3D printing an external battery charger? Then getting it wired!

[Merantza]

I’d buy a spare battery for my FP4 if I could charge it externally. To bad we’re such a small market. It might cost as much as the FP4! Maybe there will be one for the FP5 by the time the FP5 gets to the US. Anticipation!!

[Jens1]

Creating a dual use powerbank and charger for fairphone batteries

You could only use it on the same battery, of that specific phone. So you design a thing, 3D print it, OK and then what? All in the name of environment friendly? Yet you did have to design it, get the PLA, solder it, get it shipped from China, etc. My wife has a universal battery charger, and this charger supports all kind of standard rechargeable batteries (AA, AAA, etc etc). But it does not support smartphone batteries. Or any other non-standard, proprietary format. To access those, they have…

External universal chargers for Fairphone batteries

Pre-sermon: What for?

Those who have followed Fairphone for a long time know that the charging port of a Fairphone is – very much like in other smartphones – a neuralgic point. When it doesn’t work, the whole device is soon becoming unusable until it is fixed. We have seen the spare part becoming unavailable and available time and again, sometimes after 1-2 weeks, but more than once, it took months. The FP2 bottom module that includes the charging port was the first spare part that Fairphone had …

[Merantza]

I was thinking of charging a spare battery while running around with the phone and its battery.

Swapping them in the phone to keep them charged seemed cumbersome.

[mde]

If you want to charge while running around, why not just use any of the abundantly available power banks? That also spares you the trouble of switching off the phone to change the battery.

[JeroenH]

If you are using a li-ion / lipo battery, then as spare, then keep in mind it is best to keep the battery around 50%. The spare would not be hot swappable. If that is unreasonable to you, then a powerbank (= a battery pack with standard outputs like USB-A and USB-C to charge another battery) is suffice (with it being charged to about 50%), but it is an extra battery pack in the chain. No matter how you look at it: using a battery (pack) to charge another battery pack is not in the spirit is fairly sustainable. So you might as well go for a quality power bank. Read reviews to see which ones last for a while. Bonus: some cannot quick charge (good for longevity of power bank and smartphone, generates less heat, more safe) while others can charge (certain) laptops as well.