[BBRags]

A caveat: I am not responsible if your reader burns out after plugging in this recharger. The charger works fine for me. I built it when my 505 froze and would not recharge from the USB port. There is no product like this on the market (that I am aware of), so do-it-yourself is the only way to get one.

This emergency charger is based on Energizer's Energi-To-Go (ETG) cellphone charger. It runs on 2 AA Lithium batteries, is small and lightweight and will fully charge a 505 reader and just about any other reader that uses a 5VDC adapter. One set of AA Lithium batteries should fully recharge a 505 reader several times. The mod is simple, but will require some electronics skills. In short: take one of the ETG cables, cut off the cell phone plug and replace it with a Sony reader plug (or Sony PSP plug - same thing). That's it.

My Sony reader/PSP plug came from an old universal battery (seen as a big black disk in the pictures) that I don't use anymore. The battery cord had a receptable that accepted a set of interchangeable plugs. Any electrical cord with a Sony reader/PSP plug on it can be scavaged for this project.

Parts:

1 Energi-To-Go charger pod
1 Energi-To-Go charger cable (for any model cell phone)
1 cable terminated with a PSP power plug

misc: soldering iron, solder, ohmmeter or continuity tester

The ETG chargers may or may not be discontinued products. I see them being sold online and in stores heavily discounted. The original retail price was $30. I purchased two ETGs for Motorola phones from an Office Depot store for $1 each on closeout. Office Depot's website is still selling them for about $14. Buy.com's marketplace has some for $2 (but the seller is charging almost $8 for shipping). At one time, Target had these on closeout for about $5.

As far as I can tell, the charger pods are the same for all cell phone models they support. Only the cables are different. They output 5-6VDC, which will initiate the charge cycle in the 505 reader. If you're not sure, measure the voltage output of the ETG with a voltmeter. It should fluctuate between 5 and 6 volts. While the reader draws power from the ETG pod, a blue light on the pod flashes. When charging is finished, the blue light turns off.

Instructions:

1. Each ETG cable has a plug on one end that fits into the ETC and a plug on the end for the cell phone. Cut off the cell phone plug, leaving as much cable attached to the ETC plug as possible.

2. Using a craft knife, cut off about 3/8 inch of the outer rubber jacket to expose two wires: red and black. The red wire is connected to the tip of the ETG plug and carries positive voltage. The black wire is connected to the body of the ETG plug and carries negative voltage.

3. Strip off about 1/8 inch of the insulation from the red and black wires to expose the copper.

4. Trim the PSP cable to about 4 or 5 inches (or whatever length desired).

5. Expose the copper of the positive and negative voltage wires in the PSP cable. An ohmmeter or continuity tester can tell which wire is positive and negative. The PSP plug is a barrel-type connector. The positive wire will be connected to the metal tube inside the barrel. The negative is connected to the metal tube on the outside of the barrel.

6. Solder the positive wires of the ETG and PSP cables together.

7. Solder the negative wires of the ETG and PSP cables together.

8. Insulate the connections so they don't touch and short out. I used heat-shrink tubing. Electrical tape will do. Although it tends to unravel, it can be secured with regular sticky tape.