Near Space
pins are closed to the leaf contacts
(in my charger, this is on the left side
of the leaves). Now, solder the leaves
together (the leaves appear to be
made of brass). After the solder
cools, remove the heatsink clamp.
The leaves will remain in contact if
the soldered connection is good.
The next step is to connect wires
and connectors to the charger that
can interface with the modified cell
phone battery. Cut two lengths of wire
(red and black) about 8” long. For my
charger, I used #22 AWG stranded
wire. We can get by with thinner
gauge wire on the charger unit than
on the battery because the charger
recharges the battery at a low
current, whereas the battery may be
discharged at a high current.
Crimp and/or solder the same
type of connectors used in the battery
mod to one end of both wires. Now
strip about 1/4” of insulation from the
other ends of each wire and tin them.
Slide a short length of heat shrink
tubing over the wires and push them
away from the bare ends of the wires
and close to the crimped connectors
on the other end (you want to keep
the heat shrink away from where you
will be soldering). Thoroughly tin the
battery charging pins.
If the front of the charger is pointed
at you (the front of the charger has
the two LED indicators), then the
right charging pin is negative and the
left charging pin is positive. You can
verify this by looking at the charging
circuit’s PCB silk screening.
Pass the two #22 AWG gauge
wires through the two charging pin
holes in the pocket of the charger
case. Be sure to pass the black wire
through the right hole and the red
wire through the left hole. Press one
of the tinned ends of wire into contact
with a tinned charging pin and heat
both of them with a well-tinned soldering iron. Hold the wire in place until
Figure 4. With the case closed, the charger
“almost” looks normal.
the solder cools. Repeat the same thing
with the other pin. Once the solder
cools, slide the heat shrink over the
soldered connection and shrink.
Now, you can close the charger
case. Be sure a wire doesn’t get
pinched in the case.
I have used my new batteries
twice on NS missions and, so far, I’m
pleased with the results. NV
JANUARY 2005
25