How to Charge the Wrong Battery the Right Way

by frollard

4.9K38

Intro: How to Charge the Wrong Battery the Right Way

*edit:  re uploaded, fixed audio sync!


Frustration!

I recently had my camera die on a road-trip, and only had my cel phone and charger -- turns out their worlds aren't so far distant!

Checking the voltage and polarity to be correct, I taped the camera battery into my phone, and lo-and-behold, it booted up!  Add a little juice, and you have yourself a charged battery!  I used this technique to charge the fully dead battery pictured in the video to about 75% so it had plenty of juice to shoot ALL the pictures and video from my other instructable!

This is not a permanent solution.  It's a one-off setup for when you're really screwed in the middle of nowhere.  I make no claim to your ability to replicate the results I've had, but I do feel it's likely people with similar situations will be able to do similarly with similar equipment.

******ALWAYS MONITOR A JURY-RIGGED CONTRAPTION LIKE THIS WHILE CHARGING.  IMPROPERLY CHARGED LITHIUMS DONT JUST FAIL, THEY FAIL SPECTACULARLY.  USE APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS, AND DON'T CRY TO ME IF YOUR PHONE 'ASPLODES'.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!******

8 Comments

mimo80 12 years ago

Hey man great video !! I actually had the same problem with my camera and used an old lg phone. But I had to solder wires to the leads on the phone and I left little balls of solder on the end of the wires and taped them to the contacts on the battery. It worked like a charm!! thanks for such a great idea and anyone else who tries this make sure you get the polarity right and you will be fine! I will probably make a video on how I did it soon.

Thanks
mimo80

frollard 12 years ago

Awesome! Glad to hear you had good results too! Generally a smaller charger will work on a bigger battery and vice versa, unless the battery has a 'genuine x brand' detector, it should work.

cokecola 13 years ago

Your audio was off a bit but it really didn't matter. Overall the video was VERY well done. I thought the magnifying glass effect was cool and it made me laugh too.

frollard 13 years ago

Thanks, I might need to reupload -- it plays fine as a local file -- perhaps if I remaster the file to a different codec...

Glad you liked it!

Capfl2k5 13 years ago

I ran across a similar problem when My grandma bought a used Apitek digital camcorder. It didnt have a charger. Her thinking I could find one she didnt blink at the deal. But it not being a very popular brand it had to be ordered. But I wanted to make sure it worked so I tried to figure out how to charge it. Looking at the battery it looked very familiar. Then i realized it was the same as one of the older nokia cell phones. so I ran and grabbed the bag of old cell phones I been meaning to recycle grabbed a old nokia and charger and it worked perfectly.

lemonie 13 years ago

Well done there.

L