From: shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com   
      
   ... that I can use to drain alkaline cells and push the 'charge' into either a   
   lithium-Ion cell   
   (for a flashlight), a phone or a powerbank.   
      
   I have a combined wireless doorbell - inside/outside thermometer that I quite   
   like. Unfortunately   
   it won't run on NiMH cells and only uses alkalines down to 1.33v. (It's the   
   only thing I have that   
   doesn't run on rechargeable cells.)   
      
   The sender uses AAA cells and the receiver uses AA cells and I buy good   
   quality (expensive) cells   
   to get the longest run-time between changes (as it's a PITA to re-pair them   
   and re-set the clock in   
   the receiver too often). I though of converting the receiver to run on a   
   single 14500 Li-Ion cell   
   (AA size) and a buck regulator or even a wall-wart but that still doesn't   
   solve the issue of the   
   sender.   
      
   I dislike throwing good quality alkalines away when they still have ~65% of   
   their capacity   
   remaining but have had enough leak-disasters to not want to put already   
   semi-discharged cells in   
   remote controllers etc. where they then get forgotten about until things stop   
   working. (I've never   
   had an Eneloop leak and they run my remotes for about 3 years between charges.)   
      
   So I'd like to make a gizmo that takes a single alkaline and pushes out ~5v   
   through a USB cable for   
   as long as the cell has juice, preferably at a reasonable current. I have a   
   few different pre-made   
   boost modules from the usual suspects but when I tested one the output voltage   
   curve dropped with   
   the input so that it wasn't very successful.   
      
   If anyone has any ideas for something I can put together with a bit of   
   veroboard or similar I'm all   
   ears. I'm tired of having loads of half-used cells sitting around but don't   
   want to just chuck them   
   away. I've thought of this before but it's fresh in my mind as I've just   
   bought a 32-pack of each   
   size cell and they cost quite a chuck of change.   
      
   TIA.   
   --   
   Shaun.   
      
   "Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy   
   little classification   
   in the DSM"   
   David Melville   
      
   This is not an email and hasn't been checked for viruses by any half-arsed   
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)