as some of you may know, we had a big snow storm here in rhode island - where i live we always lose power.. so i would like to builder a charger that i can plug in our cellphones and laptops into. any ideas how to go about this?
basically taking juice from regular batteries..
Well if you have the money, you can get a super capacitor and some high voltage/current regulators. The super capacitors are dangerous to use so wear rubber gloves when handling them, and make sure the wires are isolated until needed.
wildbill:
You don't need an Arduino for this - here's a project that might interest you: Minty Boost! - USB charger for your gadgets. How about building a solar powered one?
very interesting.. thinking a much bigger scale.. 3 or more cell phones at a time...
pretty much everything i will make - will end up stand alones.. so i'll never need the arduino in the end