Dave Clausen of NYC Resistor wanted a powerful battery pack to recharge his energy-hungry iPhone 3GS and myriad ham radio equipment, so he designed the Mintybuck to handle the job with ease. Rather than using AA batteries and a boost converter to raise the output voltage to 5v, he swapped in a 12v lithium cell and a LM2674-5.0-based buck converter to efficiently drop the voltage down to 5v. The chip is spec’d for 500 mA, and can convert power with >90% efficiency. Not bad for a little charger!
10 thoughts on “Mintybuck USB charger is like a supercharged Mintyboost”
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dont take it on a plane train or bus…..haha unless you just like being harassed by the FBI….;-] very cool charger even if it looks like a bomb.
Uh-oh, looks like Becky Stern might have some competition.
Competition in what field, exactly? =]
any thoughts if this will work with an ipad
According to mymobile911 (http://wp.mymobile911.com/?p=792), the iPad requires a 1-2A source to charge correctly, so my guess is that this circuit isn’t going to cut it. However, it should be possible to find a beefier buck converter chip that would work.