My $0, DIY battery extender

kryten007 · 10-29-05, 11:09 PM

hey folks, I just wanted to share my latest project with you all. I am away at college right now, but I am going home for Thanksgiving. The bus ride there will take at least 11 hours, and I hope to use my trusty X50v for entertainment along the way. Obviously the standard battery will only last a fraction of that and i do not know if the bus will have any sort of power terminals available to me. My solution was to build a battery-powered charger, which would normally present little challenge. Being several hundred miles away from my workshop full of tools and scavanged parts, however, made this a little more fun :) Well, here it is, in all it's hackey glory:

Yes, you eagle-eyed gamers out there, the main body of it is indeed made from a Sega Game Gear. Now before you get upset, I asure you I loved that unit as much as you--unfortunatly it was destroyed along the way up here. Anyway, I cut the bottom of the Game Gear shell in three; making two battery holder "pods" and one middle piece of plastic (a little wider than the bit which would have normally held the cartridge). I then hot-glued the pods together. I used copious amounts of glue and some of the left over plastic to fill in the seams and openings, as well as make a sliding holder for the cigarette lighter adaptor.

As for electrical, the Sega used 6 "AA" cells in series, totalling 9v (or 7.2v with Ni-MH) which is a bit too much for the lil' Axim. As you can see, I used one of those cigarette USB adaptors so commonly seen in eBay PDA "starter kits". This would convert the voltage produced by the batteries into a nice, steady, 5v source. I wanted to keep the adaptor usable for it's intended purpose, so I used a small plug (used to connect the Sega's speaker to it's mainboard) to conect it to the batteries and made the afore-mentioned holder thing.

Now, when my Axim needs a charge on the road, I just plug the cradle into the USB port and charge away! Unfortunatly, since (as far as the Axim knows) it is getting it's power from a USB port, it can only charge whilst powered off.

In an extreemly unscientific test, however, it did manage to bring the Axim's battery from a warning-message-low level to 97% in a few hours. It seemed to top out at that point though, and i have no idea why. Perhaps the AAs had exausted themselves at that point, I don't know. the power light on the adaptor and the charge light on the X50v were still on though...

Well, there she is--I hope you enjoyed it! I wish I would have taken some pics during the construction, or at least some decent ones of the finnished product!

Chetola · 10-29-05, 11:24 PM

You sound as if you know what you are doing, just don't try to take that thing through airport security!

kryten007 · 10-29-05, 11:28 PM

Lol, yea, good thing I'm too poor to be flying anywhere!

10-29-05, 11:29 PM

nice hack man...ghetto..but damn nice....

Cineza · 10-29-05, 11:36 PM

Hmmm! few hours recharge!

Here is a suggestion for your next trip: try to get a sit in front of the bus and nicely ask the bus driver if you can plug your axim for recharge!
Also to consider plugging it at coffee, lunch, diner brakes…

kryten007 · 10-30-05, 12:11 AM

Thanks for the front-of-the-bus-tip, Cineza, I'll have to try that! As for the stops, we're actually only stopping at a rest-stop once for a couple minutes. That causes me to worry about my own power cells running down too!

Cineza · 10-30-05, 12:58 AM

longest bus trip I have ever been on was for 8 hours with twice half hour stops; it was almost unbearable!

kryten007 · 10-30-05, 01:39 AM

--original post edited to include the picture i forgot to post before (the last one)--

Mazzani · 10-30-05, 02:30 AM

First off nice way to recycle a Game Gear. But instead of rigging it up to charge off of USB, why not attach a small power inverter like the $20-$25 one made by Kensington and plug it into the AC adapter that came with the Axim

SteveFLHTCI · 10-30-05, 10:52 AM

Another option....the cig lighter adapter you've used is a 500mA one which is why it won't charge while it's on. Belkin has one that is 2A. Change out for that one, and you should get charging while it's on.

stevenator65 · 10-30-05, 11:11 AM

I love mods, great job w/the post and pix. I remember bus trips home from college. Enjoy every second, the time goes by too fast.

kryten007 · 10-30-05, 01:56 PM

Mazzani: Thanks for the idea, but I don't think the AAs could provide enough juice for that. Plus, I'm afraid it's a bit out of my nonexistant pricerange...
Lizard_Weasel: Well, ditto the above...
stevenator65: Thanks! Yea, I'll have to tear myself away from my 8hrs of Seinfeld and Mythbusters (on my Axim) to do a bit of socializing...

four86 · 11-01-05, 05:19 PM

Congrats, you have been blogged by Make Zine...

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive..._extender.html

Techjag · 11-01-05, 07:51 PM

Awesome project, for those who like the idea check out

http://www.boxwave.com/products/batt...pter/index.htm

I used that for my x50v when I was in New Orleans as a red cross volunteer, worked great!

Pocketbrain · 11-02-05, 04:24 PM

Hmmmm... I have a broken old Sega GG and I have been looking to make a portable USB dock/battery extender/gamepad. Maybe pull some circuits out of an old serial kbd...

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