Make a small USB Charger for your HAM Radio

by Mads Hobye

Image of the walkie talkie with the original charger (by mk0ukd)

Most walkie talkies use a traditional charging station. However this seemed odd for their smallest handheld (uv-3r+). Since it so small that it makes sense to have it in your backpack at all times, the charging station becomes the largest part to carry around. To solve this Mads Hobye made a small charging clipon for it instead.

It consists of a Laser Cut acrylic plate and a USB Lipo Charging device. The USB lipo charger was taken from a small quadcopter. Because the uv-3r+ only uses a 3.7v battery it is possible to charge it through USB. Plenty of lipo usb chargers can be found on e.g. ebay

How to build it:

  • Download the design here.
  • Lasercut it in 3mm acrylic.
  • Use M2.5 nuts and bolts.
  • Connect plus from the charger to plus on the battery. Connect minus from the charger to minus on the battery. You can measure plus and minus on the charger cable with a multimeter.
  • You may need to fiddle with the tension of the clip since it can be hard to get at stable connection to + and - on the battery.