ericspittle
New Member
Okay, I'm a complete noob, so if this is a dumb question I apologize in advance for wasting your time. I spent all day lost yesterday because my cell phone (which also happens to be my GPS) died, and the lighter socket in my car is broke so I couldn't use a car charger (simple solution: fix the lighter socket, my solution: build a AA powered USB charger). Now I've looked over the instructions for the MintyBoost and decided it would be way too complicated for me, it seems much easier to have 4 AA batteries supplying 6v rather than having to use a boost converter to get the 3v from two AAs to the 5v needed for USB.
I haven't done too much with electronics before, but from my understanding I could search for a transformer with 6v input and 5v output, wire it to my battery pack, and a hacked apart USB plug, and have just about what I want correct? My issue is that I know the batteries will lose voltage, and eventually 4 AAs will provide less than 6v. So my first question is: will this cause the transformer to output less than 5v? Is there some sort of (very cheap) transformer I can buy that will, as long as it has at least 5v input, provide a constant 5v output? I'd imagine once it dropped below 5v it wouldn't provide the necessary voltage anyways, and I'm fine with that, I can take those batteries out of my charger and put them in a remote control or something.
Again I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, or if I could have answered it myself much easier, I didn't really know where to look, and searching google for a forum filled with experts seemed like my easiest course of action. I know there are a million ways to make this out of a 9v battery but from what I've read they don't work with any sort of efficiency, nor will they provide a very long charge for most devices, and from the reading I did AAs are much better suited to this task. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Eric
I haven't done too much with electronics before, but from my understanding I could search for a transformer with 6v input and 5v output, wire it to my battery pack, and a hacked apart USB plug, and have just about what I want correct? My issue is that I know the batteries will lose voltage, and eventually 4 AAs will provide less than 6v. So my first question is: will this cause the transformer to output less than 5v? Is there some sort of (very cheap) transformer I can buy that will, as long as it has at least 5v input, provide a constant 5v output? I'd imagine once it dropped below 5v it wouldn't provide the necessary voltage anyways, and I'm fine with that, I can take those batteries out of my charger and put them in a remote control or something.
Again I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, or if I could have answered it myself much easier, I didn't really know where to look, and searching google for a forum filled with experts seemed like my easiest course of action. I know there are a million ways to make this out of a 9v battery but from what I've read they don't work with any sort of efficiency, nor will they provide a very long charge for most devices, and from the reading I did AAs are much better suited to this task. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Eric