Making an iPod battery.

[javabear90]

Well I'm being a poor starving student and cannont afford a belkin battery pack (saving every penny for a D70) So I was thinking that I could just make one. Well what I came up with is that if I like 6 AA betteries in a series together and then hook them up to a firewire port (which I have) and cramed it all into a box and spray painted it white for good meaure. Would this work, any advice, and/or tips would be appricated!
Thanks,
Ted

 

[Sun Baked]

Cannot afford to pay $70 for a Belkin Battery pack, so you think up novel ways to risk more expensive equipment.

Hmmm... I don't think I'll put up that smiley, even though it's deserved.

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says.....if it toasts your iPod, pass on the tip to this guy - he's looking to fraudulantly kill his pod so he can get the newer model....oh yeah!

 

[musicpyrite]

If I'm correct USB outputs 5 volts and FireWire should output 8 volts. (I'm just going to assume that the iPod needs 8V to charge) But you want to use 6 AA batteries, which would output 9 volts, and that could possibly fry your iPod, so if I were you I would only use 5 batteries. (totaling 7.5V)

You should also have a good knolege of how electricity works. (AC and DC) about 8 months ago a dude in my town was killed after he tried to pick up a downed power line. (of course 9V shouldn't kill you )

If you end up frying your iPod, just do the DuLL iPod trade-in program, get a Dell DJ, sell it on eBay, and buy a nice shiny new 4th gen iPod with a battery life of 12 hours!

It should work but I'm not betting any balls on it.

 

[javabear90]

well the ipod is rated 8- 30 volts. The poweradapter puts out 12 volts. I assume that I can't hurt my iPod by to little voltage however I can by to much. Also there was some guy who made one out of 2 9 volt batteries in parrell and 2 AA in series and put it into a deck of cards. That worked however I do not like how you have to mix battery types. Also I will test the output of the battery pack with a voltage meter before I connect it. so..... I hope it works!

 

[yippy]

Yes you can!!!

A guy has done it, I read about it in Popular science, he has a website with instruction on how to make your own batterypack. Can't remember it now, I will look it up and get back to you.

 

[yippy]

Found it.

You want 12 volts, but here is the linc. Have fun .

 

[javabear90]

You want 12 volts, but here is the linc. Have fun .

Link is dead I have tried it before. Also my "sample" firewire port from Molex has arrived

 

[yippy]

The linc works for me. Weird, well, if you want it I could sent you the page as an html document.

 

[relimw]

You should also have a good knolege of how electricity works. (AC and DC) about 8 months ago a dude in my town was killed after he tried to pick up a downed power line. (of course 9V shouldn't kill you )

Actually it's not the number of volts that'll kill you, it's the number of amps. You can have 10,000 volts, and live if the amps are really small.

 

[Colonel Panik]

A guy has done it, I read about it in Popular science, he has a website with instruction on how to make your own batterypack. Can't remember it now, I will look it up and get back to you.

Yeah sure. Read this guy's blog. He's currently battling with an iPod that doesn't work. I wonder if he's ***ked up his iPod? Seems like a great idea, save yourself a few dollars using a DIY (non-rechargable) battery, and fry your iPod.

 

[Counterfit]

Actually it's not the number of volts that'll kill you, it's the number of amps. You can have 10,000 volts, and live if the amps are really small.

V = I x R. Where: V = Voltage I = Current. R = Resistance
10,000 = 2A (for example) x 5,000? ( <- that should be an Omega )
I'm sure someone here could figure out the heat coming off that resistor