In need of a portable power supply, [Alastair] threw some batteries into an Altoids tin. The problem was he didn’t have a holder for these size A23 cells. Inspiration struck and he realized the blister pack they came in fits them snuggly and just needs some conductors to complete the circuit. He pulled some battery contacts from a broken CD player. Using foam-based double-stick tape he added some spring to the contacts and came up with a perfectly sized holder that works wonderfully.
We’ve tried making battery packs by wrapping the entire thing in clods of duct tape. This looks like it works a lot better and there’s still room to fit the batteries and a switch inside of this minty enclosure.
I’ve done the same thing for AA’s when I didn’t have any spare connectors, I usually save the packs that Energizer rechargeables come in because they snap closed and are good for storage, but add some wires and they make good battery holders.
That’s actually pretty good. Simple and effective, and the thought never struck me.
Totally in the spirit.
Huh, I have a mountain of these little plastic cup thingies from battery packs. There’s AA mountain, the D-Cell cascades, and the AAA foothills.
That plastic is evilly tough to destroy so they’d probably make great cases. I wonder if I put two back-to-back if I can make a proper enclosure?
That is actually really clever, simple and does what it needs to. This is the sort of thing that makes a lot of sense on HaD.
P.S.
Why would you use duct tape for electrical work?
really simple really clever!
So obvious that it hurts because it is right in front of your nose!
brilliant
this is 1 of those things that is like so obvious yet i’ve never thought to do it
somone submit to thereifixedit!!!
btw, needs aluminum foil contacts for ultimate kludge-factor
holy shit.
batterys in a fucking tin. YES.
this is some nobel prize shit right here.
23A For lighting, wrist watch tiny cells in series !!?! Is he aware of ~ 33 mAh and huge internal resistance? I just cant think of even worse choice of batteries. I have semiconductor tester that runs on 23A, it pull just couple mA when in use and its enough to create frustration of replacing them frequently, and they so overpriced, I hate them so much and add external supply in the end.
@MS3FGX
Maybe he’s in the military. They use duct tape( aka “100 mile-an-hour” tape) to sovle and fix damn near everything.
love it.
now im starting to believe that maybe they actually couldnt see the ships coming….
This is just batteries in a tin, what is hackaday thinking, i sent them a unique way to use a cheap off the shelf device to switch on/off power plugs.
from any where in the world, even the OS is ran on was self coded in full asm.
But they could not even give us a email acknowledgement :( .
@ Dex
what’s the link to that story, sounds interesting/
@Dex
That does indeed suck. Like the above comment, a link would be appreciated.
“i sent them a unique way to use a cheap off the shelf device to switch on/off power plugs.”
http://dex4u.com/HomeAuto.htm
If you want HAD to post a project you need to do something interesting with a good implementation.
You have a poor implementation of a common technique, something that will only get posted if you are lucky.
@xyz
If its such a “common technique”, show me a link to to the same technique.
ps: i did not want to spam, thats why i did not post a link.
Lol, I’ll put batteries in a beer bottle and see if you’ll post that. While indeed a useful device, hardly hackaday worthy:
@Dex
Come on man, you know everyone on earth can control their house from their cell phone from the other end of the earth. What were you thinking? I just flushed my toilet using a PDA, that’s how “common” your submission was… :-)
@xyz
I just looked over his project… Really? Mr. Altoids looks like a short praying to happen, making molten lithium everywhere.
My guess is that using a smaller switch, it may be possible to fit 2 pairs (4 batteries), and use the switch to select the pair you want to use. :)
With a 3 position switch, you can turn it off too, if that it’s really needed.
Very simple, very innovative – love it!
whats he using this tin for ?
Hackaday you need to accept more submissions like this, your site is awfully dry sometimes.. what with all this nokia push BS! virtual graffiti sucks. so does skating/boarding, alot of us dont see the light of day.
at least put them in a basic hacks category
@HackMasterJack.
I agree, but its the use of the remote control plugs, as a safe and easy way to switch the mains power.
solder the batteries together and dispose of when done ;)
do you think this could be adapted to charge a psp? idk because i know it’s got the little power brick thing. if so, something worth looking into
you can easily convert the PSP to USB charging, and then make your own USB charger-in-an-Altoids-tin
i think that’s very clever
another useful kludge used by myself and others is to swipe a piece or three of the special nickel coated conductive foam from a dead lcd panel.
this is good enough for low drain applications and reliable with multiple uses.
i have used this and it works well (even charged a li-ion camera cell when the original charger had sprouted legs) :)
do you think this could be adapted to charge a psp? idk because i know it’s got the little power brick thing. if so, something worth looking into
Posted at 2:23 pm on Feb 5th, 2010 by 2ro
i cut the end off a car charger, 5 volts at like 800 ma and put the right plug for a psp
my psp 1001 booted without a battery
im going to try this with usb(ie, 2.5 watts total) and see if it boots
just to charge takes less current than to run it
@therian
About the A23’s, yeah they are expensive and low amperage andsoforth BUT they are the only tiny thing that gives off 12 volts, and to get that with 1.2/1.5v batteries takes upto 10 of them and then you might as well get a motor/scooter battery since you’re lugging around several pounds anyway and it’s no longer suited for the pocket.
Addendum: Or a powerdrill power pack, or alarmsystem backup pack or RC car/boat powerpack, but those are also expensive/heavy.
…or you could use polymorph to make the whole enclosure. (Take a look at some of the projects in that site. Polymorph is awesome!)
I’m not arsed about what anyone else says, it looks like a good idea for my RC zepplin designs.. cheers ;0)