Minty Boost Make your own

Case it!

OK, now you're ready to put it in the case. Go buy a tin of Altoid gum, and eat them or give them to your friends. I think they're disgusting so don't send them to me.

You'll need the MintyBoost kit, an empty gum tin, a pair of tinsnips and two pieces of doublesided foam sticky tape (the tape is included in the kit).
Cut two notches in the end of the tin, just about where the flat part ends and the tin starts to round out.



Now you want to bend the flap back and forth to break it off, if you're careful you can bend it in more than out which will make it round into the tin, one less sharp edge.

Try a test fit. Slide the board in first, then fit the battery pack in. Don't put the batteries in for this test! The circuit board could short against the tin and destroy the circuit!


Once you're happy, remove the electronics and put the doublesided sticky foamtape on both the circuit board and the battery holder.

Remember to make sure no pin or parts or leads are sticking out and can touch the tin.

Use duct. foam or electrical tape to protect the circuit. Clip your leads short so they dont poke through the foam. You can easily destroy the circuit by being sloppy here.


You're done! Remember that because the MAX756 chip uses virtually no power, you dont have to remove the batteries to turn off the MintyBoost. Just plug and unplug devices whenever you want.

Here is a hack that was sent in by KRHAiNOS, for making the mintyboost more sturdy, click to see the large version of the image.

Pull-ups and Pull-down customization

The USB specification says: USB1 maximum current is 100mA and USB2 is 500mA. By twiddling the 10K resistors you can get different charging currents. 100mA is the most efficient but maybe you want faster charging instead!

All of these tables assume that the pins are tied to the voltages through a ~10K resistor. Float means the resistor is disconnected

iPod Mini D- pin / R4

D+ pin

R5

x 0V float >3V
0V
x
x
100mA
float
x
x
250mA
>3V
x
250mA
250mA

iPod Nano 1G D- pin / R4

D+ pin

R5

x 0V float >3V
0V
x
x
100mA
float
x
x
100mA
>3V
x
250mA
250mA

iPod Nano 2G D- pin / R4

D+ pin

R5

x 0V float >3V
0V
x
x
x
float
x
x
250mA
>3V
x
100mA
250mA

iPod Shuffle 2G (clip-on) D- pin / R4

D+ pin

R5

x 0V float >3V
0V
x
x
x
float
x
x
x
>3V
x
x
100mA (max)

iPod Color Video 30G D- pin / R4

D+ pin

R5

x 0V float >3V
0V
x
x
100mA
float
x
x
100mA
>3V
x
100mA (?)
100mA

 

February 26, 2010 1:07