iPod Altoids Tin Charger

[Pat McCarthy]

Going down to ATL, 67 rode with 68, and one of 68's team members had some thing that I found very interesting. He had built an iPod battery recharger with 9 volt batteries in an Altoids tin. (Sorry, I've forgotten his name)

http://www.chrisdiclerico.com/2004/1...ttery-pack-v2/

Here is a link to instructions to build one if anyone is interested. However, I have a question.
Does anybody know where I can get a female firewire connector, not from an online source? I don't have a credit card to use.

One like the third one down on this page:
http://www.ntcdistributing.com/products/fwcon.htm

[mechanicalbrain]

thats cool take a look at this

http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2005...pwizard/1.html

[Conor Ryan]

I built my charger already, its not all that helpful but still pretty cool. Very limited radioshacks carry some of the Small Electronics parts, you might get lucky but they are getting harder to find.

Check out what could be my Dad's Birthday Present he's addicted to Altoids so I'm building him one in an Mp3 Player, yes its a Mp3 player in an Altoids Tin! No it doesn't have an LCD, but it does have a built in FM Transmitter! and a pretty good battery life.

[Pat McCarthy]

I took a shot at building this.
My first attempt did not work, and thankfully did not fry my iPod.
It turns out that I connected the negative to the positive and visa versa.
That's what happens when a ME tries to do something electrical.
So, when I plugged it in to the iPod, nothing happened, I suppose that was good.

I'm going to swap the wires around soon and try it again.

And if I get it to work with no problems, I may start selling a few of them. Maybe even one will show up on CD Swap.

[mechanicalbrain]

Originally Posted by Pat McCarthy

I took a shot at building this.
My first attempt did not work, and thankfully did not fry my iPod.
It turns out that I connected the negative to the positive and visa versa.
That's what happens when a ME tries to do something electrical.
So, when I plugged it in to the iPod, nothing happened, I suppose that was good.

I'm going to swap the wires around soon and try it again.

And if I get it to work with no problems, I may start selling a few of them. Maybe even one will show up on CD Swap.

if you start selling them make sure the polarity is right! also i know exactly what you mean i blew two AC to DC converters and a $60 camera that way!

[Pat McCarthy]

Arg. It appeared that nothing had happened to my iPod, but actually something fried in the charging circuit with the firewire cable.
I'm going to radio shack today to see if they can help me with it.
I'm thinking that the firewire cable's charging part is broken because it will sync with firewire, and it will also sync and charge with the usb cable. I'll try a new firewire cable and hopefully that will work. Mine has been through the wash a few times anyway and had bare wire exposed in some places.

[Pat McCarthy]

Does anybody know where I can purchase an iPod firewire cable?
I can't find one anywhere. I'd have thought that this would be a fairly easy item to find.
I did find this though.

[Conor Ryan]

I know you mentioned you like to buy stuff in stores, so you'll probably get lucky at any apple store, and probably all the major consumer electronics carrier. But if you shop online a bit, theres plenty of stuff. But you may want to check this out on Newegg. You'll get a Firewire connection, and seperately a Car Charger too. I'd say its bang for your buck as well as its cheaper than the Best Buy link you mentioned earlier

[KenWittlief]

It takes 12VDC to power or charge an IPOD?

someone at aPpLe needs to be slapped upside the head

there cant possibly be anything inside an Ipod thats running on more the 3.3V!

BTW, if you really want to make a road-warrior battery pack, have you seen the AA NiMH batteries that everyone is putting out?

2.3 to 2.5 AMP HOURS! in a AA cell! unbelievable!

and they are rechargable too.

[Greg McCoy]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

It takes 12VDC to power or charge an IPOD?

The back of the iPod says 8-30 VDC, 1 amp max.

[Pat McCarthy]

I put my handy multimeter to the firewire wall charger, and it read 15v.
That's overkill I think! Although it helps with rapid charging, right?

[KenWittlief]

no, it shouldnt matter. If the Ipod says 8 to 30, it should be able to charge with 8 volts.

Switching power supplies take as much current as they need from the source to get the voltage output and current output they need

8 AA NiMH batteries would give you 9.6V - that would be a nice backup pack.