1. The USB Charging Station (TUCS) Basheer and Connor’s Make Project

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Time We estimated that our project would take roughly two weeks from start to finish and one week to create a Power Point presentation.

6. 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.

8. 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.

10. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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.

18. 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...