How To: Convert a light from AAA Batteries to USB Battery pack! 

USB cables don't always use the "correct" colors on the inner wires, it's good practice to check with a multimeter to be sure. The fuzzy stuff in there is strain relief, the idea being if the wire gets pulled, those fuzzy strands get tugged instead of the actual inner wires themselves. Voltage being correct is important. Alkaline batteries will have a max voltage when new of 1.65V and are "empty" at around 0.7-0.8V. That means devices that use 3 AA are expecting an operating voltage in the range of 2.1-4.95V and 4 battery devices work with voltages of 2.8-6.6V. So, a USB 5v supply will be fine "as-is" for most 3 or 4 cell devices. There is also the caveat that some devices will rely on the low current capabilities of alkaline cells in place of having current limiting built into the circuit, so the ability of a USB to supply higher current can potentially fry some circuits if you don't also add an appropriate resistor in series. You can measure the current draw with a multimeter using fresh alkaline cells to figure out what max current the device is expecting.

This was super helpful! I have a little "neon" light that I got for my office from a discount store, but it ran on AA batteries. I was able to find a donor cable and do this and it's working great!

Fantastic, clear video. Most anyone can put wires together, the super key info is discussing voltage and amps when necessary. Thank you so much.

Very clear explanation. Succeeded to convert my AA battery-powered doorbell to USB. Thanks for the video! 😁

Always love Battery or USB Type DIY mods

Again, impressed. Every single old cell phone charger, 110, or 12 volt powers some type of LED around my place. This is too funny, we’re on the same projects today. Kuddos. Fantastic info and format. 😊

OMG! Finally, my questions have been answered! Thank you for this video. 😊

Great little video , Ive always wanted to do something like this with my lights and spare USB cables.

I'm amazed on our thought processes... I just got a USB/12v Plug adapter for my cordless battery I use with my auger. Then made adapters for my Vex and Camera. I was watching videos on MR. Heater Big Buddy USB conversion for the fan; and was thinking about a 12v plug for my ice house fan/light combo!!! Awesome Rush!!!

Nice mod and an enjoyable tutorial. Thank you!

Very useful, thank you for such a simple explaining!

That saved me money from buying another AAA batteries, good tutorial, and keep it up !! Greeetings from philippines 😁😊😊😊😘

This is exactly what I needed. Thanks!

Simple but useful! Thank you!

On spot, I am looking for same DIY. Thanks for the education.

I like your thinking. It should be noted to check if the batteries are in series or paralell. In series the voltage is multiplied by the number of batteries and rated capacity remains the same; in paralell the capacity is multiplied by number of batteries and voltage will remain the same. Thanks for sharing and inspiring diy ideas :)

Thank you for all the good videos I am subscribing

It was useful, I have a set of bike lights I want to swap to usb, mainly because one part is a rear brake and indicator light unit I am putting on my bike trailer, I got a base board and I'm adding the lights to that then running the lead back to the bike via cables that I can link and unlink as and when required. I can then load up the bike and run everything from the control unit on the handle bars. I can also add some far more powerful lights on this way. Thanks.

This was helpful. I am going to attempt the same thing on a bubble machine for my kids..somehow everytime we use it we go through 3AA batteries and a USB bank would be much more efficient to run.

Very helpful video thank you so much ❤❤❤❤

Great job! 👍

Yum, thanks! Cheers!!

Nice video.thank you. "Chinese" tip, a knot would help the wire against being pulled out of the casing, plus the hot glue that's the best chance for it.

This is a brilliant tutorial! Thanks so much! I was wondering - could I possibly also connect one of those smart wifi LED controllers to this board - to make the light Google Home voice controlled? I imagine I can run the power cable through that onto the light board and it should work - thoughts?

Very good video you make it look so easy. I was wondering what the saw tool thing you use is called? I need something like that to cut away a battery compartment from plastic and that would be perfect.

Thanks a ton for sharing

Awesomeeeee! just What I needed thanks

Thank you so much, I have a led reading light and the triple AAA batteries don't last too long

Great information thankyou

Really need this for my pet food dispenser. Can't be arsed with buying 4 D-sized batteries every few months

Thank you it’s work well

Another thing you could have done with the wire inside so it can't be pulled out, just wrap about 5 layers of black tape on the inside so it can't be pulled out. Or, at least not easily. The tape just has to be slightly larger diameter than your hole you made for the wires.

Ty!❣

The led will work , however they will run a little warmer & age quicker as the led's are designed to run at 4.5v .

Cool this is clever 😊

I'm using a simple LED head lamp as with age I do need more light for some tasks. Actually I have a few of these Using 3x AAA batteries I found these otherwise super helpful head lamps not sustainable. So naturally I wanted something USB chargeable but why spend £15-25 on new head lamps when mine do work and I have all the required equipment laying around as I consider myself the DIY and recycle queen. I used a long micro USB charging cable and converted my LED light to a USB via power bank or mains powered light. Very pleased with myself right now. One done, a few ore to go, I even consider installing some plug in options.

Been doing this a lot. I think we should have bigger stuff from now on.

Another option would be to poke a hole, with the soldering iron, in the orange base - feed the wire through. I've done it for years, the plastic doesn't "ruin the tip". Nice little hack - I have done the same with those 3 battery fairy/Christmas lights. Thx for sharing.

An informative video and well done. However, the "bare wires" you gathered together and twisted into one wire, are actually the "shield" for the cable. These wires protect the four wires inside from outside interference known as eddy currents. You should have used the red (VCC+) and the black (GND or negative lead).

I was of course trying to go to a ridiculous side of doing this... I was going to outright replace the batteries with the Battery pack... this is much easier.

can you make video on battery case to usb converter specifically

keep in mind usb cables drive ~3.5 v and it is boostes through powerbanks to 5v , in boombox case powerbanks can have 12v but i wonder what about usb cables are they become boosted or sm

ey greaat vid but you should reply to a few answers Please and do take batterys out every time ? you did just wondering what would happen if left in ? thanks

If have one thing to ask that if we add rechargable batteries also so will it also recharge them or it will work only with usb

a knot in the cord placed inside the case will eleminate the need to secure the cord with hotglue.

Love your video. I just bought a soldering iron but I'm not sure what kind of solder to use. I guess I have to go get some. I can't use all my different jewelry wires could I?

THAT'S SO COOL I LOVE IT MY HUSBAND ROLLS HIS EYES AT ME TOO HAHAHAHA

thanks mam

Wow

Hi, Can you please show how to convert a AAA battery device into a dual mode device using direct AC power for power adapter and during power outage for it to auto run using rechargable battery connection. This I was thinking for a Aquarium fish feeder. So that the timer does not get reset during power outage. Other advantage is the durability of rechargeable batteries like Lithium will increase during to non extensive usage. Thanks.

Hi. Those USB cables also comes with a plug that plugs into the wall. Would that be fine, using the power from the "wall"? It's not too powerful for the light ? I want to use that as my power source. Thanks.

Nice job. This is pretty close to what im looking for. Im trying to make a AAA diy battery eliminator for my pocket operator. I found 1 vid but they dont name the parts so i dont know what to search on mouser. Any suggestions? Key difference here is im avoiding soldering directly to the device. Not paying $40! for a battery eliminator that costs about $3 to make :)

How to convert this lamp with batteries 18650 rechargeable. Good video. 👍

Great hack! Question: Does the size of the power bank matter? Since the fairy lights will only drawl the amount of electricity it needs to light up, will it harm the fairy lights if it is hooked up to a bigger power bank that has fast charging capabilities? Or will it require a power bank that has limited output of only 4.5-5.0 volts?

I have what I think might be a dumb question. But I have a battery powered lantern that uses 8 D-cell batteries (12v total). Could I just wire it straight into a 12v car battery without a problem? Will the lantern just pull the current it needs, or do I have to regulate it to keep the lantern from burning down?

What a lot of people miss is that AAA-AA-D-C all only produce 1.5 volts.

I want to try this but into 3V finger oximeter. Because my oximeter drains the 2 AAA batteries faster when i use it for long period of pulse/oxygen monitoring. So that i want to convert it into usb wired oximeter. Is it ok for this 3v device to use 5v charger?

I have several of the same small camping lights from Walmart. Can you rig it so that the power pack is connected to several of those small lights? If so how would you go about that?

Aren’t you afraid, that the higher Amper from a usb charter (than from the batteries) will harm the leds?

After connecting to the 5 volt adapter instead of the 4,5 volt batteries, I realized, that the light got stronger with the adapter than with the batteries. Question: will not the 5v harm (ruin) the led lights?

Is current not an issue? From what I’ve read the LEDs will not last as long.

Could you do this in reverse? How do you power a 5v, 2A heating pad from batteries?

can you also plug the light into one of the usb ports on my laptop?

make a knot in the end so it can't be pulled off/out

thanks, do you have tutorial for AA bateries to 5v?

can you make one rechargeable?

what soldering iron do you own and or recommend?

Great work, but you know it's just rechargeable batteries inside that USB battery pack, typically 18650 3.7V Lithium-Ion, they're in everything, most cordless tools, older laptops with removeable batteries. I'd have gone with a wall wart AC/DC power adapter, unless you intend to use it somewhere without outlets

I have converted , my lamps to use 18650 batts, why charge 3 batts when you can charge 1, use them in me Tramper van,

Can I use a instead of 1 adapter a USB HUB in order to connect more (maximum 4) LED lights?

Hi, can someone tell me if I can use a phone charger (5V, 2A) instead of 3 AA batteries in row. Do I need a resistor for simple fairy lights?

I tried this but unfortunately batteries run at a much lower amperage than usbs do. I think it was about .1 amps while the lowest a usb will run is 1 amp 2.1 if its an old android charger. This means the electronics will run much hotter and potentially burn out. I'm gonna see if I can find a resistor that'll drop down the voltage cause as it stands I'm liable to burn a component.

What Dremel kit are you using?

Great vid! Would be great to learn slightly more abt the elec eng part there. 5V and 1.5V don’t sound close together to me imo - that’s almost 4 times . It’s hard to gauge what’s ok imo and that’s why I got somewhat scared of doing these hardware experiments for myself lol. Disclaimer: I got an elec eng degree without knowing what I was doing lol. I didn’t specialise in the hardware side of thing anyway.

Does this recharge the batteries

Shielded cable

What's a Jibbernap?

Here is the answer: You always plugg USB cord in the wrong way despite if 50/50 chances because of Murphy law hat state that no matter what u do I will always make it wrong for u......😂😂😂

I would have placed A KNOT on the wire inside, in addition to the hot glue....

HELP please? This is quite helpful, as I wanted to do something very similar with a light in my computer desk to brighten it up. PROBLEM IS -- it won't light up sufficiently like the batteries do. I used a voltmeter to find which wires were the power (they weren't the traditional red/black ones), soldered them to the right contacts (I don't want to use batteries again), and tried several different power sources (4 wall chargers with different amperages, and two computer USB ports.) The light won't light up when plugged into any of the wall chargers: and when plugged into the pc usb ports, it strobes a couple times, and then stays rather dim. I don't know enough about this stuff to troubleshoot it myself. Anyone have any suggestions?

Can anyone explain how to reduce the 5v from the USB adapter to only 4.5V. As want to use my device 24/7 I don't want to have that extra .5v as it will reduce the devices life from to much current. I would think a resister in line would do the trick. Any thoughts?

Is it just me or have other viewers noticed poor sound quality of the voiceover? Stuttering, micropauses. I haven't experienced this with any othe YT video and I've replayed hundreds.