Ever been out at the field and your phone dies and you have no way to charge? Well, we have, so we came up with a way to use a USB car charger and an XT 60 connector to make a charger for USB devices. You can buy these on Amazon for about $12 or make one yourself for about $2!
For this hack, you'll need a 12–24V USB car charger, an XT 60 or female battery connector, two pieces of wire (one positive and one negative), small heat shrink tubing, large heat shrink tubing or a piece of electrical tape, and a lipo battery.
We'll be using a soldering iron, a heat gun, handy helper arms to hold our gear while we're soldering (you can also use needle nose pliers and rubber band), and scissors or a stripping device to strip the wire.
We also suggest using a multimeter to check your work periodically and make sure your positives and negatives aren't shorted together.
First, disassemble the car charger and set the piece with the board aside. Prepare the wire ends by tinning them with your soldering iron.
Solder the positive wire to the board of the car charger, and solder the negative wire to the side of the negative pad.
If you have a multimeter handy, check the wires to make sure nothing is shorted out.
Take the ends of the wires, and cut them so they're flush and the same length.
Plug your connector into a male end (or a female end if you're soldering to a male connector) for the next step. Do not plug it into a battery, because we will be applying voltage to it.
Slide two small pieces of heat shrink tubing over the positive and negative wires, then prepare the wire ends by tinning them.
Attach the red wire to the positive terminal on the XT 60, and solder the black wire to the negative terminal.
Once you're happy with the connections, slide the tubing over them and seal it with your heat gun.
Slide your charger into the larger piece of heat shrink, USB end first. Seal it with your heat gun.
Plug your battery into your charger, and you're ready to charge your phone and all your other USB devices!
What hacks do you want to see next? Let us know in the comments!
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Log In to reply
Log In to reply