# 1 x AA emergency phone charger



## TinderBox (UK) (Aug 18, 2006)

are their any good one`s

as their are lots that are rubbish.

thanks.


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## carbine15 (Aug 18, 2006)

I saw this one and became very interested. 

Awwww, dangit, I just ordered it. I'll let you know. (I had to think of an excuse so it's a gift for the little woman who's always running out of batteries.)


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## TinderBox (UK) (Aug 18, 2006)

hello carbine15

that`s the one i saw on the same site that got me thinking, some good stuff on that site.

are their better quality ones that get more power out of the battery than a cheap chinese version.

regards.


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## carbine15 (Aug 18, 2006)

I think there's much more quality coming out of China in recent years. 

post edidted above.:naughty:


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## TinderBox (UK) (Aug 18, 2006)

a CPF member put an lithium AA, in his mobile charger and battery exploded and I think that was with an expensive version.

I think thats what got batterstation to cancel the AA lithium project.

the threads on here somewhere.

regards.


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## chmsam (Aug 18, 2006)

Eveready has a 2xAA that's fairly new and fairly small. At $20 it includes two Eveready lithium AA's. It comes in different vareities for various brands of cell phones as almost all of them do. Some include multiple cords to fit different models. They've even designed the packaging to let you try the cord(s) to see if the fit is correct.


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## bonvivantmike (Aug 19, 2006)

Anybody have a link to the Eveready unit?


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## vinn (Aug 19, 2006)

www.chargetogo.com
similiar product like the Hong Kong ones mentioned above, but cost more.


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## TinderBox (UK) (Aug 19, 2006)

quote from site : Adds up to 240mAh to devices battery per AA battery.

a whole 240mah from a 2800mah battey fantastic.:huh2:

regards.


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## geepondy (Aug 19, 2006)

Will one alkaline AA complete charge a typical cell phone battery?


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## Illum (Aug 19, 2006)

i really wonder if the unit can be made into a gooseneck flashlight, since theres already a built in driver circuit to provide constant output to charge the delicate circuits used in a cell phone...

Personally I'm not familiar with JXD's products as a whole, My MP3 was JXD and the batteries can no longer hold a charge after frequent use in one year...so, really dont know about china's quality these days....


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## Sub_Umbra (Aug 19, 2006)

I have an *AA Turbo Charger* and I've tested it with Alkys, NiMH and NiCad cells. I was underwhelmed. It did work...most of the time, but sometimes the Motorola would just lock up with the dreaded _"Unauthorized Charger"_ message.

Since I bought it for potential emergency use during hurricanes and whatever I would have to definately rate it as crap.

"Will one AA cell recharge a cellphone?" 

No. They advise using them more to _top off_ your phone.


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## John N (Aug 19, 2006)

It's 4AA, but I like the "Tanker" charger from http://www.civilianlab.com/. The USB output lets me charge my iPod, cell and PDA. And it has a built in 3LED flashlight. 

-john


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## John N (Aug 19, 2006)

Even farther OT, the waterproof Pacific Outdoor Equipment (POE) WXtex e-anchorage with solar panels and USB charger output.

-john


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## chmsam (Aug 19, 2006)

TinderBox (UK) said:


> quote from site : Adds up to 240mAh to devices battery per AA battery.
> 
> a whole 240mah from a 2800mah battey fantastic.:huh2:
> 
> regards.



The website listed from the package I have is for energitogo.com. I tried to access the website and what I found was that it will not be up until later this month. I found nothing about it on the energizer website, and I am not sure from where you got the info above or if we're even talking about the same item. 

The package I have uses 2 lithium AA's. There's no listing on the package or in the instruction as to what the output is. It does mention that the charger will get up to 9 hours for GSM phones and up to 3 hours for CDMA phones. That seems to me to be fairly reasonable for the intended use of the charger.


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## carbine15 (Aug 20, 2006)

Since the voltage changes to 3.6 volts (or likely 4.2 volts to charge the battery) the actual watts should be much higher. MAh tells you nothing without voltage. Ever wonder why the super powerful 18650 Lithium ion battery (that is much, much larger than a AA alkaline) only has 2200mAh compared to your 2800mAh Energizer?


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## Illum (Aug 20, 2006)

John N said:


> It's 4AA, but I like the "Tanker" charger from http://www.civilianlab.com/. The USB output lets me charge my iPod, cell and PDA. And it has a built in 3LED flashlight.
> 
> -john



On their website, seems like its Paypal only, wheres the page that allows you to order via credit card?


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## Sub_Umbra (Aug 20, 2006)

carbine15 said:


> Since the voltage changes to 3.6 volts (or likely 4.2 volts to charge the battery)...


At least a few of the promos for the various AA cell phone chargers claim they step the voltage up to 5 and 6 volts.


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## John N (Aug 20, 2006)

Illum_the_nation said:


> On their website, seems like its Paypal only, wheres the page that allows you to order via credit card?



Maybe:
http://www.semsons.com/unbaexwiusbp.html

And on sale too.

-john


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## Sub_Umbra (Aug 20, 2006)

That *"Tanker"* charger looks handy. I'm not big on the light but the 4xAA seems like a good idea.


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## Lit Up (Aug 20, 2006)

I just have one of those cell phone crank chargers.


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## BrighTor (Aug 21, 2006)

I own one of the Charge2Go units. I got mine from Bed, Bath, and Beyond when I went with my wife to get a wedding gift for someone. It was my "cookie" for being good and wandering the store with her. 

All in all, the unit isn't bad. I remember reading the Lithium cell story just after I bought it, so I have never used a lithium AA in it. It charged about 2 bars worth on my Moto 552 phone.


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## Illum (Aug 22, 2006)

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C8313/

energi to go, found it after reading a new issue of Outdoor Life [Sept, 2006] P20-21

2AA from energizer....


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## cobb (Aug 25, 2006)

I bought one that uses 4 aaa batteries from dr leonards for ten bucks. Came with a hand full of universal plugs. THe nokia 5000 series I needed was slightly too big to plug in, so I filed it down. 

It wont power the phone alone, but will top off the battery and allow you to use it on a low or dead battery. It actually triggers the charging circuit and makes the battery meter walk as it is in charging mode.


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## AlexSchira (Aug 26, 2006)

I just spotted those 2AA Energizer chargers in a Home Depot today, but couldn't find one with a plug that fit my LG. They had a decent selection of plugs despite this, and they seemed pretty well built.


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## paulr (Aug 26, 2006)

This sucks so bad. I wish they still made phones that ran on AA's directly, like the old Moto flip phones could.


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## LowBat (Sep 1, 2006)

Lit Up said:


> I just have one of those cell phone crank chargers.


How well does the crank charger work?


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## Sub_Umbra (Sep 1, 2006)

paulr said:


> This sucks so bad. I wish they still made phones that ran on AA's directly, like the old Moto flip phones could.


I'd like to have an AA cell phone. There are also a couple of MP3 players that would be perfect for me -- except that they won't take NiMH AAs or AAAs.


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## paulr (Sep 1, 2006)

There's enough mp3 players that take AA's or AAA's that I'm not worried about the ones that don't. I have a Sandisk M260 which is not such a great player for UI reasons, but it uses an AAA. I might get a Frontier Lab Nexblack, which uses two AA's and has a CF slot.

The devices I still have that use li ion include several cell phones and laptop computers. It annoys me to no end. I used to think it was tolerable in the laptops but now I'm faced with paying $80 or so to replace a 14.4V 1800 mAH li ion pack that's equivalent to eight AA NiMH cells that would run me $25 or so. Bah. At least the weight savings is significant when you're talking about that many cells. But for cell phones, except for the tiniest ones, there's just no excuse. In a medium sized phone, 1/2 ounce difference is not really noticable.


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## Illum (Sep 1, 2006)

paulr said:


> There's enough mp3 players that take AA's or AAA's...



the entire development in slimline electronics is based on lithium-ion technology as if youy are trying to eliminate all uses of AAs or AAAs in the future. Perferrably I think they should refine on the Alkaline MP3 technology...like the oldie but goodie movo


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## GarageBoy (Sep 1, 2006)

Charge to go works the best for what it is..will fill your batter 2/3s way up


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## LowBat (Sep 3, 2006)

I got the Energizer Energi-To-Go (with mini USB plug) today and couldn't get it to work on my Motorola V3i phone. It does seem to work well as a power source for my Garmin GPS, so I'm guessing that since my phone battery is over 2/3 full, I'll need to run the phone battery down to test the charger. I'm also going to test it with alkilines and NiMH too, and I'll post my basic findings.


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## LowBat (Sep 7, 2006)

LowBat said:


> I got the Energizer Energi-To-Go (with mini USB plug) today and couldn't get it to work on my Motorola V3i phone. It does seem to work well as a power source for my Garmin GPS, so I'm guessing that since my phone battery is over 2/3 full, I'll need to run the phone battery down to test the charger. I'm also going to test it with alkilines and NiMH too, and I'll post my basic findings.



After trying it a bit more I found that my phone doesn't want to charge unless the batteries in the Energi-To-Go are alkaline. It did nothing when I tried NiMH, and only once came on with the stock Lithium cells that came in the package. I'm guessing this has something to do with my phone more then anything else. With the alkalines it charged my phone up to 3 out of three bars, but didn't fully charge the phone before the Energi-To-Go stopped. I'd say it was just barely to the third bar as a little use of the phone brought it down to 2 bars. The charge from 1 to 3 bars only took about 90 minutes so it appears this isn't a slow trickle charger.

So far I'm satisified that this little charger will be a great little backup to keep in my backpack. It appears to charge the phone's internal battery quickly to at least 2/3rds, and can even let you make a call as soon as you plug it in. I have yet to determain how many charges a set of AA batteries will provide, but even if it's only a single charge, I'd still say this charger serves its intended purpose.


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## abvidledUK (Sep 7, 2006)

As Frank sang.... I did it my way...

Spare 12v car charger lead, cut end off.

4xAA cell holder, PP3 connector.

4x nimh or 4x Alkaline, whatever works, check polarity.

Connect up...

Magic.. works a treat.


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## Illum (Sep 7, 2006)

LowBat said:


> It appears to charge the phone's internal battery quickly to at least 2/3rds, and can even let you make a call as soon as you plug it in. I have yet to determain how many charges a set of AA batteries will provide, ...



is there a way to verify whether its charging under normal conditions or does it perform a fast charge?

Im thinking of buying one to charge my Samsung SGH-x497 on the go...but it takes half to an hour to charge the battery up two bars with the included charger, how "quickly" are we talking about here?


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## LowBat (Sep 7, 2006)

Illum_the_nation said:


> is there a way to verify whether its charging under normal conditions or does it perform a fast charge?
> 
> Im thinking of buying one to charge my Samsung SGH-x497 on the go...but it takes half to an hour to charge the battery up two bars with the included charger, how "quickly" are we talking about here?


My phone went from one bar (beeping low battery) to over 2/3rds full in about 90 minutes, which is about on par with my wall charger.


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## paulr (Sep 7, 2006)

This looks like the same gadget as the Energi-to-go, but at about 1/3 the price:

http://contents.fifthunit.com/html/products.5th/sku.898.html

I'm still looking all over for an AA-powered phone. They used to exist. I don't want an AA gizmo can charge my phone's lithium battery in an emergency. I want to throw the lithium batteries away in the garbage forever, and have an AA-powered phone that I can carry and use every day, powered by the NiMH AA cells. I can't understand why nobody makes that.


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## jtice (Sep 7, 2006)

I just ordered one of those off fifthunit.com
along with alot of other goodies 

But, its from overseas, so might be a while before I get it.
I will let you know what I think 

~John


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## carbine15 (Sep 7, 2006)

I still have not received mine. It's a week overdue.


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## jtice (Sep 7, 2006)

hm, damn, looks like I have a long wait ahead of me


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## jtice (Sep 26, 2006)

Got my 1AA Phone charger from FifthUnit yesterday 

Seems nice for the money.
It has an adaptor that fit my Samsung 920 phone,
It said it was charging when I plugged it in, and I could use the phone 

Beware, some phones that have the dongle, and the typical round charging plug,,,
some of these phones will not let you USE the phone with the round charging plug.

Seems fairly well built, I think it would survive your typical EDC situations.

Mine is reading 5.7V with no load.
Not a bad boost from a 1.5V cell.

Also, make sure you UNSCREW the tailcap some, when not in use !!!
You will notice the tiny red LED will BARELY lite up when the cap is on tight, even though its not plugged into a phone.
This leads me to believe it would drain the cell over time if stored with the tail on tight.

~John


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## Illum (Sep 26, 2006)

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=243211-346-CEL2SPR&lpage=none

bought this guy for 20...what [email protected]#$% quality...

all looks well upon opening package, added the batteries then...I cant get the hatch closed....and forcing it closed just put two dents on my L91 lithiums whoever the brillant guy is who added the springs didnt realize the springs take up space even when they're squeezed...so the springs too long, but im afraid to clip it.

_um Houston...we have a problem....we got the package loaded but we couldnt get the hatch to close._

and...
the instructions says: allow charger to sit for 10 minutes before replacing battery...well whats gonna happen if it pops open during charge?


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## LowBat (Sep 27, 2006)

Illum_the_nation said:


> http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=243211-346-CEL2SPR&lpage=none
> 
> bought this guy for 20...what [email protected]#$% quality...
> 
> ...


I have the same unit and the battery door closed fine on mine.:thinking: Maybe there's a lottery with these things.:shrug:


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## bucken (Sep 27, 2006)

I got the same one for my wife and the battery cover was extremely difficult to both open AND close. After several cycles, however, it got much better. I'm still not sure if it got "broken in", or if I just learned the knack of working it. It DOES seem to charge up a cell phone OK, though.


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