Help with iPhone battery for use in Urbex glove

[sdh]

Hi everyone!

I have a question about charging a battery, but not just any type of battery.. An iPhone battery!

I'm planning on making a glove with built in power-led and rechargeable battery for my urban exploring needs. The iPhone battery is rated 3.7 V @ 1400 mAh which is just perfect for this as it has enough juice to keep the power-led running ±4h and is very compact. All this will be embedded in the glove on top of the hand.

But how will I be able to recharge this battery and is it protected against overcharging in any way? Or does it require some additional stuff for this?

I've seen many of you in these forums making a switch for your consoles so it's possible to choose if it will power the console or recharge through a jack. This is the kind of solution I was thinking of for the Urbex glove. But as I said earlier can the battery handle taking the juice straight in or does it have to be routed through some overcharge protecting component?

Any help or pointers is greatly appreciated!

EDIT:

Okay, I've been able to find out that these batteries have 'IC Chips Inside to Prevent Battery Overcharging or Short Circuit', great!

But for the charging bit, will it work if I just direct current @ same V into the battery? And the battery seems to have a third wire in addition to +/-, does anyone know what this is for?

[tom61]

The in-battery is for emergency protection in my understanding, so getting a proper Li-Poly charger is highly recommended. This one looks good: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc ... ts_id=8293#

[sdh]

Yeah I just watched a vid about polymer batteries and they don't seem so safe if not used with an intended charger, haha. So that charger looks good as you said. But I'm so frustrated right now cause I live in Sweden and I'm not able to find a charger of that kind here, and ordering from the states is sadly out of the question cause of the extra costs and mainly for I don't have the type of credit card needed for distant payment. I hate this, I don't know how many times I've laid a project on ice since I needed something not sold here.. I have to get out of this place I need to rethink this idea, it's just that any other batterytype will be ugly large. Maybe I'll just make a powerled flashlight..