Don't throw out those battery packs when the phone says there no good!!!! Some time back I had a problem with keeping the battery charged on my Nokia 232 cell phone. I went on ebay and bid on a replacement battery (I think I got it for $3.00.) When I recieved the new pack I put it in the phone, charged it for 24 and presto! Dead battery. I calle3d and they sent me another it worked fine end of story right? Wrong!! Being the type that won't throw anything out unless all possabilities of salvage have been exhausted I took the pack apart and found 3 AA NiMH bateries inside in series and when I tested them with a VM 4.5v+, but the phone registered them as being dead. I made up a 5000mcd LED and a resistor circuit and hooked it up, LED lights, left it for 4 days LED still lit. Well this is good so I added a small switch I had laying around bent the wires around so I could mount the LED flat on the batteries taped the whole thing together with good ol' black tape (leaving small access to charge with 4.5 wallwart) Makes a decent little rechargable that lasts for a couple of weeks when turned off normally. I'm not sure what was wrong wiht the pack but the batteries are fine. I took apart the old battery found the same story and built another one. Replace the pack on my wifes phone and found the same story so I built another this time a headlamp w/8000mcd boy is that bright. Thinking about just buying the batter packs at $3 -$4 a piece since 4 AA NiMH run $10 - $15 the lights work great.
Recycle, REcycle, Recycle
Wildbill
