Finishing off a Minty Boost

I finally got around to finishing of a Minty Boost case... something I started back in October. I've had the circuits for three kits (bought from Adafruit) all soldered up and tested, but not packed into the cases. Getting a Dremel as a gift this Christmas gave me the perfect excuse to get back at the project.

If you don't know, a Minty Boost is a battery-powered charger for devices that charge from USB ports.

Here's the circuit before packing, pretty small:

Here's the Altoids tin in the process of having the hole cut:

I overcut the hole a bit, but it worked out OK since I had to enlarge it a bit to make the USB port fit anyway. Note the strip of cork I'm using to prevent the vice from scoring the case (compliments of a repurposed Ikea placemat). I had to use a grinding bit to smooth out the edges left by the cutoff wheel, and had to make sure the tin was free of debris before putting in the circuit.

I wanted to be sure there were no shorts, so I applied some electrical tape to the bottom of the tin:

Once done, everything fit in nicely... and it even worked :)

Check out the photo album for more pictures