Added USB to Pineapple Juice 1800

[zero1337]

Hello, so I am working on my bachelors in network security and I have started messing around with electronics as a hobby. I was looking online for anyone that has added a usb port to the Pineapple Juice 1800, and could not find anything so I decided to give it a try myself. The little board with the usb port is from one of those car usb adapters that plugs into the cig lighter. I bought it for 99 cents with free shipping off ebay a while back. It takes 12v from the vehicle and converts it into 5v for usb, so I figured it would work just fine with this battery pack. The first thing I did was take off the led that was on the board since there is already one on the PJ1800.

I then soldered (very poorly) the positive and ground wires to the appropriate connectors on the board.

I used a multi-meter to figure out which terminals to solder the wires from the usb board to.

I crammed everything in the box. There is not a lot of room so the usb port sticks out from the case.

It’s not very pretty, but it works.

[Oli]

Nice little hardware hack! Yep, could definitely do with a bit of soldering practice (and much less solder) - I recommend the eevblog videos. Also could do with less insulation being stripped from the wires to reduce possibility of shorts/etc.

[zero1337]

Thank you, and thanks for the recommendation. Those videos are pretty informative. I definitely need some more adequate tools to continue on more advanced projects. All I have now is a cheap soldering iron that came in a kit and the solder I have seems way too thick, that also came in the kit. I’m going to check out the adjustable heat soldering station the guy was talking about in the videos, as well as some helping hands, or make some.