DIY: $10 Android wind-up charger

By Matthew Chung on 01/24/2011 21:57 PDT

Are you always cursing because your Android-powered device is always running out of juice? Well, if you don’t mind getting your hands slightly dirty, the Ben Heck Show has come up with a simple guide to teach you how to create a kinetic wind-up charger for Android phones. The components involved are common items such as a wind-up flashlight, a micro USB adapter, some solder, a Zener diode and a 10Ohm resistor, which apparently cost less than $10 for everything. The modder also included a voltage regulator circuit to get the required five volts that an Android-device requires for charging, instead of the 12 or 13 volts that he was getting.

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Android Android is mobile operating system from Google. The software was originally built by a company called Android Inc, that was purchased by Google in 2005. From its modest debuts, Android has become a powerhouse that powers not only smartphones and tablet, but a host of other less high-profile devices and gadgets. Although Android is not a community-driven project, Google does release the source code as open-source under the Apache license.

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