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Gear / Technical Help => Remote Power => Topic started by: travelinbeat on September 26, 2014, 10:10:09 AM

Title: Cell phone battery chargers?
Post by: travelinbeat on September 26, 2014, 10:10:09 AM

Hey guys just curious if anyone has some insights to offer regarding external cell-phone battery chargers.  I am interested in something roughly the size of a pack cigarettes (or ideally, even smaller).  I would love something that can take my Galaxy S3 from dead to 100% (or ideally, do so multiple times), but perhaps most importantly, something that I can charge once, and leave in my backpack for a couple of months without having the device drain power (as I know so many rechargeable batteries are prone to do).

I know the price range for these things is all over the map, and while I'd love something not too terribly expensive, I don't want something that can't hold a charge for more than a couple of weeks.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Title: Re: Cell phone battery chargers?
Post by: Gene Poole on September 26, 2014, 10:40:02 AM

Most of the reasonably priced units on ebay or amazon use Chinese LiIon cells which are a crap-shoot on quality.  I just bought one of these a few months back:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191209485956 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/191209485956)

After testing, I decided to buy another.

They come without cells so you can buy some decent Japanese made Panasonics or equivalent.  Also, if you have an old laptop battery or two(they almost all use 18650 LiIon cells), they usually still have mostly good cells inside and only one or two bad ones cause the whole pack to stop working properly.  Recycle the good cells!

I use these to power my portable gear when recording and I've never tried them to see how quickly they will charge a dead cell phone, but I do know that they will hold 90% or more of their charge for 3 or 4 weeks (with good quality cells).  The phone was in "airplane" mode and stayed 100% charged the whole show.

One of these (here barely visible sandwiched between the cell phone and the preamp) powered all my gear (which included my Nexus5 Android) for an 8 hour gig and still had 50% charge when I packed up.
(http://hoxnet.com/drop/IMG_20140920_181124_t.jpg)

Title: Re: Cell phone battery chargers?
Post by: Falconidave on October 02, 2014, 06:56:53 PM

This is bad ass Mo Fo right here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQSMEEE/ref=pe_385040_121528360_TE_dp_1

And only like $37 and free shipping.