DIY Portable Devices USB Charger with 2 or 3 AA Batteries

For anyone that is good with the soldering iron and wishes to make his DIY USB charger here is a solution.



Using parts purchased from EBay I assembled a Portable Devices USB Charger that can run both on 2 and on 3 AA Batteries. Input voltage of the converter is 2-5Volt.
So 3 L91 Energizers with give you 5.1 Volts.
But three is an odd number so I found a way too reconfigure the battery case for using 2 batteries alternatively.

The way to done is add an extra cable as shown and connect it to the OFF position of the switch (green arrow, the magenta one is the output Neg wire). So from now on the switch will work as On x3-On x2. (if you happen to find a replacement 3-position switch by all means go for it.)

And here it is assembled...