anyone have any advice if this is do-able or safe, this is just a idea at this moment, maybe if i get a mental picture of what needs to be done i will have a go. I would like to mod usb charging to a uniquefire L2 that i've had for 1year+, its really bashed about so no worries about making holes in it.
So, just bought a new charging socket for my phone, this one to be exact,
this thing is really tiny.. i mean really itty bitty. It would easily fit in the light, so then i googled chargers IC's and this one came up, a complete lion charger on a 5pin SOT23 chip, can be left connected and even the input shorted out with no problem. Cool!
MicroUSB mains chargers seem to be used on everything now and are guarrenteed give 500ma at 5v.
I thought about cutting a small hole in the side of the body and having a extra pcb with chip and usb charge socket between the battery and head of the light, good / bad idea?? But i'm not sure how to get the permanent earth from the battery, hmm. Obviously it wouldn't be waterproof but thats ok.
I've thought about ramming that little IC into a AAA light. There is always a bit of a risk when charging li-ions inside sealed metal tubes. IMO as long as your careful the risk can be acceptable. I would coat the pcb in epoxy to ensure no shorts possible there at least.
That nokia charging port looks like a microUSB. Ebay also has microUSB dust covers.
that's such a cool idea! I've been thinking about making a torch/ flashlight with a charge port for a while, but I've always been stymied by the limited space inside 1in.sq. alu tubing (my material of necessity!). This would fit far more easily, be sealable (thanks Halo) and I'd be able to use any no. of microUSB wall warts and car chargers that I have, instead of the hobby charger I was originally thinking of. THanks!
For US dwellers, you can get the charging chip at Digikey
for very little money (postage would cost more :()
and Farnell has a really useful tech document
with circuit diagrams and stuff!
you can also get microUSB connectors from Digikey, although they have so many I'm a bit lost as to the differences among them. They're around $1 or so each.