First off let me say that I am in no way associated with the site that sells these kits.This is a project that I had been wanting to make for a while. In addition all the components needed to make one of these are listed on the site and you can probably buy them all told for about 5 bucks.
The mintyboost works as a dumb charger for the N900. There are a couple of caveats.
1) The first time I connected the kit the intellisyncd process spiked to 85% and I was forced to kill it. That is not altogether surprising as thats the daemon that handles connectivity to the PC.
2) The next time I connected the charger I had to restart the daemon. For some reason without it being restarted same issue with not detecting charge.
Now all that being said I can recharge my phone very quickly via this kit. In addition I can get AA batteries basically anywhere so power will always be available.
Its not difficult to put together - though time is needed to do it properly and its a fairly cheap solution.
NB: I bought both the 9V version and the 2xAA version of this kit. The 9V version basically uses dissipation of heat to drop the charge down to 5V - this means you end up with a component in your tin easily capable of hitting 140F. Thats more than hot enoug to blister skin on contact. I DO NOT recommend the 9V version.
NBB: This works for me - I take no responsibility for bricking your phone , setting your cat on fire, electrocuting your wedding tackle etc etc.
The mintyboost works as a dumb charger for the N900. There are a couple of caveats.
1) The first time I connected the kit the intellisyncd process spiked to 85% and I was forced to kill it. That is not altogether surprising as thats the daemon that handles connectivity to the PC.
2) The next time I connected the charger I had to restart the daemon. For some reason without it being restarted same issue with not detecting charge.
Now all that being said I can recharge my phone very quickly via this kit. In addition I can get AA batteries basically anywhere so power will always be available.
Its not difficult to put together - though time is needed to do it properly and its a fairly cheap solution.
NB: I bought both the 9V version and the 2xAA version of this kit. The 9V version basically uses dissipation of heat to drop the charge down to 5V - this means you end up with a component in your tin easily capable of hitting 140F. Thats more than hot enoug to blister skin on contact. I DO NOT recommend the 9V version.
NBB: This works for me - I take no responsibility for bricking your phone , setting your cat on fire, electrocuting your wedding tackle etc etc.
http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/index.html
Class .. : Power Poster, Potential Coder
Humor .. : [*********] Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Patience : [***-------] Weapon(s): +2 Logic Mace
Agro ... : |*****-----] Relic(s) : G1, N900