My first encounter with portable handphone chargers was during my time in BMT (basic military training) in Pulau Tekong. As recruits, we were not allowed to use electricity in camp. We were told that this rule was in place so that we do not end up overloading the generators that were powering the island. I felt that it was utter bullshit because the only time we could use the electricity was at night when most electronic appliances are switched off. But still, nothing much could be done about it since we had no rights and no say.
I am someone who is really addicted to technology, so much so that I don't feel right if I leave my house with my handphone battery at half capacity even though I was only going for only a few hours. I was quite glad that I am able to bring my phone to camp although it would be next to useless if the battery went dead. Knowing this, I definitely have to do something to get around this problem. I felt that it was kind of wasteful and stupid to buy another handphone battery (about $30) when the training will only last 3 months and I'll still be left without any communication when the extra battery is used up anyway.
I needed something that is able to use disposable batteries and it seemed that a portable handphone charger was ideal choice for this situation. So, I bought this at Sim Lim Square for less than $10. It uses 4x AAA batteries and when I plugged it into my phone, it worked! The screen showed that it was charging. Wonderful.
During the first week of my 2-week confinement, I used my phone really sparingly, turning it on at night only to check for messages and to send stuff out. I even took out the battery from the phone when I did not need to use it. All these measures helped to keep me contactable but 1 week was all I can squeeze out of my battery. Still, it was longer than I expected and a boost from my newly bought portable charger should be sufficient to last me the rest of my confinement week. I even lent my battery the poor souls who did not prepare for this. Good eh?
Happily, I plugged in my portable charger and placed it inside my cupboard. After 30mins, I came back to check on it and to my greatest horror, the phone was no longer charging and my phone was showing an additional 1 bar extra. That was all it could do. Unplugging and plugging it again did nothing. The screen flashed "NOT CHARGING". Die! This time, I screwed up. I knew that my parents would be coming to pick me up from Pasir Ris for my first book-out, so I really needed my phone to tell them exactly where to meet me. There was no way a battery at 1 bar (out of 5) could last another week of sparing usage. I was even unsure if it can hold its charge even if I don't use it at all. Sure enough, when the time came, I couldn't even establish a call without the phone shutting down.
After this incident, I went to check the AAA batteries inside my portable charger. All of them were still fresh. I could power them in my trusty MP3 player and still use them for many hours before they were depleted. What was wrong with it? Why did it not continue charging even though those AAA batteries were still fresh?
These questions led me to suspect that charging may be quite a complicated process and the charger may not be capable to utilize the energy in those disposable batteries. It took me quite a few years of procrastination to finally decide that I should take a closer look at the innards of the charger I bought during my younger days.
Ah! That's the reason why I couldn't charge my phone effectively. The only component inside this charger was a diode! A diode is a component that is made such that electrical current can flow only in one direction. This prevents the backflow of electricity should the battery in the phone overpower the portable charger. Its a nice safety feature, but it doesn't make it work any better. Normal AAA batteries have 1.5V. Having 4 of these will give 6V. My phone required a minimum of 5V to charge the battery. While the portable charger charges my phone, the battery voltage drops as it depletes. The moment each battery drops to 1.25V, the phone no longer continues charging. It is quite a shame because at 1.25V, these batteries still have a lot of energy left in them.
The important question is how, if it is possible, to eliminate this voltage drop from the batteries.
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