Homemade PSP external battery

Ari · Post by **Ari** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:01 pm

This is a simple little project that I just did in about 15 minutes. Basically, I just put 4 AAs in a zippo tin and soldered it to a PSP charging cable.

Amazing Features!
-compact
-uses standard AA batteries
-held together by hot glue
-batteries are placed in backwards (I soldered it wrong)
-electrical tape lining prevents shorting out
-creative use of a zippo tin
-doesn't fry your hardware!

sorry for the crappy pictues...

Retromaster · Post by **Retromaster** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:03 pm

cool.you're a genious.

cowsgoquack101 · Post by **cowsgoquack101** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:03 pm

Nice man! That's a pretty sweet battery pack.

Retromaster · Post by **Retromaster** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:09 pm

seriously.you're a genious.I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:20 pm

awesome. where did you get that black background?

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:36 pm

Duracell is better than energizer...

Otherwise looks neat!

G-force · Post by **G-force** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:02 pm

Very nice! And a great idea since the PSP doesnt last too long if I remember right, so this is very practical.
Only thing I wonder is, why is the cord so short? Wouldnt it make more sense to have it long enough to fit in your pocket?

Ari · Post by **Ari** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 5:57 am

Thanks for all the positive comments, guys!

Retromaster wrote:seriously.you're a genious.I couldn't figure out how to do that.

It's just 4 AAs in series, not that hard. I have NO electronics skills whatsoever.

Turbo Tax 1.0 wrote:awesome. where did you get that black background?

I just flashed a new 01-12.bmp and used the XMB wave editor.

Dr. KillGood wrote:Duracell is better than energizer...

Otherwise looks neat!

Hey, Wal-mart only had Energizers.

G-force wrote:Very nice! And a great idea since the PSP doesnt last too long if I remember right, so this is very practical.
Only thing I wonder is, why is the cord so short? Wouldnt it make more sense to have it long enough to fit in your pocket?

The idea was to velcro it onto the back of my psp case so that I didn't have a cord dangling around. I might make an extension cable for it, though.

Now I'm thinking of adding a USB port and making an N3i (SPOT watch) switch, since it won't charge over standard USB. The thing requires windoze drivers, so I never charge it from my computer (I normally use Linux) and a regular usb charger won't work with it. It'd be useful for long trips, since the battery only lasts about 3-5 days. It almost died on me at summer camp last year, and I had to turn it off at night to save power.

Turbo Tax 1.0 · Post by **Turbo Tax 1.0** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:32 am

on a side note for anyone looking for better battery life withtheir psp they should give this battery a try
http://cgi.ebay.com/Double-Life-3600-mA ... 0079433306

its about 3 times the life as the original and has worked great for me

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:00 am

So did you use regular batteries (sorry, I'm at school and image shack is blocked)? I'll assume you did. I'm glad to hear the PSP doesn't fry from 6v, I'm gonna do the same with 4 rechargeable AAs, and was wondering if it should be regulated and I now know it'll be fine, so thanks for solving my problem.

Ari · Post by **Ari** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 2:51 pm

@turbo tax: that battery looks pretty nice. I might get one of those.

I used rechargable batteries, actually. Though 6 volts would probably work, I'm too paranoid about my PSP.

When I went to school today, I left the thing in my backpack charging my psp. But something made it short out while it was in there. Luckily it didn't damage my PSP, but it did damage the batteries. They got REALLY hot and actually melted the hot glue, which stuck everything together. Needless to say, the batteries are totally dead. If they were alkalines, it probably would have been quite a bit worse what with the leaking battery acid and such. So I'm glad I used nimhs.

And in case anybody is curious about what fried nimh batteries look like, I took some pictures of the damage.

Anybody have an idea as to why it shorted out? My only idea right now is that maybe it got hot enough while using it that it melted the hot glue and the battery contacts got pushed together or something.

ATOMICMAN · Post by **ATOMICMAN** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 3:10 pm

anything that deals with heat use epoxy cuz hot glue as you saw doesnt hold up well when its melted.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:17 pm

Ari wrote:

It looks like the two things for the battery contacts could've touched, or that thing for 5v next to the hole input could've shorted.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:21 pm

Dr. KillGood wrote:Duracell is better than energizer...

Otherwise looks neat!

Agreed

Very nice work. It sounds simple enough i might have to try this.

Ari · Post by **Ari** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 4:54 pm

Where do you buy duracell recharables from, anyway?

I tore it apart and retaped the inside, and I'm going to put it back together (with epoxy this time) once I find my epoxy. Hopefully that won't melt and short out.