Wanted to share a method i made a charger for my friend's T|E (also Zire72) which is made inside a cassette cover. It is small, light, doesn't have any cables going out of it. It works EXACTLY as Palm's original charger.
You can use it for any palm, not only TE/z72. You just need appropriate connector.
Charger scheme is very simple. It contains of 6 rechargable batteries (doesn't matter what capacity, just make all cells have equal capacity). It contains a Lm317 chip and 2 resistors. In this case (R1=326ohms, R2=1000ohms)
this scheme is taken from datasheet of Lm317 (lm117) which you can find in google.
Here is the simple scheme:
Full scheme - so you can see where to connect everything:
I didn't buy a new batteries. I had many old and unused rechargable batteries in the house. So i used them instead.
This is how the lm317+2resistors connection looks :
In order to charge this battery pack - you need to find any working adapter in the house, at least 9volts and 0.3Ampers. It could be an adapter from phone/radiotape/mobile, or anything else.
I used a charger from old mobile 12v 0.5A. So i needed to by a sutable connector for this adapter (0.8$) :
Than i made a simple charger for this battery pack - just a single resistor (R3) It's value depends on voltage of your adaptor, and on how fast you want your battery pack to be charged ( not faster than 2 hours)
Lm317 chip and R3 are heating pretty well and spreading much heat. So i needed to install a small heatsink for both Lm317 and R3.
Than i boutht a connector that sutes for T|E (1.2$).
I made this connector in such way, so you can put it inside so no wires will be falling out of the box. See here:
Actually this is not my idea. I "stole" this idea from my cardreader. I find it very useful and easy for transportation.
This scheme provides 5.11v. - same as own adaptor. Also LM317 made in such way, so it' won't let the current flow in reverse direction. So , for example when your battery pack is empty, and charger can no longer provide appropriate voltage, than just notheing will heppen. Charging process will simply stop. This very battery on the picture is enough for one full charge. But of course you can put much larger batteries, say, 2200mah - In this case it would be enough for 1-2 normal week use or for 2-3 full chargers (from 0 to 100%)
Here's how charger looks in "action" - it is charging a friend's Tungsten|E
By the way, notheing stops you from using same charger for any other electronic device, for example your mobile phone. Even if your mobile phone is using another voltage, and another connector. You just need to add another couple of (R1,R2) and appropriate connector.
Linear Mode
