Topic: Interesting 5V USB charger (for Ipod) pack from 2x AA

[lordbelial]

Taken from www.hackaday.com:

Limor a.k.a. Ladyada has been a long standing staple in the Hack-A-Day community and we were more than happy to hear about her latest project. The Minty Boost is an improvement on the idea of building a battery powered USB charger. Most designs (including ours) use a 7805 linear regulator with a 9V battery. Even in the best case the regulator is only about 60% efficient which means you’re losing at least 1/3 of the power to heat. Limor’s design is a much more efficient boost converter design and uses far more common (and rechargeable) AA batteries. She’s got a thorough write up on how to build the converter in an Altoids gum tin. The end result is 82% efficient and can effectively double the play time of a video iPod.

I found this an incredible concept.



Maybe it could be applied to those recorders who can be powered by USB?

Details on the project http://www.instructables.com/ex/i/1686FF3E41011029AC23001143E7E506/

[willndmb]

interesting

[flintstone]

Here's the MintyBoost home page.
Scroll down for a list of devices known to workwith the MintyBoost
http://ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/

Here's a page that shows how the MintyBoost was designed
http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/process.html

And here's where to buy the kit for $19.95
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=10