Interesting and constructive way to recycle old phones - and is that Leggo you used for the chassis?

Bookmarked for later. I really want to be able to remove the batteries from the equation in my old crunching devices. I have had several that bloat up the batteries, and have to replace them. Plus they would run cooler if the battery wasn't constantly charging and discharging.

I think it's a great way to crunch: energy and space efficient, stops phones going into landfill, cheap and not requiring much tech knowledge, while helping humanity. It would be interesting to compare this to desktops on a cost-per-points-obtained basis...

https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,38025
Sometimes people post up in here for cheap deals on android devices.

I am currently looking for alternatives since: it is difficult to scale up (need 3D printing, board etching), a bit bulky with many cables, not as efficient as 5V cables

Alternatives are:
1. Diodes of 2x0.7V, or 0.3V + 0.7V (could be still high enough)
2. Use buck converter smallest possible, around 1 euro (hope that delta tension is not limited to 1.5V)
3. Battery circuitry hack from other phones (my 2 Chinese Landvo's of 8 cores are still working after one year of use)
4. Direct charging from 5V, instead of 3.8V (not sure if it will fry the phone)

If anyone is testing any of the above please post here

From gearbest I bought a H96 Pro TV Dongle with 8 Cores for about 35 euros:
advantages are teamviewer with full remote control, no battery, direct cable, easy flashing in case you brick it, small package for scaling up
disadvantages are that for flasing you need to run chinese software (not too hapy although virustotal did not find any issues), not so efficient as stand alone phone charging (4W for 8 cores pretty sweet), gets pretty hot around 80 degC