You can charge a cell phone anywhere with a hand crank charger.
If you run out of power for your cell phone and you need to charge it but do not have access to an electrical outlet, you can use a hand crank charger. This can be made from a self-powered flashlight. You just need to solder some of the connections to the cell phone charger. This way you can get your cell phone charged whether you are in the middle of the desert or in the middle of the ocean.
Instructions
1. Buy a hand crank flashlight if you do not have one. You can buy these at hardware stores for about $15 to $20 as of late 2010.
2. Disassemble the flashlight by removing the screws that hold the casing together. Slowly separate the casing after removing the screws. You will see a circuit board inside that contains a small hand crank power generator and a small battery that is used to generate power. There are red and black wires coming from the generator that are connected to the battery as well.
3. Take the extra electrical charger for your phone and cut the part off that connects to the electrical socket. This leaves you with the end that connects to the cell phone and the wire that comes from it. Strip the insulation from the wire, which will leave you with an insulated red wire and black wire. Strip the 1/2 inch of insulation from each of those wires, leaving two exposed copper wires.
4. Solder the red wire onto the positive terminal of the small battery on the flashlight. Solder the back wire to the battery's negative terminal. There will then be two sets of wires that are connected to the battery: one set from the hand crank generator and another set from the cell phone charger.
5. Create a small hole on the casing of the flashlight so that the wires of the cell phone charger will fit. You may use a mini-drill to create the hole.
6. Plug the cell phone into the charger and crank the flashlight. You will see that the battery is receiving a charge. Continue cranking the handle on the flashlight until the battery is fully charged. This will take between 10 and 15 minutes.
Tags: cell phone, hand crank, cell phone charger, phone charger, charger This, connected battery