I am too cheap to purchase a USB charging connector for my iPhone, so I was wondering if there's a way to create a USB cable at home or use some other USB cable and get the job done safely.
For example will other USBs, assuming the connectors fit, charge, or no? I figure they would since they are just USB 2.0 based and iPhone can't tell the difference from its hardware perspective.
A better way to look at this: any other way to charge an iPhone without an iPhone-specific charger? I heard it's possible to use a wind turbine or dynamometer, but those are not inexpensive. Could those be replicated at home with typical at home tools? For example could I make a crank device that delivers powered-charge through the USB to the iPhone's battery?
Best Answer
Yes it is possible, but consider the consumption and Costs.
How much electricity does it take to power your iPhone for a year?
The answer: 1 kWh.
This is the amount of electricity you’d need to power ten 100-watt incandescent light-bulbs for an hour.
Far from anything worth being sheepish over, 1 kwh costs about 12 cents.
To be specific, your iPhone battery holds a charge of 1,440 mAh, or about 5.45 watt hours. If you fully drained and recharged your phone everyday, then over the course of a year you would have to feed it about 2,000 watt hours, or 2kWh = 25 Cents per Year.
As for your iPad, keeping it fed costs just $1.36 a year, according to the Electric Power Research Institute.
Your average laptop, with its far bigger screen, uses about 72 kWh, costing some $8 a year.
There is your challenge:
Make a power station that has a ROI such to recover the cost using the 25 cents per Year returns.
Answer: if it cost you $20 to make the power station- it will take about 40 Years before you see benefit.