thanks to everyone’s great feedback, i’ve now got a usb battery that’s much more efficient and capable of delivering more current to a portable device. like i promised, i put together a slick little case to finish this hack off right. read on for some tips on building your own.
quick improvement
as mentioned by several readers, you’ll want to use a 5 volt regulator ic instead of the resistor/zener-diode combo i discussed previously. you’ll be able to charge your device faster while it is running and it’s much more efficient, which will give your 9 volt a longer battery life.
the best part is that it’s easier and cheaper to do it this way. just grab an lm7805 from your local hacker store and wire it up. connect the positive battery terminal to the 7805 input pin, the positive usb pin to the 7805 output pin, and connect the negative battery terminal and the usb ground pin to the 7805 ground pin.
which is which? if you hold the 7805 with the text facing you and the pins downward, the pins from left to right are: input, ground, output. it looks like this:
for the female usb connector, look down into the end of the connector so that it is oriented like so:
pin 1 is the positive (5v) terminal (which goes to the output of the 7805) and pin 4 is ground (which goes to the 7805 ground pin).
easiest way to test
several people were wondering how to tell if you are going to fry your device. here’s the easiest way to test when you are all done wiring:
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cut a standard usb cable in half.
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plug the male end into your usb battery.
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connect the positive and negative ends of your multimeter to the red and black usb wires respectively.
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if it reads something very close to 5v then you are wired correctly.
making a case
i chose to make my case out of polystyrene plastic. you can find this stuff in sheet form at most hobby stores. it’s the same kind of plastic used in your standard plastic model kit and the sheet form lends itself nicely to making flat sided objects
In order to work with the iPod video, you need to ground the data pins. I am using 100 ohm resistor to connect the data pins to ground(just in case something goes wrong)
hi
I was wondering if this works with ipod mini, since in it’s manual, the apple company specificaly indicates the need of a “high-power usb 2.0 port”, whatever that is.
in short, I made a simple test of connecting the usb connection to just the two peripheral contacts on the port, giving it just the 5v power.
it didn’t work.
do you maybe know how to hack a “high-power usb 2.0 port”?
I’m interested in building a car charger for my ipod mini, so if you have an educated time saving full suggestion for the build, I’d very much like to hear it…
thanks!
Has someone tested the shuffle trick with IPod 5G yet?
Yea pretty straight forward. Could i hook it all up the same way except for two 9v batterys hooked up in a series? Or would that put too many amps to the psp?
Cool, easy enough. The thing i am wondering, is how is the Amps limited? If i was to do the same thing, but with a car battery, would it work, or fry the psp because too many amps?
#249
This kind of power supply will work with a Palm T5? Or is beter to build the USB battery v2?
Thaks
I tested the voltage the thing was puttin out and it was like 4.95v which is fine, but when i plug in my ipod(video) its back light turns on, but it doesn’t show that it’s charging. Did i do somethin wrong, or is it just that my ipod is different than older ones?
Hey sorry this is a little bit off topic, but does anyone know if apples “iPod USB Power Adapter” ($29) has any special circuitry inside of it to stop overcharging or anything like that. I got a new video iPod and think it is crazy to have to spend $29 for an
i purchased a 7805sr (2 actually) from
http://store.cd4power.com/cgi-bin/cd4power.storefront/43d165bd0477e872271e0c9f89420710/Product/View/8075851
as described in #228. after alittle fooling around, some more reading and alot of head scratching, i finally got it to work on my 30 gig 5g ipod. connect usb pins 2,3 and 4 together., those goto the center pin of regulator, battery positive goes to pin 1 and usb power positive goes to pin 3 of regulator. works like a champ. i’m using an 8 cell aa holder from the rat shack with nickle-metal hydride cells. i don’t see any reason why a 9.6 volt rc car battery pack wouldn’t work, the rat shack has them along with a charger. i charged an almost dead ipod and the 7805sr didn’t even get warm. it shows 5 volts with or without the ipod connected..grounding the usb data line is no big deal.when connected to the computer, the usb data line will be pulled high while it’s sending data…
another thing i looked at… i plugged a usb cable into the usb port on the computer and measured between the power ground, signal ground and signal plus wires…got a reading of 22k….so…just for the heck of it…i’m gonna stick a resistor into those 3 wires and then connect them together and see what happens..
i purchased a 7805sr (2 actually) from
http://store.cd4power.com/cgi-bin/cd4power.storefront/43d165bd0477e872271e0c9f89420710/Product/View/8075851
as described in #228. after alittle fooling around, some more reading and alot of head scratching, i finally got it to work on my 30 gig 5g ipod. connect usb pins 2,3 and 4 together., those goto the center pin of regulator, battery positive goes to pin 1 and usb power positive goes to pin 3 of regulator. works like a champ. i’m using an 8 cell aa holder from the rat shack with nickle-metal hydride cells. i don’t see any reason why a 9.6 volt rc car battery pack wouldn’t work, the rat shack has them along with a charger. i charged an almost dead ipod and the 7805sr didn’t even get warm. it shows 5 volts with or without the ipod connected..grounding the usb data line is no big deal.when connected to the computer, the usb data line will be pulled high while it’s sending data…
another thing i looked at… i plugged a usb cable into the usb port on the computer and measured between the power ground, signal ground and signal plus wires…got a reading of 22k….so…just for the heck of it…i’m gonna stick a resistor into those 3 wires and then connect them together and see what happens..
doing a search on ebay showed some ipod car power adapters with the wide connector on it. they were listed with a 12 volt at 1 amp output. it may be that putting 12 volts in on the power (usb pins 1 and 4) will do the trick. but having fried 1 ipod, i’m not about to try it.
now the switching voltage regulator that output 5 volts did work ok after twisting 2,3 and 4 together and connecting it to the negative battery terminal. (basically putting the usb signal to ground.) i have some auto to 5 volt adapters for my ipaq and they don’t work. i also have a 110 v to 5 v ipaq adapter (with usb port) that charges the ipod like a champ. i pluged in a usb cable that i cut in half and measured power. using the black as ground, the 3 other wires showed 5.1 volts. that was 5.1 volts on the power, data ground, and data + wires..it shows charging icon as soon as it’s pluged in. with no having to press any buttons to tickle it into gear:))
I used these instructions to create one and it works like a champ! I also added a place to connect to the power from my cigarette lighter.
I took the lighter apart and soldered two wires onto the back, one for power, one for ground. Those two can then be run into the speaker input that I have soldered to the voltage regulator.
I had thought that the cigarette lighter’s fluctuating power (and turning the car on/off) might cause a problem, but so far I have had no issues.
Thanks! This site is awesome.
i need a diagram of an ps/2 to usb adapter. i want to make it myself. you maybe know how to do one.. :) thnxs
Turns out the problem with USB output is that when the iPod is connected into the battery, it asks “who are you? can I have power?”. By default, USB provides 100mA without enumeration, but the iPod follows the standard and asks for permission to go into high power mode. It doesn’t receive a response, and just “wakes up”. The iPod doesn’t know that it can grab the full 5v from the battery until it receives that signal. The question is, how can we tell the iPod its good to grab the full voltage available to it?
I just made one very similar for my ipod shuffle. Yet, I used a 4AA battery pack (with a on/off switch), and used rechargeable batteries which at full strength provide just over 5V. (NiMH usually go a bit higher than their rated 1.2V)
Therefore I didn’t need to have a voltage regulator.
If you don’t want to use rechargeable batteries, you can put a LED (which takes up 0.6V and shines so it acts as a charging indicator), and you’ll then only have around 5.2 to 5.4V to the device.
Like several other people said, yes the ipod shuffle needs some sort activation to start charging, so this above charger wouldn’t work, but like “Dewy” said, if you connect the other 2 usb pins ( or I only connected one of them) to ground (4th pin), then it charges. Don’t ask me why this works as I only got it by accident.
Here is a picture of what I did:
http://lisitsa.fastmail.com.au/ShuffleCharger
You probably can’t see, but the black ground wire, and the green wire is connected to the black battery pack wire.
Alright, i made this, but im having a problem. the voltimeter reads correctly, at 5.5 volts when i test from the leads, and when i test the pins inside the usb port. When i plug in my iPod, the screen lights up, and it acknowledges that somethings there, but it doesnt say charging or anything. its a brand new battery
what is wrong? theres no extra solder shorting anything out or anything, but its being lame
any ideas?
someone catch me on aim
invu4uremo
Motorola Razr V3’s charger actually deliver 5V output from wall outlet with a USB adapter since it’s how V3 is charged, I managed to charge my iPod nano with it :) Check out http://blog.chris-chan.com/?postid=5
FYI – Using a Belkin Automotive USB charger, I was able to successfully charge an IPOD 20GB 4G Photo by tying pins 2 & 3 to 5 Volts with a 1K ohm resistor. This is known as “pull up” resistors. I only used 1 resistor with one end tied to 2 & 3 and the other end tied to 5 Volts. My charging indicator works and no apparent damage to the IPOD.
The output measured 5.3 Volts, but everything appears fine. I suspect this 1K ohm resistor could also be tied to ground.
Pins 2 & 3 are differential data pins and apparently the IPOD Photo expects to see something other than floating pins to activate the charging mode.
very nice idea for the case nice an compact
I just put togeter this usb battery pack, tried it out on a sanyo vi-2300 cell phone worked great, tried it on my 30GB ipod video and it works great…the only thing i did differently was soldered 3 wires together to the ground on the 7805 and then one went to the output of the 7805..i have it charging my cellphone again to see the battery life before it needs to be changed, and the ipod is fully charged anyways, im in the military spend alot of time in the field..this thing is EXTREAMLY usefull
I just put togeter this usb battery pack, tried it out on a sanyo vi-2300 cell phone worked great, tried it on my 30GB ipod video and it works great…the only thing i did differently was soldered 3 wires together to the ground on the 7805 and then one went to the output of the 7805..i have it charging my cellphone again to see the battery life before it needs to be changed, and the ipod is fully charged anyways, im in the military spend alot of time in the field..this thing is EXTREAMLY usefull
wow, i just stumbled upon this. quick question. well, maybe not. i’m assuming this set-up can charge ANY device that can be charged via a computer’s USB port. but can this be used, say, to charge an o2 XDA II mini/I-mate Jam/HTC Magician?
i’m quite curious about it but am too scared to fry up my gadget.. :D any help would be much appreciated
I sent in a tip about a hidden game that I found on my T-Mobile SideKick II. I dont think it was posted, but I thought it would be cool to have it posted… Either way, if there are anymore SK2 hacks, hints, or posts… I’ll be looking out for them.
FYI to all…works like a charm on a 5G iPod video.
see my link…
http://kevinrye.tripod.com/electronics/usb/usb.html
FYI to all, works lika a charm on a 5G iPod video
see my link:
http://kevinrye.tripod.com/electronics/usb/usb.html
Question here—
Just made one of these using a 12v power supply and a 7805–tested it and it outputs 5v.
Soldered it to the +5V and gnd pins on a usb cable.
Plugged my Creative Zen Micro in and it says it is charging.
However it does not seem to register any higher on the battery meter over the last 10 hours. But it shows the charging symbol.
Anyone know if its charging or not? Or how to make it faster if it is?
I read somewhere that devices can only draw 100mA until they identify themselves to the USB host and then they can get 500mA.
Could it be that it is only currently drawing 100mA to charge so it’ll take longer?
I tested across the three pins on the inside that the battery contacts and found the voltage across them when attached to the 7805 and the computer–they turn out to be the same.
The 7805 I’m using will go over 1A and is heatsunk–yes it is getting hot. It has not shut off yet.
I really hate to let the company rip me off with their charger at $29.99.
Any help appreciated—Thanks a lot!
Will thie work on a 60 gig video ipod?
Question here—
Just made one of these using a 12v power supply and a 7805–tested it and it outputs 5v.
Soldered it to the +5V and gnd pins on a usb cable.
Plugged my Creative Zen Micro in and it says it is charging.
However it does not seem to register any higher on the battery meter over the last 10 hours. But it shows the charging symbol.
Anyone know if its charging or not? Or how to make it faster if it is?
I read somewhere that devices can only draw 100mA until they identify themselves to the USB host and then they can get 500mA.
Could it be that it is only currently drawing 100mA to charge so it’ll take longer?
I tested across the three pins on the inside that the battery contacts and found the voltage across them when attached to the 7805 and the computer–they turn out to be the same.
The 7805 I’m using will go over 1A and is heatsunk–yes it is getting hot. It has not shut off yet.
I really hate to let the company rip me off with their charger at $29.99.
Any help appreciated—Thanks a lot!
Is there anyone reading this?
I’ve been trying do this for a couple of days now, I am using lm2940 with 6 rechargable AAs (1.2V nominal each). lm2940 is just designed for this job, more efficent than 7805, added battery related protections, but needs larger capacitance.
Also using 6 AAs give way more performance than a single 9V.
USB standart dictates a voltage between 4.75-5.25V my charger gives 4.94 V wheras my PC 4.84 V. Also D+ and D- pins should be taken to low using 15K Ohm resistors.
However, this does not charge the ipod. It is most probably related to hand shake requirement. So in order to use this battery, you should somehow send a “reset” than “standby”. I am unable to find how this is done using DIY.
Anyone can help?
great project, and in answer to the post #51 a switched regulator (5V) can be found here:
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/DE-SW0XX.htm
i’ve been building one of these for my 60gig ipod photo and I made an interesting discovery. The standard ipod wall adapter actually outputs roughly 5.13v on pin 1, but also puts out 2.8v on pin 2 and another 2v on pin 3. I used a pair of resistors to create a step-down ladder and i’m putting around 2.5v across pins 2 and 3, as well as a solid 5v across pin 1 as usual – Now when I plug my ipod in, it instantly recognizes it as a charger base and begins charging. (I bet I could even use this to trick it into reflashing the firmware without a wall outlet)
The catch is the trickle charge I suspect. When it hits 90%, it stops charging but doesn’t tell me – the circuit doesn’t stop and the charge icon stays on, but it won’t go any higher. When watching the wall outlet, the voltages drop significantly when it hits that level. My guess is the pod switches to ‘trickle charge’ and raises the resistance, and my little two 9v circuit can’t push any more juice into it to top it off like the wall outlet can. Any ideas?
I have made a working one for iPod video, and am going to make a lithium rechargable one. Check it out: http://penguinman.no-ip.org.nyud.net:8080/?cat=2
I made this in australia nd it only costed US$2.80
AU$3.60
+ once off soldering equiptment
can i uss a 12v ciggarete lighter plug instead of the battery
say i have an ac/dc adaptor.. like the ones they use to charge mobile phones.. except it has a little switch to select the voltage.. if i cut the part i stick into my phone off and stick an USB female input on it.. will it work..?
i didn’t go to school for this so please level with me :P
#248,
I just tried this usb battery with my 5G iPod with video (60GB) and it worked. The only thing that I must tell anyone who tries this is that once you have the red and black (positive and ground) wired up, connnect the two other “data” cables together and to the grounded black wire. This worked not only for my 5G, but also for my nano, mini, shuffle, and photo.
I don’t have a lm7805 SCR, but can a S106B1 or C106D SCR work?
I don’t have a lm7805 SCR, but can a S106B1 or C106D SCR work?
I don’t have a lm7805 SCR, but can a S106B1 or C106D SCR work?
I built an adapter out of my Nokia cell phone charger (ACP 12E). It is spec’ed to have 5.7 V with a max of 800 mAh. I didn’t use any regulators. Plugging it into my iPod Nano looks fine at first. The charge Icon comes up and after a while it even says Charged. But after unplugging it it turns out that the battery level is actually lower than before starting to charge it. This seems to be the same as others experienced.
But I can’t draw a conclusion out of the comments if I should ground pins 2 and 3 or not.
Did anybody experience that before and found a fix?
i have a creative muvo 256mb. i accidently blew the fuse and i made this. it works great. i added a switch so i wouldnt have to unplug nething. great idea ^_^ thanks
alright, help me! i want to do this today.
http://www.iguanalabs.com/7805kit.htm
this says to use a 220uf adapter or w/e thingy. so could someone show me how to wire all this crap up to a little pc board?
alright i want to do this today.
but this site says that i could use a 220 uf adapter, could i have a radioshack product number for that and a diagram on how to wire all this up on a breadboard.
Can i use 4 AA rechargeables of amperage 2300mAh for the 5v usb charger for my ipod 5g video?
Will the high amperage pose any threat to my device(will it burn out or something?) i plan to use the LM7805 regulator with the batteries.
4 x 1.2 = 4.8v . I hope to use the 7805 in a kind of circuitry to step the voltage to 5v. I am only worried about the amperage….what’s its significance??
Can someone point me in the direction of 1394 spec sheet? I want to learn more about the specs for adding and using power from the bus.
Thanks.
Does Anybody knows how to force the iPod video (5G) to charge if it’s not a computer??
I’ve made a perfect charger with a low drop 5v regulator and i don’t understand how the iPod works, sometimes it charges when I reset my iPod, sometimes it doesn’t want to, especially when the battery is totally discharged!
If you had experimented the same trouble, please, let me know.
Thank
So a USB will work even if the voltage is a bit higher or a bit lower?
Has anyone figured out if it is possible to let the shuffle play and charge at the same time? Perhaps instead of grounding wires 2 and 3, maybe just connecting them together? Has anyone opened up a “real” charger to see how it works?
It would be quite useful. When your shuffle dies, you just plug it in and keep going instead of waiting for it to charge…
Could you attach a simple schematic with circuit symbols and so forth. I can’t read your pcb. I think I understand it, but I have never created a pcb before. Also the pcb picture doesn’t show anything about the resistor and the led. In final, i’ve seen other designs similar to this, but they don’t use any capacitors. What function do the capacitors serve? Voltage regulation? I thought thats what the voltage regulator did.
This website has a different design with capacitors in it. What does the capacitors do and is a better design?
http://www.instructables.com/ex/i/9A2B899A157310299AD7001143E7E506/discuss.html#A:190D8416159710299AD7001143E7E506
I am working on an iPod USB charger that uses 1 AA NiMH 2500 mA/hr battery, using a regulator made by Dallas Semiconductor. I will use 2 caps 1 inductor, and 1 or 2 resistors in the design although not necessary they allow utilization of chip features like ring control (better stability) and low battery monitoring that switches the circuit off. This type of system waists very little energy, and does not get very hot. I am going to use an aluminum tube (part if a AA Maglite) as the device where you can unscrew the bottom to replace the battery and the top will have a USB connection the electronics package will be built with a 3D interconnect design that will be conformal coated for insulation and durability as well as it will fit better in a tube that way. As soon as I get my parts delivered I will begin fabrication and will document my work so I can provide instructions for those who want to try. 1 AA battery should charge an iPod more than twice as many times as a 9 volt. And you can recharge some NiMH AA batteries in 15 minutes if you have the right charger!!