while ago I bought the SideWinder cell phone charger. The only problem (Others have written the same thing) is that when I go to charge my phone with it, the phone would "lockout" the jack so that the phone would not charge off the SideWinder. You had to wait untill you used a regular charger for the phone would take a charge again.

The reason for this is that the SideWinder would have voltage spikes in the power output and the phone was safe guarding itself against the spikes.

So to fix this problem, I took a charger jack from another phone and wired it into the electronics of a car adapter charger. The internals in the car adapter regulates the input so the SideWinder cannot cause the voltage spikes.

While doing this I also modified a wall charger so that I could save weight and room.

This is what I started off with:
wall charger
-2 male jacks from Radio Shack part #274-274
-2 female jacks from Radio Shack part # 274-286
- Car charger - I switched to a lighter one for the final operation :)
- old phone (red) to use for donor input charging jack
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q60/wrongway_02/chargerphotos.jpg

This is the guts of the red donor phone, the little piece to the left is the input charger jack. I will be soldoering 2 peices of yellow wire to this part, so I can add it to the car charger circuit. If anyone wants the rest of the phone, let me know :D.
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q60/wrongway_02/chargerphotos005.jpg

Here is everthing after breaking things apart and cutting off extra wire, adding the new male/female connectors. you have:
- cell phone
- then the wall charger
- The part in two peices is the car charger - if you look close you can see the hole I melted in the one half for the donor input charger jack can be added.
- the small item with two yellow wires I added on is the donor input charger jack from another phone.
- Of course there is the SideWinder charger far right.
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q60/wrongway_02/chargerphotos002.jpg


From Left to right:
- cell phone - Connected to the new adapter on the bottom of the car charger. You can see where I added that donor input charging jack to the side of the car charger, so now all I do is plug the SideWinder into it and can charge the phone this way. Also the car phone charger still works normally.
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q60/wrongway_02/chargerphotos006.jpg


So for my thru-hike, I can charge off a:
- car
- wall outlet
- SideWinder
without all the extra wire and weight that the chargers usually have.
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q60/wrongway_02/chargerphotos004.jpg


Sorry if this doesnt make to much sense, its late and I'm tired as all heck :D

Yea, i know too much time on my hands.......