JET alum Josh Zimmerman crafts a name for himself in ABC News article
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Thanks to Gail Meadows (Hiroshima-ken, 2007-10), former Editor of the Hiroshima JET online newsletter The Wide Island View and current resident of metro Detroit for sharing this item about her former Wide Island View Co-Editor Josh Zimmerman (Hiroshima-ken).
According to an ABC News article titled “From Whittling to Knitting: How Modern Men Craft,”
Joshua Zimmerman’s creative outlet is tinkering with small electrical projects. The 28-year-old, fourth-grade teacher in Milwaukee makes Altoid tin USB chargers and flashlights, and small robots from toothbrush heads and solar battery chargers. His creations usually can be made with a few bucks and a few parts, often from recycling old electronics.
He simplifies ideas he finds online, assembles them in kits, and sells them from his online shop, Brown Dog Gadgets, and at Etsy. He also posts the instructions for all of his projects, most of which take under an hour for a novice and require a little metal soldering.
Here’s a description of the Altoids Solar iPhone/iPod/iPad Charger direct from Josh’s Brown Dog Gadgets website:
After weeks of sweat, blood, and soldering burns we’ve finally done it. We’ve made a solar charger for all the iProducts out there! Now you can charge up your iPhone, iPod, and even the iPad via the wonder of solar.
What separates this from our Solar Altoids USB Charger is that you can actually charge up those iProducts, which you’ll also find separates us from most solar USB chargers out there.
The charger works by recharging two high capacity rechargeable AA batteries through the included 4V solar cell. When you need to charge up your iPhone or iPod just plug it in via the three foot retractable cable. Then relax, because you deserve it
Features:
4V Solar Cell
2X High Capacity Rechargeable AAs (Between 2500-3000 mah)
3 Foot retractable charging cable.
Your choice of a fun Altoids tin.
Has been tested on and works with any iPod Classic, iPod Nano, iPhone, and iPad. We honestly went to a store and tried it out on all of the display models. We’re just happy that it works with our iPhone 4!
***iPods and iPhones will not directly charge up from the solar panel. You need to first charge up the internal AA batteries to a certain level before an iPod or iPhone will actually charge from it.
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Hey Josh, any chance we could order some with the JETwit logo? :-)
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