How To Make Sure You Can Charge Your Cell Phone In An Emergency.

People have been emailing me - some about the 'Alert Retrieval Cache', some about other things - but everything revolves around getting messages in and out of disaster areas - in the context of New Orleans and Biloxi right now. And thus, this particular entry is for people to understand that they can, indeed, charge their cellular phones from standard batteries if necessary. Apparently some people believe that if the battery doesn't fit, it cannot be used. This is untrue.

Legalities

This is for use in life and death situations, where the cell phone is the last means of communications, and where you are willing to try anything. In a city, you may be able to acquire cell phones from stores, as well as batteries and other accessories that will help. Unfortunately, most batteries require charging before being used.

Looting, as in the context of the present situation, isn't condoned. All things being equal, if I were in a situation where I needed to communicate I would probably loot. This does not make it legal, and this does not mean that I am responsible for other people looting. Whether it is ethical or not depends on the situation. So this is the disclaimer - I don't condone robbery. Don't use this article as a license to steal.

Survival Equipment

That said, if you find yourself in a survival situation in the world today, a mobile phone can be useful. If the networks aren't damaged badly, you may be able to communicate by voice - which, of course, is ideal. In other instances, you may have to use SMS so that you can communicate with whoever is available, but what many people fail to realize is that you have to know who to SMS!. So have a number, if only one friend, who you know can receive SMS and therefore will be able to communicate with you - perhaps relaying your messages.

Be prepared. Other things that come in handy are a first aid kit, knife, rope, and even something as simple as a compass. A watch is a necessity. A charger for your cellular phone is great! But you probably won't have all of these things available - so you have to pick up what you can, as you can (hopefully not breaking laws). This is a time when imagination and knowledge comes in handy.

Emergency Power for Your Phone

It's a good idea to have a spare battery for the phone. If you don't have one, and no alternating current is available, you have a problem and you'll need to use your head and imagination to power it.

Each make and model of phone is different. Some have 3.6V batteries, others have 4.8V batteries, and others may have different power requirements. Some may have circuits for allowing more than this voltage to be used to charge the battery, some may not. Most phones have a cigarette lighter adapter for the phone, which can come in handy if there are cars where you are.

Your cell phone manual - the booklet that came with your phone and you didn't read (who reads them?) has the information for your battery in it. Failing that, if you have a charger with you then you can read the information on the charger. It will tell you how many volts the cell phone gets when recharging. The Amperes/Watts are important, but not if you have only what you find. Ideally, you'd find batteries that perfectly match the complete power requirements of the phone. You may not have a chance to wait for the ideal.

If you have your cell phone recharger, the best thing to do when your phone dies and there is no alternating current in your area is to adapt your charger to what you do have. This link shows an image of the phone adapter being used to charge a phone using solar power¹. You probably won't have a solar panel around, but this concept works for charging from other sources.

If you have an AC adapter and all you have are DC batteries, cut the wire between the adapter (the black, heavy thing with the two prongs) and the attachment for your phone - give yourself some room to work with, figure a foot from the cell phone end. That done, make sure the cell phone side is plugged in and check what you're going to use.

If you have a phone that requires 3.6 V, start off with 2 batteries that are 1.5V (for 3.0V) - any size can do, but the smaller batteries will not last as long.

If you have a phone that requires 4.8V, start off with 3 batteries that are 1.5V. That brings the batteries to 4.5V, which is close.

The Battery Pack

The batteries you are about to attach need to be in series, which means that they will have to be attached so that the positive (+ve) and negative (-ve) sides touch, like so:

2 battery series

-battery+ -battery+

3 battery series

-battery+ -battery+ -battery+

The batteries need to be *touching*. Some tape comes in handy to attach the batteries to each other, making sure that the contacts of each battery touch each other.

Now, you have to split the wire to the phone a bit so that you can touch a wire to each end of your new battery pack. Try the wires one way with the cell phone plugged in. If your cell phone doesn't show that it is charging, reverse the wires. If it still doesn't show that it is charging, check the connections to the battery pack, as well as make sure that in moving things around you didn't make break the connection between the batteries (it's easy to break the connection between the batteries so that a + isn't touching a -).

If your battery is charging, sit and wait and repeat the process as many times as you can. Expect to go through lots of batteries. These batteries will not give you a long charge.

If your cell phone shows that the cell phone battery is not charging and you are desperate, try a higher voltage at the risk of destroying your phone(again, I'm not responsible!). To try the higher voltage, add a battery - so that your 3V battery pack becomes 4.5V, or your 4.5 V battery pack becomes 6V. Remember to switch the wires around when testing to see if the battery is charging.

If you're *really* desperate, there are usually batteries in cars. This is NOT recommended at all. But the idea is to find things that have batteries in them and to adapt things to them.

If You Don't Have a Charger

If you don't have a charger, AND you know how your battery connects to your phone (phones have special pins that are used for + and -), you can attach them directly using some wire you scrounge up. Most people don't know their phones well enough to do this, and if you do not know your phone well enough to do this... DON'T. You may ruin your one device for communication. It would help if manufacturers clearly marked those pins, but they *don't* because they like selling you adapters.

If You Get It Charged

If you do get it charged, you shouldn't waste your battery. Turn off vibration alarms. Turn off all the stuff on the phone you don't need, and don't sit there and play games on it. Use it for SMS messenging, your battery will last longer. If you use it to make voice calls, expect to be charging the phone again shortly.

This is all *last* *resort*. Damage to your phone *is possible* even if you do things properly, and again - I'm not responsible for that damage. But if your life and health are at risk, it's up to you to decide which is more important - the ability to get help or the cell phone which can get it for you.

I hope you never have to use this.

¹ DIY Solar Electricity: Energy for Construction and Reconstruction.