A question put forth in the "trapped on a boat" thread got me wondering. A person ask if a device could be made the could run any cell phone from any battery. In our BOBs I have these emergency cell phone chargers. They are just an aluminum tube which holds a AA battery and the female port to a 12-volt car powerplug. If you have a 12-volt adapter for the cell phone you can use this to charge/power any cell phone.

This leads me to think that if most/all cell phones can be powered by an AA battery then they should all have very similar power requirements. The reason the have different batteries is to meet the shape-requirements of the phone, not the power requirements.

This then suggests that all cell phone batteries put out similar amounts of power which leads me to think all you actually need for a "Universal Cell Phone Power Adapter" is two peices of wire and some electrician's tape. Just run wire from the proper electrodes of the battery to the contacts in the phone.

Can any electrical experts confirm/deny this. If it's actually the case I need to add a few more things to my Altoids kit.

-Blast