In the Maker Shed: Minty Boost USB Charger

Technology
In the Maker Shed: Minty Boost USB Charger

MintyBoost USB Charger

Let’s face it, we love our gadgets. They keep us connected, they keep us secure, and they have fully integrated themselves into our lives. But what happens when your gadget runs out of batteries and you are nowhere near a charger? With the Minty Boost USB Charger from the Maker Shed, you don’t have to worry! Just build the kit, put it in a tin, add two AA batteries and your USB powered gadget will be back in action in no time. Don’t want to worry about carrying batteries around? Make a Solar Minty Boost like Instructables user JoshuaZimmerman. Just use some rechargeable batteries, attach a solar cell, add a diode and let the sun take care of the rest!

Also in the Maker Shed:

2013 MAKE Ultimate Guide To 3D Printing

  • 3D Printers Buyer's Guide — 15 Reviewed
  • Getting Started in 3D
  • Learn the Software Toolchain
  • 3D Design for Beginners
  • 3D Printing without a Printer

Buy now!

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64 thoughts on “In the Maker Shed: Minty Boost USB Charger

  1. AndrewS says:

    get a proper phone and you wouldnt need to charge it every day.

    1. Frank Guillen Jr says:

      Like an Android who are known for their long lasting batteries?? lol

      1. Zoth .... says:

        My G2X goes 36-48 hrs. between charges…

      2. Devron Rahmatov says:

        I have Xperia10 Android, and damn, i charge it only ones a week. Min 2 days with playing and talking

        1. Ryan Carroll says:

          because you dont have any bitches to sext

        2. Brock Akerman says:

          Lol i charge my x10 every night. Even when I hardly use it, it wont go a day running idle without using at least 50% power

        3. Gina says:

          good for you! now you have that time to dedicate to learning how to spell… “ones” ???

          1. S says:

            Yeah, I think he was trying to spell ONCE….

  2. Richard Burt says:

    Doesn’t always work, look on a few forums before buying.

  3. Anonymous says:

    I had a kit in a drawer for a while and recently built it with my son so he couldn’t use the “My cellphone was dead” excuse when I couldn’t get in touch with him. Works great, but the problem we ran into is Altoids doesn’t make the gum any longer so, no gum, no tins. In the end we used a regular Altoids tin storing the cable in the extra space. If you’re a glass half full person you can look at it as a bonus project to make/modify a housing for it.

    1. mrs22 says:

      I was thinking the same thing myself! Need a place to store your cable and the larger container is perfect! Definitely half full!

    2. Regina says:

      I don’t get it seriously just put batteries in tin box?

  4. Jeff Reedy says:

    genius

  5. Easy Forex Guides says:

    battery life is getting more important from day to day. a promising product from ASUS is the new Transformer Prime tablet, with 16 hours of battery life. all this from a quad core tablet. 

    you can find more information on the (official?) forum: transformerprime.info

  6. Lily says:

    This is right that the charger circuitry and 2 AA batteries fit into an Altoids gum tin.I like this one.This is an amazing.I appreciate to this content.Thanks to share this blog with us.I will keep share in future.Keep it up.

  7. Valerie Wallflower Anderson says:

    So now I can be judged by the color of my skin, my weight, my hair color, my clothes, my speech and the battery life of my cellphone. America is headed in the right direction…

    1. Gina says:

      over-generalize much?? who is judging you by your phone? if they really are, why do you care? all of america? really??

  8. iKeep Charger says:

    I have to say thanks for this great and useful blog post…!

  9. maggie says:

    So how do you build the kit?

  10. Michael Castor says:

    First, you buy a kit from the Maker Shed. Then, you follow these instructions! http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/make.html

    Good luck!

  11. mary hannah says:

    where r the instrucshins on how todo it

  12. S2345 says:

    Can I just purchase it already made? The solar version would be nice.

  13. Alana says:

    I have a Motorola Karma and the battery life is really great! I can go a few days without charging it and still text quite a bit. But this would be handy to have on the days that I forget how low my battery has gotten. :)

  14. Anon says:

    Seriously, why does anyone care how long someone elses cell battery lasts. Mind your own!

  15. PAM says:

    THIS WAS A GREAT IDEA …GOOD FOR CAMPING! THANK YOU FOR SHARING!

  16. Piikkahboo says:

    So how do i do it? It doesn’t give me any type of instruction?

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  18. Emily says:

    so.. is there an Andriod version? hoping to make this as a Christmas gift.

    1. Michael Castor says:

      The same kit works for Android too – http://www.makershed.com/MintyBoost_Bundle_p/msbunmb.htm

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  20. giasmithlre says:

    I bought this New Trent backup battery – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ZBZ64Q/?&tag=386-20&ie=UTF8 to charge my ipad and iphone during a vacation, but it is so convenient I ended up taking it with me everywhere now. It can recharge an iphone at least 10 full times.

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