Introduction: Hand Crank LED Flashlight Hacked - Now Also USB Charger
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About: I'm a Linux enthusiast, avid diy-er. I work for a company that manufactures "smart" invertors (an Uninterruptable Power Supply for the entire house). I've installed wind generators, solar panels and various ot…
Here in Russia people sell stuff on the commuter trains. So I once bought this really cheap hand cranked flashlight for 100 rubles (~$3 US). It worked just fine. I had to take it apart. Inside there were two 3 volts batteries in series, meaning that the dynamo inside the unit generated about 6 vdc. I immediately soldered a usb cable and made this into a hand crank charger for my Android phone.
Here are some pictures of flashlight being taken apart and a USB connector being soldered to it. To figure out polarity and how to propperly connect the usb line I read this page: http://pinouts.ru/Slots/USB_pinout.shtml
I then tested the unit and took this video:
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