The Voltage regulator chip was soldered to some short wires connecting to the usb female plug. THe entire mess of wires, usb port was mounted (black electrician's tape) into the altoids type tin. A small opening was cut into the side of the tin to allow access to the usb port.
See the following pictures.....




Showing the usb port on the side of the tin.


The inside with the 9V + connecting wires, retractable charging cable


The not so messy inside with black electrician's tape.
For the final mounting, the usb port was taped to a piece of styrene (plastic modelling material, the white stuff you see in the tin) which was cut to size to fit the tin, This was to give it some rigidity and stability when plugging and unplugging the usb cables. The voltage regulator and wires were also taped on top of the styrene and the entire thing taped into the tin.


Now with a sync and charge cable for my treo, I'm all set for emergency power....
<img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

yeah, you need to take the battery out or it will soon be drained from all the heat generation.
Then again, I could be a nice battery powered pocket warmer.... <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

The probably not enough omph and resistance here to do that. Either that, or your pocket will be firey-warm, which is bad to.

9V in a pocket full of change will have you wondering who set your pants on fire in about a half hour. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> I don't know if it will generate enough heat to actually start a fire but you will be removing it quickly BTDT.

Thanks for the pictures. I'm going to try a slightly different method & use it to power a USB hub. If it works the way I think it will, I'll post the results. Otherwise, it will get converted to something similar.

sounds like a great idea, what about using the swiss army knife with this file storage project?

That sounds like a good idea, get a tiny usb hub and add external power (even some without the jack have the pads on the PCB once you open the case).
I would power from AA's or AAA's instead of a 9v battery. A 9v battery has a very low mAH rating which makes is a poor power choice. Most USB hubs are 5v internally anyway so 4 AA/AAA's giving 6v and a lod drop out regulator would be ideal as there would be less waste in the regulator as well.

I was thinking something with seriously more run time like 4 D cells. Trying to set up a one set of batteries per vacation fan & reading light and also use w/ AA's for normal charging. Got the idea from using a 4 AA PDA extender w/ a USB port. It will run a fan most of a night (high humidity & 80's+ temp w/ no breeze)

I'd go with the alox models unless you want to try to modify the blade combination. One of my "round to it" projects is to take a minichamp & add the usb portion to it. It's a case of got the parts just don't have the time right now. I'm thinking it would be good for nights I've got class or need to dress up for something.

I love the mini cd's those are so nice.
Could take one of those and write data and put it in your psk and use it as a signal mirror also