I recently bought a PSP without the official sony charger. I also bought a usb connector/charger from a third party. I was wondering if I could use a usb female connector and solder the power supply wires to a 6V mains transformer.

My intention is to make a Mains -> Female USB ghetto-psp-charger.

Oh and the PSP says it uses 5V (same as normal usb I think). Will one volt make a difference? Which wire of the transformer is the +? One has a white stripe down it and the other one is just black.

Thanks.

Black is usually neg/ground, but you really cant be sure. Use a multimeter to determine the polarity.

Driving one volt over the limit shouldnt fuck shit up too bad, but it may wear your battery out faster. Drop a resistor in series in the mix to bring it down to at most 5.3v.

You could also use the 5v rail of a PSU to charge it. I use mine for all sorts of shit.

I'm on a laptop, but I will keep the 5v rail in mind, it's a good idea! Though i'm building this with the intention of taking my psp with me to say a hotel or someplace where there is no usb or PSU to hand.

I think i'm going to need a 16ohm resistor. But that's only from following ohms law (V=IR). Also, the transformer's output current is 300mA. If that changes anything?

Dont use the PSU thats hooked up to a machine, Ive got a few lying around i use for testing before i drop a battery into something.

As long as the PSP + resistor doesnt draw more than 300mA, you should be good, but again, use a multimeter to test.

You could just buy one of those ipod wall chargers. Get the one thats just a white box that you plug into the wall with a USB port on it. It transforms standard AC mains power to USB standard power.

Just plug in a USB-A to miniusb and you should be good.

I've got one, but it's a firewire connection and on the bottom it says: "Output: 12V, 67A".

It was the first thing that came to mind actually, then I had to root out the transformer.

You could also grab a powered usb hub and use the cable with that.

Instead of a resistor, use a diode in series. It will lower the voltage without burning off as much energy. Use a big black silicon diode pulled from something.

Exactly what I was going to recommend. 1 volt probably won't do anything since its got internal power supply regulation, but the closer the better.

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Could you try and be more specific, or will litterally any diode do? I was going to pop down to maplin and see what they have to offer so if anything in particular would work especially well then let me know.

You want a rectifying diode, not a switching diode. They're in everything from computer power supplies to compact fluorescent lights. Just look and you'll find one.

It looks like this.