I hate wasting products or throwing out things that work,plus I like to save a buck just because.

If you have a telephone at home,a wireless that sits on a charging base,you have a battery charger.

I just got new phones and noticed the battery in old phone was a 3.6 volt,NiMh battery.

Whatta ya know,my Eton/Grundig radio also has the same volt/type battery pack,and I dont have a charger for it.



So here is the battery from the phone,the pigtail connector plug is different from the Eton battery plug




I cut the pigtails off,stripped the ends and twisted all to the Eton Battery wires,then encapsulated the open wires in a blob of fast set epoxy,a fine way to attach low voltage wires very securely.The white connector is what fits the Eton,the black fits the phone.




And there you have it,the old phone is charging the Eton battery.Also cool the battery indicator on phone shows when battery fully charged,darn nice little charger leading a second life.Fun project.

The keys here are battery packs must be same voltage and same type,ie,in this case NiMH rechargeable,dont mix voltages or battery chemistry,they MUST be the same.

Cool,eh?

Spuds.. nice job... do you have the part number or source for the Grundig/Eaton battery pack connector?... I would like to make a cable from the dynamo charger to a miniUSB to see if I can charge my flip phone from the Grundig...

Nice!

Sorry Les,no part number.

Next thing I need to do is get out voltmeter and see what actually comes out of base,the plug in on ETON back says 4.5 volts,if the phone base is the same could just make a wire to plug/jack right into radio.

Yup,very fun project.I made a rocket stove last week,that was a fun one too.

Does that epoxy come off easily?

Wonder how difficult it would be to buy a used phone at a goodwill or flea market, with the intention of using it as a dedicated charging unit.

The epoxy never comes off,its there for good.I wait til it just starts to firm just a little,twirl a toothpick in it to pick up a glob and apply to the splice.Figured since so many electronic things are epoxy encapsulated it must be the answer,and it is,just great for sealing elctronics.Have no idea if safe for high volt things.

Our thrift used to have old electronics all over for dirt cheap,now it goes straight to a recycling center.

One thing you want to check is to see if the charge stops when the battery is fully charged. Many cordless phones are just a simple trickle charger which NiCad tolerated better than NiMH. I had to do a lot of searching for a cordless phone that actually stops charging once the battery is fully charged so as to not shorten the lifespan of the batteries.

EDIT: Comment deleted. I misread the original post. Carry on.