So I got a crazy #idea for #Fairphone … Would be fun if some one could proxy this idea to the official folks there. @gael, @WeAreFairphone, @fairphone ?
Fairphones has a replaceable battery. Sometimes I would like to have a spare battery with me, to replace on-the-fly. In some situations, that is more convenient than to have the extra “dongle” known as an external USB battery pack.
The challenge is: How do you charge them? Back in the old phone days, you could have desk chargers for spare batteries. Another challenge: How do you carry external batteries safely?
So I got this crazy idea. Combine those two challenges! With an additional twist!
What if there was a portable “box” which could carry up to two Fairphone batteries, with a USB-C port to charge them. But! Let it also function as a USB-C battery pack which can be used with Fairphones (via cable) or other USB devices.
That gives you a portable battery charger, battery carry case for 2 batteries and a 3905 or 7810mAh OTG battery pack (based on FP4 batteries, depending on if 1 or 2 batteries are present).
If these cases can be designed to support more FP battery generations, you get something which could even be quite sustainable.
that sounds like a good idea
a hybrid between powerbank and battery case
community could probably make some prototypes, just as a proof of concept
I would be interested in trying one out
how do you carry your spare battery? I did it inside the original plastic envelope that came when purchased. during some bike routes I did having my FP4 as GPS this saved my life.
how do you charge your spare battery? what I did was:
- every Monday I charged the FP4 to 100%
- power it off and replace the battery
- use the new battery the whole week until next Monday between 15%~20% and 80%~85%
so you have a spare battery during the week charged at 100%, if I used the spare I do the se steps whatever the day of thw week was
So it’s like fairphone version of this https://a.co/d/9OfZpOu , right?
Yeah kinda … but that it can also charge other devices when not connected to a charging source.
Use case 1: Charge FP batteries
The “box” is connected to a charging source, which charges inserted batteries
Use case 2: Charge USB devices
When the batteries inside “box” are charged, connecting a USB device to this “box” will start charging the connected device
Use case 3: Swap out the FP battery from this “box” with a discharged battery in the FP
It would be a great bonus if it could also accept more generations of FP batteries. FP3 or FP4 and newer would probably be most realistic.