Check out this awesome waterproof MintyBoost enclosure project built by Adafruit community member “IthinkIunderstand” on the Adafruit Forums!

Just thought i would share my first MintyBoost kit. I do a lot of biking and hiking and wanted something a little more rugged than the standard metal case. So i dug out the plumbing fittings and made a nice little waterproof version. Of course, we always realize a better way to build something AFTER we’ve built the first one. If i were to do this again, i would have a cable directly soldered to the board and coming out of a waterproof grommet somewhere on the cylinder. I would leave enough of the cable inside so that changing the batteries would simply mean unscrewing the cap and sliding out the unit, batteries first, and switching out the double A’s. That way you could just plug it in without opening it up.

This thing is made with 1 1/2 inch plumbing pieces which is common in any hardware store. The pictures are deceiving, but the length is roughly 135mm or 5 1/4 inches. If i had changed the size of the Lexan the batteries and board are sitting on i might have been able to add a set of spare batteries inside as a backup. This thing could be made to fit inside a 1 1/4inch pipe also, but it would be tight.

Another version of this would be to put it inside a plastic case for outdoor electrical. There would be room for a lipo battery and the charging circuit, including something solar. Look in the section where they keep all that gray plastic electrical conduit stuff.

If you have any questions, just ask.

Read more.

Really awesome project!

The crew over at MakerBot shared some more designs for the three DIY electronics kits we included in the MakerBot Adafruit Edition, and we have been having fun printing these out in-house ourselves!

From the MakerBot blog:

A few days ago we and our good friends over at Adafruit announced a limited Adafruit edition of the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer available for sale. The whole batch sold out in 33 hours.

As others have pointed out, this makes total sense. Adafruit customers are total DIY heroes who would naturally want to make their own customized enclosures and components.  You know what’s perfect for doing that? A MakerBot.

Right now you can pick up three of Adafruit’s most popular kits at the MakerBot Store in NYC: TIMESQUARE, RasPi, and MintyBoost. To sweeten the deal, we’ve launched our own special designs for the enclosures for these three kits, seen in the photo above, on our own Thingiverse page.

Read more.

]]> http://www.adafruit.com/adablog/?feed=rss2&p=57725 0 http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/02/25/introduction-to-boost-converters-video/ http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/02/25/introduction-to-boost-converters-video/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:01:13 +0000 johngineer http://www.adafruit.com/blog/?p=55554

Great video by Jeff Feddersen about the ins and outs of boost converters. He writes:

Boost converters (or step-up converters) are in a class of circuits called DC-DC conversion circuits. These can operate more efficiently than linear regulators like the 7805, and unlike linears they can be designed to have a higher output voltage than their input voltage – potentially useful for low-voltage sources like some steppers.

Bruce Mueller needed to be off the grid for a couple of weeks this summer at the Boy Scout National Jamboree, so he converted his D-battery MagLight into a super long charging Minty Boost monster!

He shared this story about creating this project:

While cellular coverage will be good (thanks AT&T!), charging a phone will be a challenge. I was looking for a way to provide a sturdy recharging solution. After studying your battery cell information page, it became clear that a solution with 3 D cells and Mintyboost would fit the bill..

But, alas, this won’t fit in altoids tin! — Then I saw my lonely 3D Maglite flashlight. With the advent of LED torches, I don’t think I’ll ever use it as a lightsaber again, but it would make an excellent home for a mintyboost.

After taking the bulb out, breaking it and soldering in wires to power the mintyboost, all that remained was coming up with a way to hold it in the flashlight…

Fortunately, I’m the new proud owner of a Makerbot Rep2… In the attached link is my thingiverse design of a holder for the Mintyboost to put it into the head of the Maglite flashlight. It is a beautiful thing, and will keep me connected for at least a week!

And here is an excerpt of his Thingiverse from Thing 52218 description:

This bracket holds a Mintyboost from Adafruit in place of the bulb assembly in a 3-D cell Maglite Flashlight.

This thing was made with Tinkercad. Edit it online!

The Mintyboost from Adafruit is an excellent battery powered USB charger circuit. It was designed to use 2 AA cells and be housed in a mini altoid tin container. I was looking for significantly higher capacity and a rugged housing, and stumbled over my 3D cell aluminum Maglite. Removing the bulb and reflector, I created a space to hold the mintyboost board. By disassembling (breaking) a bulb, power can be drawn from the bulb socket.

Read more.

Featured Adafruit Products

MintyBoost Kit – v3.0: Make your own iPod/iPhone/GPS/etc… battery-pack and recharger! This project includes all the electronic parts necessary to build your own MintyBoost: a small & simple (but very powerful) 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. If you have a Nintendo DS/GBA or a PSP you can buy charger cables from us, too. The charger circuitry and 2 AA batteries fit into an small space such as an Altoids gum or mint tin, and will run your iPod for hours, 2.5x more than you’d get from a 9V USB charger! You can use rechargeable batteries too. (read more)

]]> http://www.adafruit.com/adablog/?feed=rss2&p=55296 1 http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/11/20/minty-boost-on-a-hike/ http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/11/20/minty-boost-on-a-hike/#comments Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:00:00 +0000 Matt http://www.adafruit.com/blog/?p=46298 Heres’s an enthusiastic write up by David Bark from FromTheTrails.com about the Adafruit Minty Boost kit as a tool for hikers — and he made some interesting observations:

I did some testing to see how much of a charge I could get out a set of batteries and here are my results below:

• Normal Duracell Batteries (1150 mAH capacity): 20 % charge 40 min duration
• Sanyo eneloop rechargeable (2000 mAH capacity) 40 % charge 1 hr. duration

They do make higher capacity AA batteries, so you could improve on the performance.

What I found is that the normal Duracell Batteries got extremely hot while they charge my phone, while the eneloop batteries got warm but were ok to touch.

With the unit 1.2 oz & (2) AA batteries 1.8 oz. the entire unit only weighs in at 3 oz.!! With an extra set of batteries still brings you in under 5 oz. So far this is the lightest weight option that I have found available. In addition, using rechargeable batteries that can be recharged up to 1500 times, saves money on batteries. You could put a charger in your bounce box if you really wanted to, but I’m thinking the rechargeables might be a better option for section hiking.

Read more.

Featured Adafruit Product

MintyBoost Kit – v3.0: Make your own iPod/iPhone/GPS/etc… battery-pack and recharger! This project includes all the electronic parts necessary to build your own MintyBoost: a small & simple (but very powerful) 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. If you have a Nintendo DS/GBA or a PSP you can buy charger cables from us, too. The charger circuitry and 2 AA batteries fit into an small space such as an Altoids gum or mint tin, and will run your iPod for hours, 2.5x more than you’d get from a 9V USB charger! You can use rechargeable batteries too. (read more)

Cool 3D Light Goggles powered by a MintyBoost!

October is one of my favorite months and it has been quite a memorable one so far. I have taken a brief breather from developing my delta army and engaged in a playful dialogue with a fellow techie at our local Hacker space here in town. He has an impressive collection of self-made steam punk inspired goggles, of which he is currently underway with his fourth pair. In response to this stellar practice, I have created my own version… a retro leather-trimmed set that has some nifty chain-switch activated light pipe around the lenses to give the illusion of neon.

MintyBoost Kit – v3.0 – The world’s first and only open-source hardware charger: The MintyBoost! Make your own iPod/iPhone/GPS/etc… battery-pack and recharger! This project includes all the electronic parts necessary to build your own MintyBoost: a small & simple (but very powerful) 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. If you have a Nintendo DS/GBA or a PSP you can buy charger cables from us, too.

The charger circuitry and 2 AA batteries fit into an small space such as an Altoids gum or mint tin, and will run your iPod for hours, 2.5x more than you’d get from a 9V USB charger! You can use rechargeable batteries too.

Power is out all over the coast in Brooklyn, including at my house near the Gowanus Canal (picture above from Monday night outside my building, taken by my neighbor). Don’t worry, I have friends with power nearby and my neighborhood is no longer flooded, but there are plenty of reasons I’d like to be hanging around my own home– the fridge’s food needs cooking, the pets, the projects, the neighbors and repair folks, etc.

So here’s what we did to power the devices I need to continue writing to you folks!

On hand I had a solar lipoly Minty Boost, which worked well for a while when the sun was out. Made from:

• MintyBoost Kit
• Lithium Ion Polymer Battery – 3.7v 1300mAh
• Large 6V 3.4W Solar panel – 3.4 Watt
• USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger – v1.0

I also had a breadboard power supply on the same piece of acrylic for another project.

To charge my laptop, 4G hotspot, phone, and light up the room all at once I’m using a deep cycle battery and power inverter. I’m trying not to blast my Hulu so loud that it makes my neighbors jealous– by our estimates this rig should be powered for 40-60 hours, after which I can just swap it for another charged battery from down the street.

Nathon Pryor made this awesome flashlight charger enclosure for his MintyBoost! Build notes on his site.

This old USGI flashlight gets a new lease on life by using its batteries to charge up my phone. I modified the tail cap to fit an Adafruit MintyBoost circuit in. It still functions as a flashlight, too. It might be useful for camping trips and emergencies, but mostly I did it because it’s cool.

Want to be featured on Flickr pool Friday? Add your Adafruits to the Adafruit Flickr pool.

MintyBoostB & TV-B-Gone by Brad Howland

Want to be featured on Flickr pool Friday? Add your Adafruits to the Adafruit Flickr pool.

Tim lötet MintyBoost via Twitter.

This weeks featured photo is Daves LiPoly MintyBoost. Check out our MintyBoost and Batteries sections to get supplies to build your own.

Want to be featured on Flickr pool Friday? Add your Adafruits to the Adafruit Flickr pool.

Adafruit customer calibur010011 showed off his newest creation on the forums.  He packed our Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger and MintyBoost into a nice custom laser cut enclosure.

I finally completed my project to use Adafruit Industries mintyboost with their li-poly solar-charger into one neat enclosure. I even built and designed a status circuit to fit the case easily activated with a button push.

USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger – v1.0. Make your projects to go green this summer with our specialized USB/Solar Lithium Ion Polymer Battery charger! This charger is a very unique design, perfect for outdoor projects, or DIY iPod chargers. We’ve spent over a year testing and tinkering with this charger to come up with a plug and play solution to charging batteries with the sun and we’re really pleased with what we ended up with.

Easy to use! Pick up any of our many 3.7V/4.2V LiIon batteries, and a 6V solar panel. Plug the battery into the BATT port using a 2-pin JST cable and the solar panel into the DC jack using a 2.1mm terminal block adapter. Put the solar panel outside (and keep the battery out of the sun, it needs to be kept shaded!) to start charging. You can power another project like a Mintyboost at the same time by connecting to the LOAD output port.

Buy one here!

Jonathan Feldman talks about the future of Open Source Hardware in a commentary for Information Week.

Those of us with gray hair remember when mainstream companies viewed open source software with extreme skepticism–that is, until it became apparent that the Internet backbone was running reliably on OSS. Now attention is turning to open source hardware.

Open source hardware? Really?

Really.

If you’ve been following the Maker Movement, you’re already in the loop. Just as many open source iterations and eyes changed the face of software, so it will go with hardware. Want to build a USB battery charger out of a mint container and other widely available components? Limor Fried (aka Lady Ada) to the rescue, with her “minty boost” USB charger.

Surely this movement is for hobbyists only, right? You don’t want to fork out $50 for a USB battery charger, so you fork out $20 for the kit and work on it with your buddies over the weekend.

Well, there’s a larger world out there. Like open source software, open source hardware started among hobbyists and will make its way into the corporation.

Great comments from Nathan Seidle and Chris Clark of Sparkfun.com.  Check out the full article here.

@prothrock tweets-

Minty-Solar-LiPo at the beach keeps phones and cameras charged all day! Sand = otterbox upgrade!

This week it’s the high capacity USB charger by veggek!

Want to be featured on Flickr pool Friday? Add your Adafruits to the Adafruit Flickr pool.

Solar Testing and Tech Support at Voltaic Systems / Adafruit Jobs Board.

Voltaic Systems designs portable power systems to power electronics: from cell phones to laptops (and even Minty Boosts). We’re looking for someone to help with a wide range of technical responsibilities.

I opened up a cheap phone charger and examine how the circuit works. In the process, I find that the manufacturer cut a lot of safety corners, and it’s nowhere near US safety standards. There’s a reason that name-brand chargers cost a bit more.

Since you reverse-engineered the protocol for Apple chargers, you will probably be interested in reference #15 from my article… which documents the resistances used by Sony and Apple chargers – their values are
very close to the ones you found.

Here’s Ladyada reverse engineering the iPod/iPhone charger.

Previously there was a very popular Instructable on making your own “Solar MintyBoost” – before you needed to get parts from various places, now you can get them all in one spot – at the Adafruit shop! So – if you want to make solar MintyBoost, here’s how — (read more).

Jim writes -

I’ve mentioned before the importance of having the MintyBoost available during a major power outage last October in New England. This allowed me to have my toys working. But since the outage extended for a long time it was obvious I was going to go through a lot of batteries. Thus, the need to upgrade to the solar version.

Attached is a photo of my finished upgrade. It is quite a neat installation. I love it. Thanks Lady Ada.

From the mail bag…

Just letting you guys know that I bought the MintyBoost v3, and that it charges my Motorola Droid X. I bought 3 kits, one for me, and two for my friends who own a Samsung phone, and a BlackBerry phone. I’ll let you guys know if their devices charge, if they’re not already on the compatibility list, once they get around to assembling theirs. I want to thank Adafruit Industries for providing such a great and useful kit with very easy and clear instructions. Keep making more kits so I can keep buying them. Thanks, A Very Satisfied Customer

What did Mom solder up for you this holiday? Check out this awesome post on Reddit. Monkeyhoo writes -

Celebrated Christmas early this year – this is what my mom made me. Pretty bad ass, my phone dies all the time and I rarely have my charger with me. (imgur.com)

That’s our MintyBoost kit and best of all, we’re starting to see the celebration of making things get out to more and more places. Thanks Nick!

From the mail bag…

Hey guys, we’re looking at sending one of your mintyboost kits to space. Well, 100,000 anyway. We’re going to launch a weather balloon with some electronics aboard. We’re considering using the mintyboost to ensure the batteries don’t run out before recovery. But weight’s an issue. Can you tell me what the weight of the mintyboost is?

15.08 grams

Solar minty lives via the forums! Ransomhall writes -

I finally stopped playing around with all the parts (monitoring setup above) and wrapped up the 6V 3.7W panel, Minty, and solar lipo charger in a nice fluorescent blue acrylic housing. Along with a 6600 mAh battery, I can now charge the heck out of USB powered gadgets. See http://www.ransomhall.com/Pages/solbooster.aspx for more details of this build. I am going to create an Instructable for this and enter it in the Epilog laser cutter contest. I’ll post links when that is ready.

Prepare to become one with the Force, Jedi… Darth Maul style MintyBoost…

Ransomhall writes -

Thanks to this nice tutorial http://ladyada.net/make/solarlogger/ I’ve done a substantial upgrade! Now I can monitor and save the following data:
Voltage: Panel, Battery, Load
Current: Panel and soon battery (waiting on parts)
Temperature: battery, in case it gets too hot.

We have a lot of new folks to electronics making kits now, it’s great! – and with that there are a lot of tips, hints and check lists we are working on to better assist with questions in the customer support forums. Here’s one for the MintyBoost. The MintyBoost can power so many devices, used with so many batteries, cables, etc, etc in so many configurations we have a handy check list to help you when you need help making this kit! It’s a mini-FAQ our support team put together. Enjoy! Before you post about a MintyBoost issue… Read this!

A few folks (including us) have iPhone 3Gs units that sometimes say ‘Charging is not supported with this accessory’ - it appears to be a wonky dock connector… jsappo writes -

Hey everybody! I just encountered this same problem and fixed it! It’s a wonky dock connector straight up. I have outlined the entire process for fixing it.. Hit me up with any questions.

Makes sense, the 3Gs units are the only ones that have given us any problems.

Pete’s MintyBoost build with really nice photos!

Steve writes -

You’ve probably heard of those power bands that are supposed to boost your energy and balance …or something. You know, the ones that magically work really really well in every country except the ones with decent advertising regulations? Yeah, those. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could have a power band that, y’know, actually did something? Like, say, recharge USB devices? Yep, that’s right. It’s time again for “Build Something Weird With Steve”…

Read more.

From PenguinSix’s blog:

Last night members of the Hong Kong Hackerspace, aka Hong Kong Hackjam, got together at the Boot.HK offices to undertake a quick project to help victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. With electricity out in many parts of Japan, the call went out from the Tokyo Hackerspace community asking for help in providing lighting, networking and other electronic supplies for victims of the disaster.

Here in Hong Kong we settled on the quick and easy (somewhat) task of building “Minty Boosts“. These are battery powered USB chargers that can be used with any AA battery to charge a mobile phone or other electronic device. The entire hardware is soldered together and throw into a candy or mint box, thus the name “Minty Boost”.

Over a dozen hackers and technology enthusiasts gathered last night to throw together some relief supplies that will be sent to Tokyo in the next day or two. Only a couple of the devices (mine included) ended up FUBAR, as is to be expected as some of us were not that experienced with a soldering iron. But many others were thrown together by are more hack-savvy members and were charging phones by the end of the night with great success.

Awesome to see hackers helping hackers (helping everyone). Hong Kong Hackjam, you guys rock!

NEW PRODUCT – Altoids Gum sized tin! Ever since Altoids discontinued the Gum version, its been hard to get tins. So we went and got a whole mess of them custom made! These tins are exactly the same shape and size as the old Altoids gum tins but they are blank and we got the bottom flattened instead of rounded (so it fits things better)

Outside dimensions are: 1.43″ x 3.35″ x 0.8″
Inside dimensions are: 1.40″ x 3.30″

Perfect for mintyboosts! Contains no gum (which is probably for the best as it was kind of gross tasting).

In stock and shipping now!

MintyStick! Andrew writes -

Finally, I have succeeding in producing my own variation on the MintyBoost.  I found inspiration on this post (http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=18225) on the Adafruit forums.  It looks like a stick of gum, and I like it, because it’s single-sided, and because it looked like it would be pretty easy to make at home with my toner transfer setup.  I call it the MintStick, because sometimes I don’t like to spend a lot of time trying to come up with good names for things.  It’s version 3.0 to indicate compatibility with the MintyBoost 3.0 (since it ought to support the same devices).

Flashlight converted to contain the mintyboost.

It seems a lot of folks have iPhones and many of them like making and learning about electronics too! We’ve put together some of our picks of apps for the iPhone for that special person (or yourself) this holiday season that would like the gift tronic’ apps! Some of the apps are free, most are $0.99 cents. To give them as gift to the iPhone toting’ electronics person in your life you can give them an iTunes gift card. For today only the MintyBoost is is 10% – it charges the iPhone Use code IPHONE on checkout and get 10% off the MintyBoost kit!

Resistulator. What would a resistor value calculator look like if it were thought through — made a breeze to use, yet also helpful for learning the color code? Resistulator displays the stated resistance of both standard and precision resistors as you set each band’s color with a tap. A preference is provided if you’d like to be shown the terse value description used in many areas of the world.

Circuit Lab is an electronic circuit analysis tool based on the modified node analysis method. The analysis may be under DC conditions and under steady-state sinusoidal conditions (AC). Diodes (non linear devices) may be analyzed only under DC conditions.

Electronic Toolbox combines electronic reference material with calculation and conversion tools in one handy app. Whether a professional or hobbyist, the app gives users a collection of the most important electrical information right at their fingertips.

CapCalc will help you determine capacitance values and related capacitor codes. Simply enter one of either picofarad, nanofarad, microfarad or the capacitor code and CapCalc will generate the other values for you!

Bitwise is a binary comparing calculator for teaching and explaining how logic circuits work. Set the switched of the first and second binary numbers then choose a function for instant result. I made this app to help visually describe how binary logic works.

The Circuit Pro App is a utility application developed to assist electrical engineers and electricians with the task of sizing branch circuits according the National Electrical Code (NEC). This application finds the appropriately sized standard breaker size based on the input circuit load, which can be entered in either Amps or kiloWatts.

EE Basics contains a large selection of Electrical Engineering laws, equations, tables and reference material that Electrical Engineers may find useful during their work.

The elecPuzzles app allows you to test your knowledge of some basic electronic circuits. Perform the necessary calculations to solve problems presented to you.

With “Electric Circuits” you can learn the basics of a home circuit. You’ll learn by playing: every level brings up new components, making more difficult to create your “Electric Circuit”. It’s pretty basic and missing parts that we think would round it out, but it’s still fun.

Maxim Part Selector. The IC Selector helps electronics designers choose the right Maxim data converter (A/D and D/A converters) anywhere. The app doesn’t require a live Internet connection, so it can be used at the lab bench or anywhere else.

Digi-Key’s app for the iPhone and iPod Touch is the design engineer’s passkey to one of the world’s largest inventories of in-stock electronic components.

For today only the MintyBoost is is 10% – it charges the iPhone Use code IPHONE on checkout and get 10% off the MintyBoost kit! If you have any app suggestions, post up in the comments!

MintyBoost kit review @ t r o n i x s t u f f…

Today we are going introduce another useful kit from adafruit industries – their mintyboost kit. The purpose of this kit is to provide a powered USB socket suitable for charging a variety of devices, powered from a pair of AA cells. The mintyboost is quite a simple, yet clever design – the latest version is based around the Linear Technology LT1302 DC/DC step-up converter that we examined a few months ago – and can provide a full 5 volts DC at 500 milliamps, enough to charge the latest round of USB-chargable gadgets, including those iPhones that I keep hearing about. And unlike an iPhone, the mintyboost kit is licensed under a Creative Commons v2.5 attribution license.

Nice, caseless MintyBoost.

MintyBoost 3.0 works with iPhone 4 and more!

Make your own iPod/iPhone/GPS/etc… battery-pack and recharger! This project includes all the electronic parts necessary to build your own MintyBoost: a small & simple (but very powerful) 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. If you have a Nintendo DS/GBA or a PSP you can buy charger cables from us, too.

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 rechargeable batteries too.

New In Version 3: Provides 500mA @ 5V, tested and designed to work with all the latest iGadgets including the latest iPhones and iPods!, improved efficiency for high-drain devices, works much better with LiPoly battery mods.

Kit comes unassembled and is suitable for beginners. Some soldering tools are necessary but even if you’ve never soldered before it should be pretty easy. Read more about the project on the Minty Boost webpage.

Tested works with: iPods, iTouches and iPhones (including the latest 4G), PSP, DS..Please see a full listing at Minty Boost compatibility webpage to see if your device is tested to work before purchasing. Batteries and tin not included. If you live in an area that doesn’t have Altoids gum, you can buy a tin from us. You can also of course make your own case!

In stock and shipping immediately!

*Please make sure to read the project pages before purchase and assembly, some phones may require modifications to the kit to charge properly

Just to let you know that I bought a Mintyboost kit and it works fine with my HTC Desire – with an USB-A to micro-usb converter – Andy

MintyBoost 3.0 works with iPhone 4 and more!

Make your own iPod/iPhone/GPS/etc… battery-pack and recharger! This project includes all the electronic parts necessary to build your own MintyBoost: a small & simple (but very powerful) 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. If you have a Nintendo DS/GBA or a PSP you can buy charger cables from us, too.

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 rechargeable batteries too.

New In Version 3: Provides 500mA @ 5V, tested and designed to work with all the latest iGadgets including the latest iPhones and iPods!, improved efficiency for high-drain devices, works much better with LiPoly battery mods.

Kit comes unassembled and is suitable for beginners. Some soldering tools are necessary but even if you’ve never soldered before it should be pretty easy. Read more about the project on the Minty Boost webpage.

Tested works with: iPods, iTouches and iPhones (including the latest 4G), PSP, DS..Please see a full listing at Minty Boost compatibility webpage to see if your device is tested to work before purchasing. Batteries and tin not included. If you live in an area that doesn’t have Altoids gum, you can buy a tin from us. You can also of course make your own case!

In stock and shipping immediately!

*Please make sure to read the project pages before purchase and assembly, some phones may require modifications to the kit to charge properly

Mintyboost v3.0 works with the new Apple iPod nano with Multi-Touch.

Hardware trickery: Why Apple’s iPhone love Chargers – SPIEGEL ONLINE – Nachrichten – Netzwelt (Google translated) and here is the original in German…

Why are not actually any USB power supply with all iPhone and iPod versions, even if they have the right plug? Eine amerikanische Hardware-Hackerin ist dem nervigen Netzteil-Wahnsinn nachgegangen, hat den Grund und auch gleich eine Lösung gefunden – die sie als Bausatz verkauft. An American hardware hacker is annoying power-madness which followed, has the same reason, and also found one solution – which they sold as a kit.

Limor Fried has a penchant for quirky technology – and they like fiddles

I just got my MintyBoost V3.0, and love it!  I can confirm that it works on the HTC DROID ERIS, LG Ally, and the Motorola DROID.  Thanks for the great project!!! Will be trying out my Verizon MiFi 2200 soon…. – JW

NEW PRODUCT – MintyBoost 3.0 works with iPhone 4 and more!

Make your own iPod/iPhone/GPS/etc… battery-pack and recharger! This project includes all the electronic parts necessary to build your own MintyBoost: a small & simple (but very powerful) 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. If you have a Nintendo DS/GBA or a PSP you can buy charger cables from us, too.

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 rechargeable batteries too.

New In Version 3: Provides 500mA @ 5V, tested and designed to work with all the latest iGadgets including the latest iPhones and iPods!, improved efficiency for high-drain devices, works much better with LiPoly battery mods.

Kit comes unassembled and is suitable for beginners. Some soldering tools are necessary but even if you’ve never soldered before it should be pretty easy.
Read more about the project on the Minty Boost webpage.

Tested works with: iPods, iTouches and iPhones (including the latest 4G), PSP, DS..Please see a full listing at Minty Boost compatibility webpage to see if your device is tested to work before purchasing. Batteries and tin not included. If you live in an area that doesn’t have Altoids gum, you can buy a tin from us. You can also of course make your own case!

In stock and shipping immediately!

*Please make sure to read the project pages before purchase and assembly, some phones may require modifications to the kit to charge properly

In this 7 minute video we explore “The mysteries of Apple device charging“. Usually device makers need to sign a confidentially agreement with Apple who want to say “works with iPhone / iPod” and never talk about how the insides work. If you don’t put these secret resistors on the data lines to you get the dreaded “CHARGING IS NOT SUPPORTED WITH THIS ACCESSORY”. We demonstrate how anyone can do this and make their own chargers that work with iPhone 4, 3Gs, etc. Video above, HD and (m4v).

We’ve updated our open source charger, the MintyBoost as well, today is its official release.

Want more details? See our article on Apple Charging with more technical info and schematics

Howdy!

I have read a of a few people having trouble finding the altoids gum container that fits the project so well. I did too. Looked in a bunch of shops all over Ventura and San Diego California as well as a bunch in the Philadelphia area with no luck.

I started looking around for alternatives but only found one possibly suitable and that was after I had finished making a container. The Wii gum container looks like it is the appropriate width though it has a significant amount of length that may need filling.

What I decided to go with was leather. I had a bunch laying about and decided to see what I could do. It turned out pretty good for a first rough run. I think I will make another with a good stain and better stitching but this has worked like a charm thus far.

RobotGrrl had an old robot kit lying around and she decided to give it an upgrade. She writes:

The missing parts to the TECHNOROBOT kit that I got at the explOratorium during the Stanford EPGY AI Program in 2008 have been found! This robot has been transformed many times, the first as an idea/prototype for an emotional line following robot, then a snowplow, and now it will be an XBee messenger robot!

The robot now uses an Arduino, and is powered off of USB. The motor is driven with the Adafruit Motor Shield (I plan to add more motors to the robot someday). The motor is powered from an Adafruit mintyboost.

photos here.

Nice work!

We are wrapping up our last round of testing for the next version(s) of the MintyBoost, we’re pleased to report it works with the iPhone 4g (we waited for the release to make sure) and it also works with the iPhone 3Gs and it appears all the “i” devices. We’ve also tested on PSPs, Kindles, Androids, Nintendo DS – and today as a final test we tested at the Apple store just to make sure it worked with the Nano since we do not have one in our testing collection (it works). On our 6/26/10 “Ask an Engineer” show we demonstrated reverse engineering the way charging needs to work on the latest Apple devices.

As we get closer to the MintyBoost release date we will make announcements and also contact any resellers who have stock left of the current version.

So – if you want to make solar MintyBoost, here’s how –

Pick up a USB/Solar LiIon/LiPoly charger and Lithium Ion Polymer Battery – 1200mAh. A 1200mAh lipoly will provide as much overall power (~4.5 Wh) as 2 rechargable AA’s.

Choose from either a 1W or 2W solar panel. Either will work, if you are using the smaller panel, we suggest removing R4 and replacing it with a 6.8K (or so) resistor which will keep the lipoly charger from trying to draw too much current from the panel.

Next up, you’ll need a mini-B USB cable to sacrifice. Use the one in the shop or find one in your room.

Follow the tutorial on our site for how to splice the solar panel into the USB cable.

Finally, a MintyBoost will give you a USB 5V output! Connect the other side of the JST cable from the LiPo charger into the input of the MintyBoost.

Put the panel out in the sun and watch for the charging light to go on. then when the battery is charged up, the DONE led will be lit.

You can put all this in our new Altoids mint-sized tin!

Note: While it may most devices, this will mostly likely not work consistently with the iPhone 3Gs and/or the iPhone 4. We will have a new MintyBoost and MintyBoost “rechargeable” soon, if you need to support those two devices specifically hold off until you see these new versions of our kits on our site.

One of my favorite parts of the whole event was probably the Makers Shed. It was a physical version of the online store. If I were rich, I would have filled my car up with the interesting kits, books, and parts that lay in that hall. Instead, I came home with a few kits and books, including a Minty Boost kit from Adafruit. After having bought a 10-pack of altoids gum, I worked through the kit and was rewarded with a portable usb charger.