A Mechanically Powered 3500 mAh Mobile Phones Power-Bank

Abstract

Research activities on implementation of mechanically powered phone chargers (MPPC) are receiving serious attention consequent upon the non-availability of power grids in many rural and remote areas of developing economies. These activities are further reinforced by the intermittent nature of the renewable energy resources for charging of mobile phones. The review of these already proposed MPPC revealed that most of them are not portable. Further, they have no facilities for controlling the charging and discharging of batteries. They are also not guided against direct charging of the batteries of mobile phones; thereby capable of damaging the batteries due to the poor quality of the energy they may produce. With these issues associated with the already proposed MPPC by various researchers, this study therefore proposes a reliable and portable mechanically powered 3500 mAh powerbank. The design is based on the Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction. The work addresses the issue of bulkiness by using a portable PD52103-12-4 ME planetary gear dc motor. The problem of excessive charging and discharging of the battery bank is solved by making use of LTC4056 and battery level visual indicators. In this proposed design, rather than charging the mobile phones directly, the power generated are stored in 3500 mAh power-bank before being used to charge the battery of a mobile phone. When tested, the proposed device charged a 3000 mAh Li-ion battery embedded in an android phone at rate of 0.37 percent per minute; and the various indicators glowed as expected.