External battery? Help me decide...

[robbienakata]

So after about half a day of heavy use my iPhone battery starts to give out. This can obviously be very aggravating when I don't have access to a charger. For this reason I've been looking for a good external battery for the iPhone.

My two requirements are that it connects via a cable (I don't want one that hooks directly to my phone because i like my current case) and I also do not want a battery pack that uses AA or AAA batteries.

My biggest concern is compatablilty issues. I would hate to spend $50 on a battery and it not even work with my phone!

Here are a couple of ones I have found already

Amazon.com: APC UPB10 Mobile Power Pack for...
Amazon.com: APC UPB10 Mobile Power Pack for...

[serge619]

I dont know if you bought one yet but when i was in IRAQ i bought a BELKIN "Back-up Battery Pack" for my 60GB IPOD Video and it works pretty good on both my IPod and my IPhone. i think the price was abit higher than the ones your lookin at and its also abit thicker. it runs off of 4 AA batteries.

[iBlade]

I made my own for the cost of 4 AA rechargeable batteries and a battery holder case with switch and two resistors. Used 2200 mA one's and that allows me to recharge the phone almost 1.5 times. Total cost 15 bucks. The resistors you need to trick the iphone into charging.

[mariotheotaku]

I recommend the third battery from Macally, I have it and have used it on my ipod touch and it does an excellent job, I can fully recharge my ipod at the same speed with the charger, plus the battery itself gets charged with an usb charger. It has an on/off switch when its not in use. I can get about 3-4 fully charges on the touch depending on how low the battery is. The only downside is that it takes like 5 hours to fully charge the battery if its empty.

here is some reviews on the battery, that's also the place where I bought it

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16855998033

[Aiyo]

Originally Posted by iBlade

I made my own for the cost of 4 AA rechargeable batteries and a battery holder case with switch and two resistors. Used 2200 mA one's and that allows me to recharge the phone almost 1.5 times. Total cost 15 bucks. The resistors you need to trick the iphone into charging.

pics please? I might want to try this

[iBlade]

Originally Posted by Aiyo

pics please? I might want to try this

Here you go. With this you can just use your usb cabel to connect to the phone. You could also cut a usb cable to any lengh you want and use it that way. I did it like this so I can charge anything that runs of 5 volts and uses usb. If you need any further help, let me know.

[robbienakata]

You think you could draw a wiring diagram including those resistors?

[gavko]

try this http://www.robotification.com/content/view/22/ looks pretty much same...

[robbienakata]

Doesnt have any information on the resistors that allow it to work with an iphone.

[96hondaex]

Originally Posted by iBlade

Here you go. With this you can just use your usb cabel to connect to the phone. You could also cut a usb cable to any lengh you want and use it that way. I did it like this so I can charge anything that runs of 5 volts and uses usb. If you need any further help, let me know.

Are you keeping any other secrets from us ...

You should try to build some and sell them on eBay. I'll be your first customer .

[iBlade]

Originally Posted by 96hondaex

Are you keeping any other secrets from us ...

You should try to build some and sell them on eBay. I'll be your first customer .

Sorry guys, did not want to hold out on you. But I was riding my new Bike a Hyosung GT250R all day. Anyway I just drew up something for you. It is really simple and easy. If you need any further help just ask. You can use any case that holds 4 AA batteries. You need 2 resistors each 470 kOhm and any female USB cable. This way you can charge anything that needs 5 Volt. The resistors you need to trick the iphone to accept the charge. Here is also a site that shows the pinout for USB.
http://www.pc-control.co.uk/usb%20pinout.htm

But be carefull guys, don't damage your phone.

[robbienakata]

Ok thanks I'll give this a try sometime this week if I can find the time. Couple questions though, could the 6v supplied by the 4 AA batteries potentially damage the iPhone because usb's typically output 5v? Would it be safer to use only 3 AA batteries with a total of 4.5v?

[iBlade]

Well I would not recommend regular batteries, as they have like you correctly said 1.5 v and that makes 6 v. I use rechargeable, they have 1.2 and 4.8 v is no problem plus when they are fully charged you get about 5-5.2v. You could of course also 5v voltage regulator and then use reg. batteries, but it will be more costly in the end. In the old days AA rechargeable batteries had only 500mA, so alkaline batt lasted longer, but these days you get over 2000mA. Good luck.

[robbienakata]

Okay I'll take that into consideration. One more thing though, could you charge the rechargeable batteries in the device if you plugged in a powered usb cable? or is there more involved in the charging process than just that? Sorry I know very little about the topic...

[iBlade]

No problem, I don't know everything either. I wish I could write apps. Anyway, yes you could charge them but I'll have to find a male to male usb cable since you got female on both sides.