The ICU charger’s battery cover has open contacts. i.e. a third power source from the Visor. This is due to the way that the cable connects with the Visor. One of the worries that people have expressed is that these open contacts will let the Visor be short-circuited. Don't worry! It won’t happen, we are actually going to take those contacts and use them!

The first thing I did was to make a little keyboard or graffiti light. Since I didn’t have access to the clips the Charger uses to snap onto the cover, I just taped the wires to the contacts on the back of my Visor. LEDs use such a small amount of power, that you would have to leave it on for a LONG time to drain your batteries. This is a great little tool, because if you’re in the dark and can’t see the keyboard or the Graffiti area, it lights it up! The cost of this should be no more than $3.00 at your local RadioShack.

1. Get a 2.1 volt LED (your choice of color), two 6 inch pieces of bell wire with ends bare, a a 30 Ohm (a very bright light) to a 270 Ohm (a dim light), and electrical tape.

2. Tape or solder (recommended) the resistor to the longer leg of the LED, and then tape or solder the two wires to the other end of the resistor and the LED.

3. Test it out by placing the wire from the LED on the bottom connector of the battery cover, and the resistor wire on the top connector. The LED should now light up. If it doesn't light up, refer to the troubleshooting at the end of this section.

4. Mark the end of the wire, that comes from the LED.

5. Twist the wires together and then wrap tape all around, to make a nice flexible package. Make sure that any bare parts of the wire DO NOT touch each other. This would cause a short circuit.

6. Tape the wire from the LED to the bottom connector, and hopefully with the same piece of tape, tape the wire from the resistor to the top connector. The LED should light up. If not refer to troubleshooting. You can then just take off the tape, and when you want a light tape it back on. It works wonderfully! (If you can get the clip things, that would be best!)

7. I want to say that I an not electrical engineer, so my resistor Ohm value might not be the optimal one. But because it works, I’m not complaining. 

Trouble Shooting

If it doesn’t you probably don’t have a good connection between the wire and the LED/resistor, or the LED and resistor. You also might of put the resistor on the wrong end of the LED. If you did, it’s no problem, just put the LED wire on the UPPER contact, and the resistor wire on the LOWER contact.

In the Future

I have attempted to make a cradle that charges the Visors’ batteries. While I succeeded for about a week, I couldn’t find a way to reliably connect to the back contacts. If you have got it to work well, please e-mail your instructions to me, so that I may post it in this article.

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