Mintyboost! - Page 2 - iPhone 3G

psylichon · 08-21-2008, 05:24 AM

It's a tight fit:

The finished product:

The cool thing about this design over 9-volt products (of which there are many) is that this one uses cheaper, rechargeable batteries with higher amperage so it actually should be more efficient. Only time will tell... I'll be testing it out over the next few days. Until soon...

monkeysrock0622 · 08-21-2008, 05:59 AM

Wow that looks awesome. I think I will have to order it. I go camping once a month (with boy scouts, the place where I am not supposed to have my phone

)and this would be very handy. I have never done any soldering though, but I know someone who can help me. One question though, would it be better to use rechargeable batteries?

psylichon · 08-21-2008, 06:09 AM

Well they're only better because they're cheaper in the long run. I use high-power 2600 or 2700 mAh NiMH AA's (off Amazon for about $20/12), and they deliver performance close to alkaline (which are around 3000-3200 mAh).

But you will get more charge off alkalines. But more bang/buck with rechargeables (obviously).

psylichon · 08-21-2008, 05:49 PM

I had about a 70% charge last night but I still tested it a bit to see how quickly it charged. I got to 100% in under a half hour. Not too shabby! Next test is how many charges I can get off fresh batteries.

psylichon · 08-23-2008, 12:20 AM

Well things haven't been going so good with the Mintyboost. I wish I had read the forums a bit more, but apparently it's tough to power an iPhone with a stock Mintyboost kit with 2 AA's. It works, but it doesn't give much before the batteries are dead. I'm experimenting right now with 4 AA's and it appears to be working well, no other modification of the circuit. Stay tuned for more details and pics of the new tin...

Just wanted to warn those of you who would buy this kit that it's not the best for the iPhone in it's stock form. It apparently works wonders with iPods, though.

psylichon · 08-23-2008, 06:12 AM

Ok, I'm happy with the performance of 4 AA's (edit: Wired 2x parallel... the circuit cannot handle more than 3V input). The problem is I needed a new tin. A regular altoids tin would work for 3, but I couldn't find a 3-battery harness. So I went with a slightly larger one...

A little bit of wasted space, but it works:

And yeah, I'm not as thrilled with the final design, but it will work for now. It's all held in there with double-sided tape anyway, so I can upgrade when I find the perfect vessel:

Any ideas on another case???