The USB Charging Station (TUCS)

Basheer and Connor’s Make Project

Idea

•We came up with our idea through the thought process of creating

something that could benefit our iPhone/iPod (since we both had

one). The first thing that came to mind after that was a charger, and

so we went with it.

What Are We Making?

•Specifically, what we were trying to do was modify the battery

compartment from a certain toy to power an iPod/iPhone cable,

therefore charging the iPod/iPhone.

Preparation Stage

•During the Friday our project got accepted and the following week,

we were our preparing for the project. During this time, we did

some background research on how wires worked and some basic color coding. After we felt we were up to speed, we began to actually work.

Time

•We estimated that our project would take roughly two weeks

from start to finish and one week to create a Power Point

presentation.

Work Stage (Week 1)

• During our first week, we took apart two different toys brought in; a

flashlight and a Xbox controller. The flashlight was dissected first, and the

battery compartment and wires attached to it looked pretty easy to

rewire. We got the Xbox controller open after an entire day’s worth of prying

open but did not have the time to fully investigate the pieces inside.

Work Stage (Week 2)

• Basheer brought in an old iPhone with it’s charger and began taking it apart

to see what needed to be given power. We also finished inspecting the Xbox

controller and determined the flashlight’s compartment to be the one used because we thought that rewiring

would be easier. After further examination, we changed our minds and decided to desolder two metal springs that transferred the Xbox

compartment’s power to the controller itself.

Work Stage (Week 3)• On Monday we hooked the two springs

on to the charger to make sure the invention worked. It didn’t, and after

further research, we found out that Apple had made their chargers fool proof by adding the two extra

wires that we had previously ignored. To get passed this, were forced to find a new project that powered a female

USB port. After buying them from Radio Shack, we met with Mr. Brown and Mr. Whitmer and got the project

done.

Advise•Our advise for people attempting to

do a similar project is to make sure that the company your charger was

made from does not have any special wires hidden inside it. A

good way to check for this is to do a thorough background check on the charger you are planning on

modifying.

Challenges

•The main challenge we had was how our project didn’t work the

first time around. This was a major setback because we had planned to use Tuesday and Thursday to create our Presentation. The way we had to deal with this problem was by doing most of it at home and multi tasking during class.

Documentary (Videos)

• Every day at the end of class, we would create a 30-60 second video of the summary of what we did that day. We switch off who talks in the video

each day. At the end of each week (on Friday) we put all our videos into one

giant clip and post that to YouTube. We embed that link on to our wiki page

before the end of the Friday.

Documentary (Notes)

•Every day on our wiki page, we would write a detailed paragraph explaining what we did that day. We do this for anyone trying to follow through our progress to

have an easier time doing so. We switch off who does it each day to

make it fair.

How it Works•Jumper wires transport power from

one place to another

•Electrolytic Capacitor

•Voltage Regulator

•Ceramic Capacitor

•Resistor to LED (Light Emitting Diode)

•Female USB Port

Info About Product• After using this product, make sure the

battery is not left plugged into the circuit to avoid over heating.

• If your device is not charging, then that probably means that there is a loose

wire within the circuit, which is an easy fix.

• The battery can only last for so long, so replace it after every 2-3 full charges.

Conclusion

•After some major setbacks and a change in our project, we were

able to complete what we set out to do. We were very short on time at the end, so we had to use some AL time and make the Power Point

at home. Here is a photo of our product doing it’s job...