Contactless (Inductive) Charging Ideas?

[Andy Wood]

Hi,

I am working on a project involving a handheld device that communicates over an RF link to a PIC18F6520 in the main control unit. I have tried various ways of making reliable contact arrangements to charge the battery in the handheld unit, however, as it is a hostile environment, most contact type methods have some shortcomings.

Does anyone have any experience with ideas, products or modules used for contactless charging in situations such as this? It would be nice to be able to incorporate this into existing projects too. All ideas welcome.

Andy

[JetPack Spartan]

This product uses inductive charging, I have a couple and they work well;

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/74-329-001-S01?$S180W$ (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16874329001)

Rich H

[ardhuru]

I've done this for my propeller clock. Not charging, but transfer of power. Certainly doable, but be warned its a fairly inefficient way of transferring power.

If you could give an idea of the battery voltage, and the current you want to charge it at, we could take it from there.

Regards,

Anand

[Bruce]

Buy one of those $19.95 toothbrushes that you sit in the cradle to recharge, and reverse-engineer it. I have one that's been working for 10+ years..:o

The toothbrush has a hole in the bottom, where sits in over a plastic post in the cradle, and recharges with no metal contacts.