Portable phone/device charger

7805battery-chargingdiodesvoltagevoltage-regulator

I am doing my best to make a portable charger.
Here is the link with the schematic of the circuit I am working on:Voltage regulator question
.I was told that the 9 V battery I was using didn't have enough capacity to charge any device,so I decided to connect 5 1,2 rechargeable batteries(NiMh and one NiCd) is series in its place,the lowest capacity one having 800 mAh.Here are the questions:
1)Will these batteries perform better?If not,what kind of battery would I need(mAh and voltage)?
2)I suspect that the device,when connected to my circuit may be losing energy at the same time while it charges.Would I need a diode somewhere to prevent this?
3)I would appreciate a few examples of how to make this charger better(without changing the battery's parameters).

Best Answer

Frankly, if you want to use rechargeable batteries, I'd suggest to go for Li-ion batteries. A single-cell (3.7V nominal) or a double-cell (7.4V nominal) sound like good choices. For the single-cell version, you'd need a DC-DC boost step-up converter to get 5V, for the double-cell you can either use a "normal" dissipative power regulator (something similar to the 7805, but with a lower dropout voltage, since the minimum output voltage of a double-cell Li-ion battery is about 6V, and that's not enough for the 7805), or, if power loss is an important factor (I'd guess it is), you should use a DC-DC buck step-down converter. Also, if you don't want to prematurely kill your Li-ion batteries, you should use a power converter which shuts down when the minimum input voltage is reached (3V for a single-cell, 6V for a double-cell).

So I'd look for a battery with the proper capacity (you should do a rough calculation for the expected minimum milliamp-hours: Pout / efficiency / battery voltage * run time), and a circuit designed for converting from that battery into 5V. Ebay is for example full of these components (both Li-ion batteries and circuits designed for this purpose).