Free cell chargers as an alternate power source?

[Mark Hammer]

A co-worker is more frequent beer-drinker than myself (my last beer was somewhere in the last century).  Apparently, Bud Light included those small flashlight-sized portable cell-charger units free in cases of beer.  Having a great many "spares", he brought one in for me.  I see that it provides 1500maH at 5V.  Strap on a charge pump, and you have yourself a decent 9V supply of clean DC (well, as clean as charge-pump power can get).  Charging and powering is via USB jacks, but the adaptor it comes with converts USB form factor to a barrel-style plug/jack.  The plug is narrower gauge than 2.1mm, but it means an adaptor to make that compatible with 2.1mm is relatively painless and inexpensive.  There IS the nuisance of keeping it/them charged, but they're rechargeable, which is nice and green.  Plus, they're nice and compact.  Heck, you could easily fit one into a 1590BB with a PT2399 circuit inside.

Just something to think about.

[PRR]

Comments about poor charge retention, the high price of beer, and "having to drink THAT beer....."

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/bud-light-28-pack-free-powerbank-iphone5-iphone-microusb-1510939/

I think you can do better than these "free" batteries. Off-brand batt-packs are $10, and even if I still drank beer, I might pay $10 to NOT swill a case of Bud Lite.

[Mark Hammer]

Believe me, no endorsement of the beer or charger, on my part.  Just an idea that if you had them anyway, their use is not necessarily restricted to cellphones.

[petemoore]

  Cellphones, blinky lights [bycicle light], clocks, computers and other electronic do-dads have lithium ion batteries that are usable !
  They're everywhere including the trash dump.
  The clock even has a nice 3v and dedicated charger in it.
  They can be tricky to 'lift', and tricky to charge, but I'm using a drill battery, a computer battery and have been known to use anything that has the capacity to store charge.
  Even 'regular' batteries have provided 9 more lives for me, rubbing, slamming and recharging have all shown good success at getting the other lives of batteries realized.
  One example compares the short use-life of 2 weeks to nearly 2 years, simply by heating them once or twice.
  Over 80 percent of my current from batteries comes from free, reheated, recharged and even repaired batteries. One good fall can break a 9v, I disassembled and then re-connected the batteries to their clip [via wires], and rewrapped the battery in tape...like new again [with ''accessory'' wire dangling between battery and clip.