Ever since I first saw the MintyBoost, I wanted to build one. It was a very simple design, used AA’s rather than a 9V (on account of higher mili-amp hours), and all this fit in a tiny Altoids gum tin.

So, for Christmas, I bought a kit from Thinkgeek.com and put it together. Total soldering time was about 10-15 minutes. The instructions were a bit difficult to find online (the kit only comes in a static bag, with a URL to the site), but they were well done, and had the thing together very quickly. The harder part was finding the Altoids tin I had set aside for this project years ago. =)

All together, the unit works great, and fit in the tin very well (though, it did take some creativity to deal with the long leads coming off the battery holder). It properly reports it’s output capability to my iPhone, and charges quite well. I haven’t hooked up any system to monitor actual drawn amperage, but I hope to do that soon (and will report back).

All and all, very happy with the device, and it now has a permanent spot in my EDC bag, incase my battery in my phone, or any other device, dies. =)

[xrr rating=5/5]