Ok, so my though was to take an unmodified Dell battery (11.1v), attach an iPhone car charger to it and use it to power my phone on my plane ride to Hawaii. Last night I was using spade connectors to probe for voltage, but all I could find was 3vdc, not the 11.1vdc it is rated at. So I poked around some other sites, and found one where a guy used a notebook battery for a robotics project, and that certain pins had to be shorted to make the battery "activate". So, I then probed the connector on my notebook (the one the battery is from) and found the following:
There are 9 pins on the notebook side. Pins 1, 2 and 4 all have continuity between them. Pins 8 an 9 have continuity between them. On the battery, I get 3vdc between pins 1 and 4, 2 and 4, 8 and 4, and 9 and 4.
My question is, does anyone think i will get 11.1vdc on another pin on the battery if i short 1, 2 and 4?
Unfortunately I cannot open the battery because it is a spare I wish to keep around, but still would love to use this. The rest of the project will be two wires going to a car power port outlet so i can plug my phone charger in. I am trying to get this setup passed the TSA at the airport, and my thought is that some wires soldered to the notebook side connector would pass way better than a box with wires, resistors and voltage regulators...