DIY iPod battery packs!

One of the biggest complaints… well, the only complaint about the iPods is their battery life. Sure we all want the battery to last 100+ hours between recharges, but that’s not going to happen.

However, there are battery packs on the market. I was in Walmart the other day and they had the Belkin 4AA battery pack on clearance for like 20 bucks. It claims to give you 8-16 extra hours. I went with one from Staples, a 9v model which claims 4-8.

But you can also just make your own for under 10 bucks.

I found this website My Homemade iPod Battery Pack which tells you how to do it. He’s also got a ton of references to other diy projects. I really like his Band-Aid battery pack. Very nice.

But got to say my favorite is the Atari battery pack.

Depending on the design, you can get away with spending as little as say 10 bucks (price of a firewire connector, two 9v and two AA’s), or you could get really crazy with regulators and various other things.

The hidden cost is the price of an iPod… say if you end up doing a poor soldering job and have to purchase a new one. But it seems pretty straightforward.

So do-it-yourself battery packs, starting at bucks to a few hundred.