reusing cell phone batteries

[Cliff Hartle]

OK I have a ton of serviceable cell phone batteries that still hold a
charge.

What I want to do is use a higher capacity battery for a small camera. The
camera comes with a 200 mah li po and I have some older Black Berry and
other batteries in the 1000 to 1300 mah range. I'm going to hook up a timer
circuit to do some time lapse photography and need more power.

Charging them is not an issue because I can use the old phone or a little
usb universal charger that has the movable prongs which works for all the
batteries.

When I hook them up to the camera using some sort of adapter do I have to
connect all the contacts?

The camera and most of my batteries have three contacts +, -, and the last
one that is marked T or not marked at all. I'm thinking the third has to do
with charging maybe temp? But what about the ones that have 4?

 

[David Eather]

On 11/02/2011 12:17 PM, Cliff Hartle wrote:

OK I have a ton of serviceable cell phone batteries that still hold a
charge.

What I want to do is use a higher capacity battery for a small camera. The
camera comes with a 200 mah li po and I have some older Black Berry and
other batteries in the 1000 to 1300 mah range. I'm going to hook up a timer
circuit to do some time lapse photography and need more power.

Charging them is not an issue because I can use the old phone or a little
usb universal charger that has the movable prongs which works for all the
batteries.

When I hook them up to the camera using some sort of adapter do I have to
connect all the contacts?

The camera and most of my batteries have three contacts +, -, and the last
one that is marked T or not marked at all. I'm thinking the third has to do
with charging maybe temp? But what about the ones that have 4?

The batteries with three terminals are as you surmise +, -, and a
thermistor with one terminal connected to - and the other brought out
for the equipment to read. The batteries with 4 terminals are the same
except that they bring out both terminals for the thermistor and the
thermistor is not connected to the - terminal in the battery

HTH