CHENNAI: Is your phone always running on reserve battery? Ever wondered if you could charge your phone on the go? Amam Arun, a Chennai-based engineer-cum-entrepreneur has come up with an invention, ‘Power Aid’, to charge mobile phones while riding a motorcycle.
“The Power Aid is meant for motorcycles and mopeds and requires a reserve potential energy from ignition to transfer the power to a mobile phone. The product is cost effective,” says Amam Arun, adding that Power Aid is available on Amazon.
He explains that one cannot expect the Power Aid to be as effective as a Samsung turbo charger which uses 220-240V alternate current because motorcycle ignition provides only 12V which Power Aid uses to produce 1.5A output. “The charging rate of Power Aid will be slower when compared to a charger plugged into a power socket. But, Power Aid helps the user to retain the existing percentage of charge without gaining more power units,” he avers.
The portable mobile charger, priced at `350, comes with a set of clamp and screws, and also has two USB ports to facilitate charging two mobiles at a time. “Power Aid is compact and needs to be attached to the handle of the motor cycle and then connected to the ignition system of the motorcycle engine. The charger can charge even when the engine remains off as it uses the reserve energy from the ignition,” says the mechanical engineering graduate who builds and tests each Power Aid unit himself.
So how did he come up with the idea? “It was a friend who inspired me. She used to tell me that her parents get worried if they could not contact her when her phone battery dies — this triggered my interest. It took me around eight months to complete the design and register the product with NASSCOM. It was done finally in August 2016,” he smiles and adds that while the product is patented in his name, he has yet to get other formal certifications. “The product is not available for mass production at the moment. I have to approach ISO and other standards organisations for quality...I hope to do it soon,” he adds.