# How To Turn A Hand-Crank Flashlight Into a Cell Phone Charger



## IrritatedWithUS (Jan 9, 2011)

*Learn How-To in Less Than a Minute!
*

I found a really cool video that I wanted to share with you guys. If you have a spare hand-crank flashlight you can turn it into a cellphone charger.


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

Very cool!! We have 8-10 of those wind-up lights. I may have to open one up. :2thumb:


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Well that's pretty darn slick...


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## Salekdarling (Aug 15, 2010)

AWESOME! Thanks for finding that tutorial!:2thumb:


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## IrritatedWithUS (Jan 9, 2011)

Salekdarling said:


> AWESOME! Thanks for finding that tutorial!:2thumb:


You are very welcome!


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## GXLancer (Mar 13, 2011)

They actually sell wind up phone chargers as well as mini wind power phone chargers. I have a wind up charger that will charge about anything with a USB connector on it. Keep it on me out here in the AFG incase we run out of diesel. Ill be the last one still playing angry birds.


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

Cell phone will not usually work in disasters. Heck we get a power outage and ours don't work.


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## GXLancer (Mar 13, 2011)

yeah but cell phones today have other uses than just calling. Mine is a time keeper, calander, contact list, flashlight, camera, music player, gaming device and calculator.


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

GXLancer said:


> yeah but cell phones today have other uses than just calling. Mine is a time keeper, calander, contact list, flashlight, camera, music player, gaming device and calculator.


I have never used any of those options but that is a good point for those that do. We just turned both of ours off and going short wave.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

I bought a 12-volt charger for my cell-phone and a few wind-up flash-light with charger for cell built-in. I gave away a bunch of the flash-lights to family for Christmas gifts (Dec 2010) and have a spare one in the dresser for myself ... works quite well. I also have a solar-panel charging batteries that have 12-volt power ports for recharging USB-devices, cell-phones and also charging rechargable DoubleA (AA) and TrippleA (AAA) batteries ... 

I love my solar-systems where I have the panels hanging in a couple of my south-facing windows ... and mounted to my camping trailer.


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## GXLancer (Mar 13, 2011)

Thats the same one I have, used it a few times just to see if it works. It does but charging my Droid from 0% to 100% would probally take a couple hours if not longer


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## drifter0069 (Jan 6, 2011)

i am no expert, but could 3 or 4 of these be hooked up to say an excercise bike to charge car batteries? how efficient would that be? just curious.


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

If you don't already have one, then you can also purchase an emergency radio/flashlight/usb charger that has windup and solar charging options.

Amazon.com: Etón FR160B Microlink Self-Powered AM/FM/NOAA Weather Radio with Flashlight, Solar Power and Cell Phone Charger (Black): Electronics


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## drifter0069 (Jan 6, 2011)

thank you for that, buying one now!!


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## Grape Ape (Oct 28, 2008)

Something you may need to know. Some cell phones require a pretty good electrical hit to get them to start charging then a trickle can charge them. So, if you try this and it doesn't work with your phone before giving up on it try again but for the first 5-10 seconds crank it like you are a wild crazy person trying to light up a football stadium. For some phones that is required to get them to kick into the charging circuit and start charging then you can crank like normal to charge it.


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## woodsong (Sep 4, 2011)

Thanks for the link -- this looks very useful!


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## TrinityAquaponics (Aug 26, 2011)

That is an awesome video! When hurricane Ike hit I lost power for a couple of weeks. My cell phone could still make calls, but once the battery was out that was it. People were hanging out at CVS and Walgreens just to charge their phones. This would have been great to have had.


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## preventDamage (Sep 16, 2011)

Wow. That's really cool. Thanks for the post.


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## siafulinux (Jun 17, 2010)

Had two thoughts with this. The first is to attach a multi-end cable so that devices with different charging cables can be used. Second, I would try to make some connectors to attach a pole and some blades to make a portable, outdoors, wind powered charger, something like  this.

The end result would be a multi device charger using either hand power (when no wind is around) or wind power (if wind is strong enough to get it going). Like the original, this would of course only be able to charge smaller devices, but without having to sit and hand crank for [whatever time].


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## mikesolid (Aug 24, 2011)

That's awesome. Thanks for the posting.


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## spleify (Oct 4, 2010)

Very very cool. Thanks for sharing that video.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

lilyren said:


> Spammer quote removed.


And another spammer bites the dust.....


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## jackpreparednessexpert (Jan 20, 2014)

Thanks for sharing this, this is a great source of emergency power that I can add to my emergency kit! Great job! Any other great ideas to add?:2thumb:


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

jackpreparednessexpert said:


> ....a great source of emergency power that I can add to my emergency kit! Great job! Any other great ideas to add?


There are days you will not want to crank it. Look into building a small solar powered 12 volt system, that will free up your hands to do other things 

http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f16/d-i-y-solar-generator-less-than-208-a-23287/


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## Amber Green (Oct 25, 2021)

IrritatedWithUS said:


> *Learn How-To in Less Than a Minute!*
> 
> 
> I found a really cool video that I wanted to share with you guys. If you have a spare hand-crank flashlight you can turn it into a cellphone charger.


 I'd actually while you have it open , replace the cell batteries with a bigger vape one or something! Great idea


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