How to make your own cellphone charger from a pill bottle

How many times have you gone out of your cell phone charge and wanted a charger for making it function again? Most of us have come across such a situation often. There are times even when your original cell phone charger does not work properly. What would you do under such circumstances? The best thing is to make a spare charger with various items that are available at home. Check out if you have these items at home and built yourself a cellphone charger. Ensure that you have some senior person or elders at home while doing this experiment.

cellphone charger

Difficulty level: Challenging

Time required: 2 hours

Resources required:

1, Bits of wire

2. 8 AA batteries

3. Knife

4. Pill bottle of size 16 d

5. Soldering iron

6. Duct tape

7. Solder

8. 12 volt automotive outlet

Estimated cost: $24-30

Instructions

1. Make a hole in the bottle for wires to pass through

First, take the pill bottle and make a hole on it with a knife from the bottom. The hole should be half an inch wide. This is to ensure that the wires from the batteries can pass through the hole easily to the bottom of the plug. Avoid making the hole too small or too big.

2. Install the plug

You can buy the required plug from stores like Wal-Mart for $3 each. You may require eight such batteries for the charger. Now use the lid of the pill bottle and make a large hole so that the plug can be inserted in it. Push the plug into this hole and screw it well on the back side of the lid and keep this aside.

3. Build the battery pack

Take the bottle and cover it with a piece of tape at the bottom. Stick all the batteries on the bottle side by side. Remember to alternate their poles (positive and negative) one after another. After sticking the batteries, stick tape around the batteries again to cover them well. Connect each cell with small pieces of wire. Seal the wires by soldering them. Avoid overheating with the solder because it can be dangerous. The batteries may explode or sometimes even cause leakage. After connecting all the batteries, bring the two long wires together and feed them in through the hole at the bottom of the bottle.

4. Assembly

Now you have to assemble all the parts. And all that is remaining is to wire the outlet. The outlet should always be negative at the outer wall. This has to be taken care of or else the charger may not work. It should also have the two terminals on the plug. When the wiring is done, twist the plug and gently slide it inside the bottle. Plug in and charge your set.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Can we use other batteries for making this charger?

A. You may need to use more number of batteries or less according to their capacities. This is because some may have lesser charge or more according to their capacities. It is better to use normal batteries because you can get the minimum charge for your cell phone.

Q. Will the plastic bottle be damaged while charging the cell phone?

A. The batteries do not have enough power to heat the bottle or cause any damage to the bottle. Another thing is that you will be placing the batteries on the bottle after insulating it with the tape. Plastic does not conduct electricity as well.

Quick tips

• Use new batteries for making the charger as older ones may not have enough power.
• Try to use all equal sized batteries.

1. Be very careful while using the sharp objects like the knife for making the hole on the bottle.

2. soldering the wires on the cells have to be with care. If the heat is too much, the batteries may explode or leak.

3. Stick the batteries in the correct order according to their poles.