A big tradeoff that a smart phone has is its battery life. Usually, a big disappointment to those who want to explore or use many features of the phone but are often restricted due to battery limitations. Realizing this as another opportunity to make instant money, many manufacturers have come with battery bank, an accessory, which can be used to charge your phone. Costing around $50 and above, these power banks are a convenient solution to always power needing portable gadgets of yours. However, you must know that once you buy a battery bank, you must charge it too so that you can charge your phone!! Also, they are usually bigger than the smart phone you own, adding another extra accessory to your limited travel luggage.
As backup and power solutions, we do have a lot of solutions, getting inclined to just one of them simply does not make any sense. In a search to find simple, affordable, handy but powerful backup solutions, we explore a DIY AA battery powered charging box which is as big as two fingers put together and can charge your phone, mp3 player and other PMPs via USB port. The logic behind this DIY is simple: extract, solder and assemble.
You need to extractAA batteries along with a battery bay which you can find in any non-usable battery powered toy. Then you have to solder a small circuit around that connects to a USB port. Put it in a box and there you are, assembling your very own battery bank. Compared to a $50 battery bank, how much would it cost? $10, may be? It is certainly a no maintenance requiring gadget other than replacing the AA batteries, which you might not if they are rechargeable. Also, there are options of having a 4 AA battery powered model too. Interested, but not feeling prepared? Catch a well detailed DIY guide to this project here.
Filed Under: Reviews