Mintyboost! - iPhone 3G

psylichon · 08-08-2008, 04:40 AM

***EDIT*** This kit is not ideal for an iPhone or iPod Touch in its stock form. It requires more than 2 AA's. It will work well for iPod Video and lower, however. See this post for details.

So I ordered a kit from these guys tonight:

http://ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/

I'm very much looking forward to putting together a circuit again... albeit a very simple one.

The kit is only $20 (plus the cost of the altoids gum tin). They say it doubles the lifespan of an iPod video, so it should give me at least several hours of extra use per 2xAA. I have a ton of rechargeable AA's lying around, so I should be set for camping.

Of course I'll post pics of the process when I get it. Unless I seriously mess it up in which case... um... nevermind

psylichon · 08-08-2008, 04:45 AM

In case I can't get ^^^that together in time for my camping trip next weekend, here is tomorrow's project for my Element:

http://gaia.ecs.csus.edu/~joel/fun/element/RearOutletWire/rearoutletwire.htm

coasts · 08-08-2008, 04:58 AM

pretty cool. if i tried this i'd probably end up with an empty box of mints and a garbage can full of wires.

good luck

IndyBlues · 08-09-2008, 01:56 PM

Very curious to see how this turns out. Please keep us posted.
Mike

psylichon · 08-13-2008, 11:11 PM

Well it's in the mail and I was really hoping to have it before tomorrow (my camping trip), but it looks like this project will have to wait until next week. I did get the car charger mod done, though.... so at least I'll have a charged iPhone.

Stay tuned...

barbie · 08-14-2008, 05:21 AM

now you just need a battery charger you can plug in your car

kisstine · 08-16-2008, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by psylichon

So I ordered a kit from these guys tonight:

http://ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/

I'm very much looking forward to putting together a circuit again... albeit a very simple one.

The kit is only $20 (plus the cost of the altoids gum tin). They say it doubles the lifespan of an iPod video, so it should give me at least several hours of extra use per 2xAA. I have a ton of rechargeable AA's lying around, so I should be set for camping.

Of course I'll post pics of the process when I get it. Unless I seriously mess it up in which case... um... nevermind

Gosh, I *so* wish I'd seen this post sooner. Yesterday was my son's 15th birthday and it would have been the perfect present. Guess now he'll have to wait until Christmas. Still, he's going to be really excited.. great find, Dave!

psylichon · 08-20-2008, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barbie

now you just need a battery charger you can plug in your car

Well, I can just charge the phone directly there. Like I said, I have a ton of rechargeable AA's lying around, so I have no problem waiting until overnight to recharge those.

The kit arrived (the day after I left on a week-long trip, of course).... so I'm considering putting it together tonight. We'll see how much I have in me after the Olympics

Can't wait to solder again, though...

psylichon · 08-21-2008, 05:21 AM

Ok, so here's how the assembly went down.

Keep in mind that I haven't soldered a circuit since 8th grade. Check out how old my soldering iron is

Here's the bits in the kit. Not much to it really:

Warming up the iron and caching up the instructions. I was really impressed with the step-by-step instructions on the site. Those combined with the super-clear circuitboard layout made for a really simple assembly:

I'll admit I started this yesterday with the wrong tools. Never do that. I had a soldering tip that was too big and solder to match, and I didn't have 45-degree wire snips to keep things tidy. My first two solder attempts were horrible, cloudy metal globs. So a quick trip to Radio Shack today to get these things, along with a desoldering bulb to fix my mistakes and I was good to go. As you can see in this shot, the board is quite tiny!:

Here's the USB connector. Notice the large amount of solder to anchor this in place as it will endure the most physical stress:

psylichon · 08-21-2008, 05:23 AM

A few more capacitors and such:

Connecting the battery pack:

I gotta admit, I'm pretty proud of my solder points. Especially considering how long it's been. Having the right tools made a night and day difference:

And here's the fully-assembled board with chip in place:

Ah... happy charging: