I would like to upgrade my currently useless phone jack into a USB charger for my cellphone.
Can someone draw me some schmatics so I can build this?
I know phone jacks do carry some electricity... (at least enough for this right?)
My electronics experience doesn't go past making a strobe light with a 555 timer by following some directions I found online.
Also this needs to be put into an application that is durable/lightweight since I will be carrying this device/adapter with me everywhere I go.
I don't think the electricity would be enough.
[QUOTE=Ridz0r;36243001]I don't think the electricity would be enough.[/QUOTE]
What do you have to back this up? Reading online it seems the phone jacks provide 40 - 70 volts?
USB cannot be much more than this.. if not much much less.
USB is 5V
there's very little current in a phone line. you'll also most likely get caught if you try to consistently max out the current in the line, and you'll probably tie up the household line when you use it.
I'm not concerned about that, its not my house I'm doing this to.
It can cause interference issues, You can't run power from your phone jack along side your phone system. Also it's illegal, And yes they carry quite a bit of power.
[QUOTE=12voltsdc;36246572]It can cause interference issues, You can't run power from your phone jack along side your phone system. Also it's illegal, And yes they carry quite a bit of power.[/QUOTE]
First off, Since when has legal issues or fear of electricity/breaking something started making people just go "Oh well! Its illegal, better not hack it!"
Secondly... here is the part where it gets interesting, I am currently homeless and have found an abandoned apartment I can squat at during the night, its an older place and you can credit card your way into the apartment really easily, the only issue is getting into the apartment building itself, but the tenants will just let you walk in with them through the door.
Unfortunately the electricity in this apartment is shutoff, however the intercom system still functions off of the building's power. I can remove the intercom to see behind it a phone wire plug.
I do very much wish to be able to charge my cellphone here as well as other devices if possible.. Its just a matter of building a device to allow this.
tl:dr I don't give a fuck :dance:
[QUOTE=lkymky;36252274]First off, Since when has legal issues or fear of electricity/breaking something started making people just go "Oh well! Its illegal, better not hack it!"
Secondly... here is the part where it gets interesting, I am currently homeless and have found an abandoned apartment I can squat at during the night, its an older place and you can credit card your way into the apartment really easily, the only issue is getting into the apartment building itself, but the tenants will just let you walk in with them through the door.
Unfortunately the electricity in this apartment is shutoff, however the intercom system still functions off of the building's power. I can remove the intercom to see behind it a phone wire plug.
I do very much wish to be able to charge my cellphone here as well as other devices if possible.. Its just a matter of building a device to allow this.
tl:dr I don't give a fuck :dance:[/QUOTE]
Get multimeter, measure voltage (also check if it's AC or DC, I'm not entirely sure), buy or make DC-DC converter from that voltage down to 5 volts.
There is no way near enough current to charge any sort of battery, you'll be lucky to get a few mA out of it, and at that rate you'll be waiting weeks for your battery to charge.
The phone line is also extremely nasty, on-hook voltage is somewhere in the 50V DC range and ringing voltage is around 90V AC also the line is highly susceptible from transient voltage spikes from lightning and other sources.
Simply put it cannot be done.
[QUOTE=lkymky;36252274]tl:dr I don't give a fuck :dance:[/QUOTE]
Go to a homeless shelter and charge your shit there, don't fuck up the phone line for other people, maybe consider getting a job and stop wasting your time on Facepunch might help.
[QUOTE=Chryseus;36264127]There is no way near enough current to charge any sort of battery, you'll be lucky to get a few mA out of it, and at that rate you'll be waiting weeks for your battery to charge.
The phone line is also extremely nasty, on-hook voltage is somewhere in the 50V DC range and ringing voltage is around 90V AC also the line is highly susceptible from transient voltage spikes from lightning and other sources.[/QUOTE]
Well that sucks, I remember when I was at this linux meetup group they were discussing those green OLPC XO computers for kids in africa, they were talking about the computer being able to accept almost any type of electicity and that "dirty" electricity shouldn't damage the computer, Is this what they ment by that?
[QUOTE=Chryseus;36264127]Go to a homeless shelter and charge your shit there, don't fuck up the phone line for other people, maybe consider getting a job and....[/QUOTE]
I would, however its impossible to get into the shelter during this time of the year, too many parents kick their kids out for the summer and with all of the new intakes the shelter I am at is over capacity as a result I've been sleeping outside and at the airport.
I'm deathly afraid TSA is going to grope me in the middle of the night...
I am getting a job, applying to college, doing all the right things and such right now though its amazingly difficult to find a place to sleep that has amenities such as electricity, safety, and protection from the elements and finding something as simple as an electrical outlet that you can leave your shit at for a couple of hours without it getting stolen is almost impossible.
[QUOTE=Chryseus;36264127]stop wasting your time on Facepunch might help.[/QUOTE]
Since when has facepunch been a waste of time? :rolleyes:
[QUOTE=Ultraleet;36243501]USB is 5V
there's very little current in a phone line. you'll also most likely get caught if you try to consistently max out the current in the line, and you'll probably tie up the household line when you use it.[/QUOTE]
Actually, most newer motherboards have around 6v of power, but being as 6v regulators cannot be found in most Radioshack stores (at least not in our area), you can usually settle on 5v.
[QUOTE=CrispexOps;36275274]Actually, most newer motherboards have around 6v of power, but being as 6v regulators cannot be found in most Radioshack stores (at least not in our area), you can usually settle on 5v.[/QUOTE]
The USB standard calls for 5v +/- 5%.
[QUOTE=lkymky;36243208]What do you have to back this up? Reading online it seems the phone jacks provide 40 - 70 volts?
USB cannot be much more than this.. if not much much less.[/QUOTE]
That's insane. Do you have any idea what 70V is?
It's impossible for a RJ cable to have such high voltage.
USB is always 5V top. Otherwise it would fry. Your Home's RJ11 carries a very low voltage so it would be useless to try it such a feat since it would definitely not be able to charge your phone's battery.
There's no converting RJ11 to USB like macgivver. You could do it by picking up the vcc and ground from the RJ11 and connect it to your USB's ground and vcc. What happens if you do that, from my experience, either insuficient or no current will flow or it will take forever to be able to charge anything in whatever you want to charge it with.
Also if you try to push more current in your RJ11 cable it will likely fry. They are low voltage for a reason man.
[QUOTE=Behemoth_PT;36339172]That's insane. Do you have any idea what [b]5V[/b] is?
It's impossible for a RJ cable to have such [b]high voltage[/b].
[b]USB is always 5V top. Otherwise it would fry[/b]. Your Home's [b]RJ11 carries a very low voltage[/b] so it would be useless to try it such a feat since it would definitely not be able to charge your phone's battery.
There's no converting RJ11 to USB like macgivver. You could do it by picking up the vcc and ground from the RJ11 and connect it to your USB's ground and vcc. What happens if you do that, from my experience, either insuficient or no current will flow or it will take forever to be able to charge anything in whatever you want to charge it with.
Also [b]if you try to push more current in your RJ11 cable it will likely fry. They are low voltage for a reason man.[/b][/QUOTE]
What are you, stoned or stupid?
Almost everything you said is incorrect, I advice you to learn the fundamentals of electronics before you try offering advice in it.
I actually study Electronics and I made a mistake there.
I'm sorry.
I meant to say 40-70V instead of 5. And I did not read the topic entirely so I though he was just going to do it at home.
Either way, there's no way he's going to be able to push enough current through the cables to be able to charge anything decently.
And since that's not his house and he just has access to the intercom, it would be very much impossible for you to raise the voltage from there.
Surely you can make 5V go through a RJ11 and so through an USB... the problem is.. how are you going to manage to get 5V through the RJ11?
I mean, 5V is enough to charge a phone. It will take more time than a regular phone charger but you could manage.
I just don't believe that 5V are currently running through that Intercom RJ11 cable, (unless it's a powered version of the RJ11) but I would advise you to check with a voltemeter for a black and a yellow pinouts (pins 2 and 5) AC and DC.
Most likely if you do the operation you won't get enough power to charge your phone there and I don't see how you could raise the voltage there based on that information.
It's all I can really say.
Doesn't hurt to try though... you could easily do it with a swiss army knife and some electric tape.
Problem is, if it doesn't work, (most likely) you'll probably ruin the cable for nothing.
[QUOTE=Behemoth_PT;36357427]I actually study Electronics and I made a mistake there.
I'm sorry.
I meant to say 40-70V instead of 5. And I did not read the topic entirely so I though he was just going to do it at home.
Either way, there's no way he's going to be able to push enough current through the cables to be able to charge anything decently.
And since that's not his house and he just has access to the intercom, it would be very much impossible for you to raise the voltage from there.
Surely you can make 5V go through a RJ11 and so through an USB... the problem is.. how are you going to manage to get 5V through the RJ11?
I mean, 5V is enough to charge a phone. It will take more time than a regular phone charger but you could manage.
I just don't believe that 5V are currently running through that Intercom RJ11 cable, (unless it's a powered version of the RJ11) but I would advise you to check with a voltemeter for a black and a yellow pinouts (pins 2 and 5) AC and DC.
Most likely if you do the operation you won't get enough power to charge your phone there and I don't see how you could raise the voltage there based on that information.
It's all I can really say.
Doesn't hurt to try though... you could easily do it with a swiss army knife and some electric tape.
Problem is, if it doesn't work, (most likely) you'll probably ruin the cable for nothing.[/QUOTE]
He wants to step the 40-70v from the phone line down to 5v, read the thread before giving advice please.
[quote]I mean, 5V is enough to charge a phone. It will take more time than a regular phone charger but you could manage.[/quote]
This isn't true either, 5V is what is usually supplied by phone chargers but it depends on the amount of current the power supply can provide which is quite low in the case of the phone line.
Maxim have a paper on converting the DC from a phone line to 5V
[url]http://www.maxim-ic.com/app-notes/index.mvp/id/1923[/url]
You aren't going to charge your phone off though that due to the lack of current, You need a supply capable of 500mA at 5V for a standard USB charger. 150mW at 5V is 30mA...
I vote for a solar charger or something.
[QUOTE=Tezzanator92;36365613]
I vote for a solar charger or something.[/QUOTE]
Are there any in existence that aren't absolute shit?
I'm going to hook my phone's wall charger to the RJ cable and see what happens.
I do see that my multimeter does get quite a reading off of it; it goes anywhere from 0 to 140 (wtf!) volts while connected I even got some negative readings of as low as -60 wtf is up with that?
I went to check a wall outlet later on with the same meter on the same setting and it got a solid 118.9 so as far as I know my instruments are accurate.
-snip-
[QUOTE=lkymky;36368765]Are there any in existence that aren't absolute shit?
I'm going to hook my phone's wall charger to the RJ cable and see what happens.
I do see that my multimeter does get quite a reading off of it; it goes anywhere from 0 to 140 (wtf!) volts while connected I even got some negative readings of as low as -60 wtf is up with that?
I went to check a wall outlet later on with the same meter on the same setting and it got a solid 118.9 so as far as I know my instruments are accurate.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I had one over in Afghaniland. It took me about 5-8 hours to charge my Ipod. Here is a link. Kind of expensive though.
[url]http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&sugexp=eish&cp=8&gs_id=3v&xhr=t&q=solar+usb+charger&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1440&bih=715&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=18354888611801104683&sa=X&ei=Wt3eT9TXD4vq2wWQpYWHCw&sqi=2&ved=0CNsBEPMCMAA[/url]
The mW requirements to run a low power cell phone is much lower than the mW for charging...so its more realistic, but still risky, to consider that as an emergency power source for dialing out - like for 911 purposes.
What you want is this:
[url]http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Get-Emergency-Power-from-a-Phone-Line/step3/Construct-a-Simple-Voltage-Regulator-Circuit/[/url]
but you'll need to get a buddy to order the 5V regulator chip since the rat shacks no longer seem to keep things like this (TI 7805 voltage regulator) in stock anymore.
and I'm serious about only using it to make emergency calls out. Don't blame us if you get a fried cell phone because you leave it plugged into this...heck...before you even try it you should research the running load specs of your cell phone - snazzy (power greedy) smart phones need not apply.
Offhand, Samsung Galaxy Blaze or a lot of the older LG phones will probably work fine with 75mW.
[QUOTE=lkymky;36252274]First off, Since when has legal issues or fear of electricity/breaking something started making people just go "Oh well! Its illegal, better not hack it!"
Secondly... here is the part where it gets interesting, I am currently homeless and have found an abandoned apartment I can squat at during the night, its an older place and you can credit card your way into the apartment really easily, the only issue is getting into the apartment building itself, but the tenants will just let you walk in with them through the door.
Unfortunately the electricity in this apartment is shutoff, however the intercom system still functions off of the building's power. I can remove the intercom to see behind it a phone wire plug.
I do very much wish to be able to charge my cellphone here as well as other devices if possible.. Its just a matter of building a device to allow this.
tl:dr I don't give a fuck :dance:[/QUOTE]
If you're squatting, and can afford to engineer some sort of DC-DC/AC-DC converter/regulator, then go out, spend $5-10 on a 5V wall-wart with the connection you need for your phone and borrow a plug at a fast-food restaurant or something. You can even find some buildings that have "courtesy outlets" meant for service work outside.
North American telephone lines at least idle on 48v DC and on ring will switch to 120v AC to ring the bell or whatever is used for the ringer. Even if you got around the fact that your input voltage would spike on occasion and switch from DC to AC the second issue is that most phone lines only supply 50ma of current at max because telephones don't need a hell of a lot of power to operate. This is such an amazingly small amount of power that it would take your phone days to fully charge, if at all because of the power needed to run the phone at idle would possibly exceed the input current.
[QUOTE=pentium;45945681]North American telephone lines at least idle on 48v DC and on ring will switch to 120v AC to ring the bell or whatever is used for the ringer. Even if you got around the fact that your input voltage would spike on occasion and switch from DC to AC the second issue is that most phone lines only supply 50ma of current at max because telephones don't need a hell of a lot of power to operate. This is such an amazingly small amount of power that it would take your phone days to fully charge, if at all because of the power needed to run the phone at idle would possibly exceed the input current.[/QUOTE]
To put this into perspective, a phone charger might charge at a rate of as little as 500mA (that's half an amp) and it still takes an hour or two depending on the phone.
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