My poor little PDA's batteris are about to die, and the charger is at the other end of the country. On the other hand, I have an MP3 player in my bag with a good 18 hours of battery left in it. I know it won't power my PDA for that long. I know it's at a different voltage. But I don't think those are insurmountable problems. All I want is a set of jump leads, so I can power the PDA from the batteries in the MP3 player. How hard can it be?
-- moomintroll, Jan 31 2006

So you want an adapter to allow you to use x battery in y device. Well, it will be different for almost every x and y, because of voltages and amperages. Maybe a "magic box" with transformers [edit: resistors?] in it for common voltages and amperages would work - but only for common amperages and voltages.
-- roleohibachi, Feb 01 2006


Much like the oft-mooted DC power supply for homes, this is really a problem of standardisation. My knowledge of electronics is not what it should be, but matching voltage and current (or "amperage" if you prefer) should be fairly simple (though not with transformers [roleo], they pass through AC but filter DC). The main problem I see is connector standards. It would be nice if manufacturers sold boxes shaped like the relevant battery that had 9V PP3 connectors dangling out of them. In an emergency you could always buy a PP3 battery which would then get converted by the box into a simulation of the real battery. But that's another idea. I call dibs!
-- wagster, Feb 01 2006


Whoops, sorry about that. Ya' learn something new every day.
-- roleohibachi, Feb 03 2006


One of many reasons that I tend to buy devices that use AA and AAA batteries whenever possible (and yes I have RECHARGEABLE batteries for those things :) that way, if I had 2 devices that used the same kind of batteries, I can swap them out-and even if I don't, I can always run into any store and buy more batteries if I'm really stuck. You can buy a no-frills MP3 player that takes 1 AAA battery for about $30 to $50 these days.

One thing that you can buy if you find yourself in such "pickles" often, is an external rechargeable battery pack with a USB lead, which you can then buy a "USB to (insert device with rechargeable batteries here)" plug adapter- most cell phones and mp3 players (with rechargeable batteries) can be charged via USB. Depending on how long the cord is, you could throw the battery pack into your bag, still plugged in to your device, and continue to use it running off of the extended battery without ruining the eregonomics of the device you may have grown accustomed to.
-- Dickcheney6, Feb 01 2009



random, halfbakery