Journal of Engineering Research, Volume 25, Number 1, March 2020

A Mechanically Powered 3500 mAh Mobile Phones Power-Bank

Sunday Adetona1*, Michael Ige1, and Raifu Salawu2
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria;
1
2
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, The Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State,
Nigeria
*Corresponding author email: sadetona@unilag.edu.ng

Abstract
Research activities on implementation of mechanically powered phone chargers (MPPC) are receiving serious
attention consequent upon the non-availability of power grids in many rural and remote areas of developing
economies. These activities are further reinforced by the intermittent nature of the renewable energy resources for
charging of mobile phones. The review of these already proposed MPPC revealed that most of them are not
portable. Further, they have no facilities for controlling the charging and discharging of batteries. They are also not
guided against direct charging of the batteries of mobile phones; thereby capable of damaging the batteries due to
the poor quality of the energy they may produce. With these issues associated with the already proposed MPPC by
various researchers, this study therefore proposes a reliable and portable mechanically powered 3500 mAh power-
bank. The design is based on the Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction. The work addresses the issue of
bulkiness by using a portable PD52103-12-4 ME planetary gear dc motor. The problem of excessive charging and
discharging of the battery bank is solved by making use of LTC4056 and battery level visual indicators. In this
proposed design, rather than charging the mobile phones directly, the power generated are stored in 3500 mAh
power-bank before being used to charge the battery of a mobile phone. When tested, the proposed device charged
a 3000 mAh Li-ion battery embedded in an android phone at rate of 0.37 percent per minute; and the various
indicators glowed as expected.

Keywords: Battery bank; charger; mobile phone; planetary gear dc motor; and voltage regulator.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Mobile GSM phones are not only used for the purpose of communication; they are also used
for storing data, taking pictures, sending and receiving photos and files, and accessing the
internet. And in the event of loss, some modern phones that are equipped with GPS App are
employed to determine the location of a mobile phone or its user. Also, in the event of an
emergency, with the help of a mobile phone, disaster can be averted, and lives can even be
saved. These opportunities and many more are derivable from a good mobile phone if, and
only if, it is available.

The availability of a good mobile phone is a function of the condition of the battery embedded
in it. If the embedded battery is okay and reasonably charged, the phone would be available;
and it would perform its various functions satisfactorily. However, if otherwise, it would not.
The charging of the battery of a mobile phone is a regular activity that requires steady and
quality electric power (Reddy et al., 2013). The most efficient, common and economical way of
obtaining electricity for the purpose of charging a mobile phone is through a power grid; which
may not be available in many rural and remote areas of most developing economies (Matiur et
al., 2016). In fact, in many urban centres in these developing countries connected to the power
grids, the electricity received from the grids are epileptic, and thereby making regular charging
of the battery of the phone almost difficult and, sometimes, impossible. Charging of the
phones while journeying is even a problem (Nikhil et al., 2013; Kharudin et al., 2016; and,
Rocky et al., 2017).

One way of solving this problem is by making use of renewable energy resources (Ayush and
JER Vol. 25, No. 1 Adetona et al. pp. 88-98

Chinmay, 2011; Reddy et al., 2013; Kharudin et al., 2016; and, Atiqur et al., 2016). The major
issue that is associated with this method of charging battery of a mobile phone is, they are
intermittent in nature (Kharudin et al., 2016; and, Atiqur et al., 2016). Besides, they are bulky
and expensive. Researchers have tackled the problems of availability of electricity for charging
a mobile phone anywhere and at any time of the day irrespective of environmental condition
of the location, whether the power grid is available or otherwise; by proposing and
implementing various types of mechanically powered phone chargers (MPPC). A typical
example of the charger is the one proposed by Matiur et al. (2016), which is useful for charging
batteries of phones in remote and isolated areas where there is no existence of power grid. It is
also very useful in emergency situations, like natural disasters that may often lead to power
failure. In a similar manner, in order to solve the problem of charging phones while journeying,
Rocky et al. (2017) proposed a portable smart phone charger that uses human mechanical
energy. In order to transform mechanical energy from a hand crank to a generator, a gear train
and intermediate gears are used; therefore, it is quite bulky and less portable. Also, a
mechanical hand crank mobile charger implemented by Nikhil et al. (2013) is another approach
available for charging the mobile phones while journeying. In the device, a compound gear
train and six intermediate gears are used for the energy transformation; thus, the device is less
portable.

Instead of a single mechanically powered source charger proposed by many researchers, a

hybrid mechanical charger that uses either hand crank or windmill mechanism at a time for
charging of Nokia phones was proposed by Ayush and Chinmay (2011). The proposed device is
achieved by using gear shifting mechanism, which makes the device bulky. In Reddy et al.
(2013) and Kharudin et al. (2016), a mobile charger that makes use of either wind or geared dc
generator or electrical power to charge a mobile phone that may not need be a Nokia phone,
while journeying from one place to another place was proposed. Any one of the electric power
sources can be selected to charge the mobile phone at a time. In Atiqur et al. (2016), a dual
mode charger that makes use of hand circumvolve generator and photovoltaic was also
proposed. The solar module is useful in daytime; while the hand circumvolve generator can be
used at night. The design uses a compound gear train; hence, the proposed device is too big.

For the mobile phones’ and power banks’ batteries to last long, they should not be
overcharged; and should not be fully discharged, at any time. To the best of our knowledge,
most of the previous works on MPPC have no facilities for either preventing batteries excessive
charge when being charged or safeguarding batteries from excessive discharge when being
used. Secondly, most of them are not portable; as they cannot be carried easily from one place
to another when journeying. Also, none of the previously proposed MPPCs focus on direct
storage of the power generated in a high-power storage device for subsequent charging of
mobile phones. This contribution therefore proposes a portable and reliable mechanically
powered power-bank that will provide adequate electric power to charge mobile phones
anywhere and at any time, irrespective of environmental conditions of the location, whether
there is power grid or not.

The main goal of this study is achieved by designing a power bank charging device that does
not need any external electrical power source; and by protecting the embedded battery bank
in the device from damage that can occur as a result of overvoltage when the device is fully
charged or over discharged. The issue of bulkiness is solved by using a 1:50 compound
planetary gear dc motor; while the problems of excessive charging and dis-charging of the
batteries are well addressed by introducing appropriate regulating circuits and battery level
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indicators to the proposed device. Also, energy generated by the proposed device is not
supplied to the mobile phone directly; it is first stored in a 3500 mAh power bank and used for
charging a mobile phone when the battery of the phone is drained.

2.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Figure 1 presents the schematic diagram of the proposed device. It consists of a generating
unit, battery bank (BATT), battery charging unit, and battery level visual indicators.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the proposed device

2.1 Selection of the embedded battery bank

In this work, Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries are used. This is because they can be charged more
quickly. Besides, they are used in places where a relatively great service life and thriftiness are
necessitated (Matiur et al., 2016). In Li-ion battery bank used, lithium cobalt oxide is a cathode,
hard carbon is an anode, and gel polymer is an electrolyte (Lithium-ion Battery Team, 2009;
and, Valoen and Shoesmith, 2007). During the discharging, lithium ions displace from the
negative electrode to the positive electrode; and vice versa when charging.

The specification of the capacity rating (mAh) of the proposed MPPC is 3.7-5 V, 3500 mAh. This
is because most Android phones’ batteries rating capacities are about 3500 mAh. To achieve
this, two pieces of 3.7-5 V, 18650 2200 mAh Li-Ion batteries are chosen and connected in
parallel to form a bank. The manual of the selected battery is obtainable in TENERGY
(Corporation, 2009). The charge/discharge efficiency (ℶ𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 ) of the selected battery has been
found by Valoen and Shoesmith (2007) to be within 80–90 %; therefore, the effective capacity
rating of the battery (𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 ) (Dorin et al., 2013) is

𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 = ℶ𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 × 2 × 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚ℎ𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 (1)

This gives 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 = 0.90 × 2 × 2200 ≅ 3500𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚ℎ

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2.2 Design of Battery Charging Unit (BCU)

The BCU controls the charging of the embedded battery bank and protects them from
overcharging and excessive discharging. This unit is built around a constant-current (constant-
voltage) Li-Ion battery charger regulator; which is equipped with a programmable endpoint
timer, LTC4056IC (𝑈𝑈2 ) (Linear Technology Corporation, 2003), and a 12V PNP low saturation
switching transistor, ZXT1M322 (𝑄𝑄1 ) (ZETEX, 2002). The 𝑄𝑄1 is used in this paper because it can
withstand a nominal collector current of up to 4A (ZETEX, 2002).

In Figure 1, it is evident that the BATT is connected in between the collector terminal of 𝑄𝑄1 and
ground. The resistor 𝑅𝑅2 is used to programme the charging current (𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 ). Whenever the BATT is
at full charging, the collector current (𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶1 ) of 𝑄𝑄1 provides the 𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 ; whilst the emitter
current (𝐼𝐼𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸1 ) of 𝑄𝑄1 flows through pin 2 of 𝑈𝑈2 , and through an internal current sense resistor
(Linear Technology Corporation, 2003) embedded in 𝑈𝑈2 . The current (𝐼𝐼𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 ) that flows out of
the pin 2 of the 𝑈𝑈2 has been established by Linear Technology Corporation (2003) to be
𝑉𝑉
𝐼𝐼𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 = 915 × 𝐼𝐼𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = 915 ×
𝑅𝑅2
(2)

In Eq. 2, 𝐼𝐼𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 is the current flowing out of the pin 5 of 𝑈𝑈2 ; and knowing that,

𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶1 = 𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 = 𝐼𝐼𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵1 + 𝐼𝐼𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸1 = 𝐼𝐼𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵1 + 𝐼𝐼𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 (3)

Therefore, upon neglecting base current (𝐼𝐼𝐵𝐵𝐵𝐵1 ) , Eq. 3 becomes

𝑉𝑉
𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 = 𝐼𝐼𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 = 915 ×
𝑅𝑅2
(4)

According to Linear Technology Corporation (2003), V at pin 2 is 1 V; therefore,

1
𝑅𝑅2 = 915 ×
𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶
(5)

This work is interested in rapid charging of the batteries embedded in the proposed device.
The equation to obtain rapid charging current (TENERGY Corporation, 2009) is

𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 = 1𝐶𝐶𝐴𝐴 (6)

where 𝐶𝐶𝐴𝐴 is the nominal capacity of the battery bank to be charged (TENERGY Corporation,
2009). In this work 𝐶𝐶𝐴𝐴 = 3500 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚ℎ; as such, 𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 = 3500 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚, therefore
1
𝑅𝑅2 = 915 × ≅ 270 𝑜𝑜ℎ𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 ≅ 0.27 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘ℎ𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚
3500𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚

The charge round is terminated by a programmable timer; which is achieved by 𝐶𝐶2 and 𝑅𝑅2 . In
Linear Technology Corporation (2003), the total charge time is given as

𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 (𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻) = 1.935 × 𝑅𝑅2 × 𝐶𝐶2 (7)

The nominal charging time for charging of Li-Ion battery is about 1.5 hours (Lithium-ion Battery
Team, 2009). In this work, we assumed that the rapid charging time would take 0.5 hours;
therefore, to achieve this, 𝐶𝐶2 should be
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𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 (𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻) 0.5

𝐶𝐶2 = = = 0.957 𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇 ≅ 1 𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇
1.935 × 𝑅𝑅2 1.935 ×0.270

The charge round terminates when the time set by 𝑅𝑅2 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝐶𝐶2 elapses; and the pin 8
of 𝑈𝑈2 changes over from a firm pull-down to a feeble pull-down (Linear Technology
Corporation, 2003). The charge round can be restarted by removing the input voltage and
reapplying it; or if the voltage at pin 6 of 𝑈𝑈2 falls below the recharge threshold, which is 4.05 V.

2.3 Battery Voltage Level Indicator

In the proposed device, a battery voltage level indicator that controls a bar graph meter that
shows the status of the charge of a 3.7 V Li-Ion battery is shown in Figure 1. It consists of
LM339 ( 𝑈𝑈3 ) (Texas Instruments Inc., 2018), an IC that contains four self-reliant voltage
comparators that are to be operated from a single or dual power supplies over a wide range of
voltages and a precision low drift low noise buffered reference, 1.25V LTC6652-1.25 ( 𝑈𝑈4 )
(Brendan, 2009, and Linear Technology Corporation, 2007). The 𝑈𝑈3 has an open collector
output that drives 15 mA, low power consumption (Texas Instruments Inc., 2018).

In the battery voltage level indicator, all the non-inverting inputs of the comparators
embedded in 𝑈𝑈3 are connected to the output pin of 𝑈𝑈4; whereas, their inverting inputs are
connected to consecutive points on a voltage divider. The LEDs illuminate as the voltage at the
inverting terminals exceeds the reference voltage that is set by 𝑈𝑈4. The 𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿6 , 𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿5 , 𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿4 and
𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿3 turn on at 1.60 V, 1.63 V, 1.75 V, and 2.07 V respectively.

2.4 Generating Unit

The generating unit of the proposed device consists of the planetary gear dc motor (𝑀𝑀) and
voltage regulator ( 𝑈𝑈1 ).

2.4.1 Selection of the planetary gear dc motor

In this work, the dynamo is the main source of electrical power in charging battery bank in
order to have the needed backup. The dynamo converts mechanical rotation into a pulsing dc.
Its operation is based on Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction.

The electrical power (𝑃𝑃𝑒𝑒 ) (Ayush and Chinmay, 2011; and, Rocky et al., 2017) required to charge
the Li-Ion battery bank in the proposed device is

𝑃𝑃𝑒𝑒 = 𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 × 𝑉𝑉𝑡𝑡 (8)

where, 𝑉𝑉𝑡𝑡 = 𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 = 4.2 𝑉𝑉, 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶 = 3500 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚, therefore, 𝑃𝑃𝑒𝑒 is 14.7 W.

From the law of conservation of energy, the mechanical power (𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 ) (Ayush and Chinmay, 2011)
required to drive the dc motor to generate the required 𝑃𝑃𝑒𝑒 is given by

𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 = 𝑃𝑃𝑒𝑒 + 𝑃𝑃𝑙𝑙 (9)

In Eq. 9, 𝑃𝑃𝑙𝑙 is power losses; and it is assumed to be 50 % 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑃𝑃𝑒𝑒 ; therefore, 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 = 1.5 𝑃𝑃𝑒𝑒 . The
expected 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚 when the dc motor is cranked would therefore be 22 W at 12 V.

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Most of the dc motors that generate 22 W at 12 V require nominal rotational speeds of 3100
rpm to be applied to their shafts; whereas, when hand cranking, the rotational speed that can
be applied to the shaft will be low. As a result, the generator will produce a low voltage.
Torque and rotational speed can be increased or decreased in the ratio of the number of teeth
(Kwon and Kahraman, 2015) in the driving and driven gears.

To gear up the rpm of the generator to generate greater electrical power at specified voltage,
in this paper, a planetary gear train that is already incorporated with a dc motor is used. This is
because the planetary gear train is more compact. The tightness is made possible because
epicyclic gear sets use evenly separated planets, and this ensures least possible radial bearing
reinforcement requirements (Ligata et al., 2007). Epicyclic gear sets also attain higher power
density level than the fixed–center parallel-axis gear trains (Kwon and Kahraman, 2015; Ligata
et al., 2007). Has shown in Figure 2, the various components of the epicyclic gear are Sun (S),
Planets (P), Planet Carrier (C), and Ring (R) (Galvagno, 2010).

Figure 2. Planetary gear System

In the gear mechanism used in this paper, the ring gear is held stationary, the input rotation
(𝜔𝜔𝑆𝑆 ) is rendered by the sun gear, and the planetary gear carrier created the output rotation
(𝜔𝜔𝐶𝐶 ). It has been revealed in Litvin and Fuentes (2004) that the gear ratio of the planetary gear
mechanism is,

𝜔𝜔𝑆𝑆 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔

𝛾𝛾 = =
𝜔𝜔𝐶𝐶 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔

𝑟𝑟𝑅𝑅 𝑁𝑁𝑅𝑅
𝛾𝛾 = 1 +
𝑟𝑟𝑆𝑆
=1+
𝑁𝑁𝑆𝑆
(10)

where, NR and NS are numbers of teeth in ring and sun gears respectively; whereas, rR is the
radius of ring gear, and rS is the radius of the sun gears of the planetary gear system. This
equation shows that if NR, NS, rR and rS are known, the gear ratio can be determined; but in this
study, the known parameters are rotational speeds on sun and carrier gears.

In Eq. 10, 𝜔𝜔𝑆𝑆 = 2𝜋𝜋𝑛𝑛

60
𝑆𝑆
𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝜔𝜔𝐶𝐶 =
2𝜋𝜋𝑛𝑛𝐶𝐶
60
; where, ns and nC are rotational speeds on sun and carrier
gears respectively. If it is assumed that 60 rpm is applied to the hand crank of the proposed
device, which is ns the expected nC from the carrier of the planetary gear mechanism that
would be transmitted to the shaft of the dc motor, is 3100 rpm. For the gear system to be
effective, its gear ratio must therefore be,

𝑛𝑛𝑆𝑆 60 1 1
𝛾𝛾 = = = ≅
𝑛𝑛𝐶𝐶 3100 52 50

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This shows that for one full rotation of the hand crank attached to the dynamo through a
planetary gear mechanism, the rpm that would be available to work on the dc motor is
approximately 50 x hand crank rpm. With this information, a portable PD52103-12-4 ME
planetary gear dc motors (Transmotec Inc., 2018), is therefore selected as the main generator.
The orthogarphic view of the motor is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Orthographic view of the planetary gear dc motor

2.4.2 Voltage Regulator

The output voltage from the planetary gear dc motor ranges from 5 V to12 V; whereas, the Li-
Ion battery bank to be charged requires voltage ranging from 3 V to 4.22 V. This is because the
full charge state will provide 4.2 𝑉𝑉 ± 0.02 𝑉𝑉 on the battery bank, whereas the float charge will
provide 3.0 V. At the beginning of the charge round, the charger draws a 3.5 A; though, the
current falls gradually as the charging continues to a current limit of 22 mA. With this
information, LM338 (𝑈𝑈1 ), an adjustable 3-terminal positive voltage regulator (SGS-Thomson
Microelectronics, 1994), is selected and utilized. The IC is capable of handling about 5 A current
over a 1.2 V to 32 V output range.

The output voltage 𝑉𝑉0 of the 𝑈𝑈1 has been established by SGS-Thomson Microelectronics (1994)
to be

𝑅𝑅1
𝑉𝑉0 = 1.25𝑉𝑉 �1 +
𝑅𝑅0
� (11)

where, 𝑅𝑅0 = 240 𝑜𝑜ℎ𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚(SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, 1994); as such, to obtain an output

voltage of 5 V, when 12 V is applied at input port of 𝑈𝑈1 , 𝑅𝑅1 ≅ 750 𝑜𝑜ℎ𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚.

2.5 Mode of Operation

The schematic diagram of the proposed device is shown in Figure 1. When the hand crank is
turned anticlockwise, the speed(rpm) produced by the hand is stepped up by the planetary
gear mechanism embedded in the dc motor; and this produces a dc voltage (5-12 V) by the
dynamo, which is regulated by 𝑈𝑈1 . The regulated dc voltage obtained is then fed into 𝑈𝑈2 ; which
in turn is also connected to Li-Ion battery bank for proper charging and power cutoff from the
battery when full. The 𝑈𝑈2 has two indicators, the 𝐿𝐿𝐸𝐸𝐸𝐸1 (Red LED) which indicates charging; while
the 𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿𝐿2 (Green LED) shows that the battery bank is full. The 𝑈𝑈3 ensures proper battery level
indication; and it consists of four operational amplifiers.

The charging cycle starts when the voltage obtained from the generating unit of the proposed
device is greater than or equal 4.4 V, at that point the voltage across 𝑅𝑅2 will be greater than
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0.82 V; which is shutdown threshold voltage. At the kick-off of the charging round, if the
voltage across the BATT is less than 2.8 V, 𝑈𝑈2 trickles charge the BATT. This is done in order to
bring the voltage across BATT up to a secured level for the commencement of charging at full
current. In this mode, pin 6 of 𝑈𝑈2 receives an approximately 2 % of the programmed charge
current from internal current source. Immediately, the voltage at the pin 6 of 𝑈𝑈2 is more than
2.9 V, 𝑈𝑈2 enters the full charge constant current mode. In this mode, the charge current is 𝐼𝐼𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶1 ;
and as the battery bank charges, its voltage rises. Whenever the battery bank voltage attempts
to surpass 4.2 V, an internal amplifier in 𝑈𝑈2 will turn away current from the output driver;
thereby fixing charging current to sustain 4.2 V on the BATT. When the charge time set by 𝑅𝑅2
and 𝐶𝐶2 lapses, the charging round stops; and pin 8 of 𝑈𝑈2 transits from a firm pull-down to a
feeble pull-down. The charging round can be restarted by simply switching on and off a
momentary button. When the input power is removed, the leakage currents from the BATT
bank will be drained by 𝑈𝑈2 ; as such, the BATT stick by time will be maximized.

The output voltage from the battery bank is connected to a USB hub for transfer of power to
the mobile phone. The whole device can be switched on and off by a momentary button; which
is also used in activating the LEDs and USB charging hub. This study also makes provision for
electrical source of charging phones where electricity is available to avoid the stress involved in
cranking the device.

3.0 RESULTS
3.1 Preparation for charging
The proposed device is cranked with the aid of the hand crank, Figure 4, to charge the battery
in it. Figures 5 and 6 show photographic views of the interior and exterior sections of the
proposed device. It is switched on by pressing the red power button in Figure 6. This action
prepares the proposed device for a charging or discharging activity.

Figure 4. Hand Crank Figure 5. Proposed device interior connections

3.2 Experimental Set Up and Results

Figures 7 through 9 show the setup of the proposed device with(without) an Android mobile
phone. When the proposed device is not fully charged the four red LED light indicators glow at
various voltage levels. Figure 7 indicates that the three out of the four LEDs are glowing, and
this indicates that the device is 75 % charged. In Figure 8, a mobile phone is not connected to
the device. During cranking, the red light under the green LED comes up, Figure 9. This stays on
until the device is fully charged when the green LED glows. When the device is fully charged the
red LED goes off remaining only the green LED glowing. Thus, the device can be used for
charging battery of a mobile phone. As such, an android phone which its battery usage level
indicated 28 % was connected to it. Figure 9 depicts the mobile phone under charging.

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Figure 6. Proposed device casing with connection Figure 7. Photographic view proposed device not
ports fully charged with mobile phone

Figure 8. The photographic view of the fully charged Figure 9. The photographic view of the fully
proposed device without mobile phone connected charged proposed device with mobile phone
while cranking with the power button ON. connected and being charge

4.0 DISCUSSION
The proposed device was cranked for 45 minutes, and on measuring the voltage at its USB hub
port when fully charged, the maximum output voltage obtained at the port was 4.96 V;
whereas, the input dc voltage to the voltage regulator circuit was recorded to be 12 V. This
shows that LM338 has regulated the dc voltage to 4.96 V. The maximum output voltage of the
fully charged device is therefore 4.96 V.

An android phone that has an inbuilt 3000 mAh battery was connected to the fully charged
proposed device. The battery usage of the android phone before connection was found to be
28 %. The percent charge of the battery of the phone by the proposed device was taken at an
interval of 10 minutes. The result obtained is presented in Figure 10. The plot reveals the rate
of charging of an android phone against time (minutes) using the proposed device is about 0.37
percent per minute.

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Charging Time (min)

Figure 10. The plot of % charge versus Time

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The total cost of production of the proposed device is about N10, 000.00, but it will cost less if
it is manufactured in large quantities

5.0 CONCLUSIONS
This study reviewed research activities on the design and implementation of MPPC. It
established that most existing designs are not portable and that equally lack facilities for
controlling the charging and discharging of the batteries. Further, these existing designs
directly charge the batteries of the mobile phones; hence the batteries may be damaged due
to the poor quality of the energy they may produce. The issues associated with the already
proposed MPPC by various researchers are addressed in this paper.

This study addresses the issue of bulkiness by using a portable PD52103-12-4 ME planetary
gear dc motor, the problem of excessive charging and discharging of the battery bank is solved
by making use of LTC4056 and battery level visual indicators; and instead of charging the
mobile phones directly, in this paper, the power generated are stored in 3500 mAh power bank
before using it to charge the battery of a mobile phone.

When tested, the proposed device charged a 28 % discharged 3000 mAh Li-ion phone at rate of
0.37 percent per minute; and the various indicators glowed as expected. The proposed device
can be improved upon by increasing the rating capacity of the power bank by increasing the
total number of batteries in the bank appropriately and introducing and adjusting necessary
components that would support the additional rating capacity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are pleased to acknowledge the support provided by the Department of Electrical
and Electronics Engineering (DEEE), University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.

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