your own MintyBoost: a small & simple (but very powerful and very MAKE-like)USB charger for your iPod (or other mp3 player), camera, cell phone, and any other gadget you can plug into a USB port to charge. The charger circuitry and 2 AA batteries fit into an Altoids gum tin, and will run your iPod for hours, 2.5x more than you'd get from a 9V USB charger! You can use rechargable batteries too. Some soldering is necessary, but even if you've never soldered before it should be pretty easy. Tested with iPod nano/mini/photo/video/shuffle, Blackberry, iPaq, LuxPro Tangent, Rio Carbon, Samsung T809 and more. Batteries and tin not included. If you live in an area that doesn't have Altoids gum, you can buy a tin (including the gum) from us.

And here's the link: http://store.makezine.com/ProductDet...Y&Show=ExtInfo

All of the schematics are here: http://ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/make.html

So, you can either buy the parts from their site for 20 bucks (plus "case" if you don't have one) and put it together.

Oz

[Nothing2Prove]

that looks weird.

[DaN]

Yeah. It looks like batteries in an altoids container.

[lpxxfaintxx]

It's actually pretty neat!

[JayK95]

This thing Rox!!

I'm going to build one! Thanx for the schematics!

I'm hoping to have one built in the short term and will post pics if I can convince a friend who's good with this kind of stuff to create it for me.

Jay K.

[ozman69]

It might look weird and it might look like batteries in an altoid case (which it is), but it's a cheap and easy way to charge up your Zune when you don't have access to an outlet. Pop in two AA batteries and plug it in. And if you do this often enough, get some rechargable batteries to use for when you don't have any other way to charge your Zune.

I plan on getting the parts and making one as well. Once I've finished it, I'll post some more info.

I'm guessing by those two posts saying it looked weird that you didn't actually read it or go to the links.

Oz

edit: and it's a lot cheaper than this battery pack mentioned here: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=301320

That one is 60 bucks and once that battery is dead and won't charge anymore, you have to spend another 60 bucks.

[coffeefreak]

that thing's bloody kool! now i only wish i had a soldering iron......

[juls727]

Originally Posted by DaN

Yeah. It looks like batteries in an altoids container.

it IS batteries in an altoids container xD

hence the name minty-boost

all smartass-ness aside, I've built one for a friend's video Ipod before, and it actually works fairly well..

[Federal111]

Hmm, watch your Zune/ Ipod blow up becuase there's too much power input growing slowly