So, the USB port on my 8830 recently broke and I was unable to charge my phone. I went to Sprint and they ordered me a replacement phone, but it isn't going to be here for a couple days and I'm leaving for a work trip tomorrow for the week, so I need my phone!
Anyways, I have been trying to track down a external battery charger, but can't find anything locally. I was about to give up and just buy a used phone for the week, but then was just playing around with the 8830 and noticed the 2 gold contacts on the side of the phone. I realized that they must be a spot for charging from some kind of cradle or something.
So I popped off the battery cover and noticed the + and - sign on the battery almost lined up perfectly with the contacts on the side.
Soooo, figuring that since we can charge from a USB port, I figured the 5V 0.5A power source would work for the same side connectors. So I cut up a spare USB cable I had laying around and stripped down the red (+5v) and black (Gnd) wires.
From there I kind of bunched them up and stuffed the red one into the left contact and taped it down with electrical tape and then did the same with the black wire in the right contact. Make sure to use as much wire as you can without touching the two wires/contacts and tape them down separately and nice and firm.
It's been plugged into my computer for about 25 minutes now and it was completely drained and I have nearly 1/4 full power. I'm going to get it fully charged and them just bring this cable and electrical tape with me so I can charge it at the hotel from my laptop when needed.
Not sure if someone else has done something like this but I was pretty stoked to fix it and not have to get some crappy cheap phone for the week. Hopefully it will help someone else.
NOTE: I won't take any responsibility for someone screwing up their phone or computer trying to do this. IF you don't have a basic understanding of electronics and simple DC power, don't try this. Shorting the wires out could not only damage your phone and your computer, but also cause yourself injury.
There is an image below if you fix the link, it won't let me post since im new
imgtree.net/files/ibs6c879z3ml2hhdga2l .jpg