Power Arduino with a cellphone

Power Arduino with a cellphone
Old cellphones are easy to acquire and they have built in lithium charging circuitry. What a wonderful base for a power supply for small mobile things. I hooked up a cellphone to the arduino with the ability to charge the cellphone when you plug the arduino into the usb port. Please note that this was just a quick rig and as i did not have the correct screwdrivers, does not involve taking apart the cellphone. I'm sure if you have access to the correct screwdriver you wouldn't have to cut the cellphone charging connector and could just solder wires directly to the charging terminals. Sorry about the image quality I made it in between college classes and so i took pictures with my laptop's webcam.

You will need:
an arduino
an old cellphone (must use 5volts as its wall wart charging voltage)
some cellphone batteries (optional, minimum one)
wires and a diode
the cellphones wall wart charger
a connector of some sort to plug into the arduino (i cut a chip socket in half for mine.) Minimum of 3 pins
 
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Step 1Connecting wires to the battery

Connecting wires to the battery
Open up the cellphone and remove the battery to reveal the battery connectors. I also removed the SIM card. Examine the battery to figure out what terminal connectors on the cellphone go to the positive and negative terminals on the battery. Solder wires to these terminals. Don't worry about any third terminal, this is just a temperature sensor or something and is for the cellphone to worry about.
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12 comments
Jun 25, 2009. 2:22 PMReCreate says:
don't arduino's need at least 5V to operate? The Lithium ion battery Providing only 3.7 Volts...
Apr 20, 2011. 5:22 PMNekrose483 says:
some arduino mini's operate at 3v3
Sep 20, 2010. 7:16 PMmsuzuki777 says:
I did some experimenting, my Freeduino will operate down to about 3 volts. The ATmega chips will actually run at 1.8V. I suspect the limiting factor may be the USB. Another problem at less than 5V is if you're using analog pins, your analog outputs will be off and analog reads won't be as accurate.

LOG
Aug 18, 2010. 5:46 AMlouwhopley says:
You sound correct - but his little LED is blinking...
Dec 21, 2010. 8:32 PMscottinnh says:
Add a boost circuit (copy the Mintyboost) to raise the 3.7v to 5v...
Oct 16, 2009. 10:36 PMMACKattacksnipe says:
Absolutely Genius
May 20, 2009. 10:13 AMaderistic says:
that´s was cool
Jan 26, 2009. 4:54 PMnam.keeheon says:
wow, thats an old phone...
Oct 30, 2008. 8:26 AMXumahare says:
You'll have to show me this sometime, zimirken. Just don't ignore me next time you see me, okay?
Oct 30, 2008. 11:26 AMasrivera says:
I am intruiged! You will have to show me this!
Oct 30, 2008. 6:31 PMJamesRPatrick says:
Welcome to Instructables!

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Author:zimirken
I go to Ferris State University.