A method for communicating with portable device batteries is described. Many portable devices such as cellular phones may employ a wide variety of batteries with different types, capabilities, and the like. Batteries may be retrofitted with additional circuitry that is arranged to provide information about the battery such as capacity, type, charging status, and the like to the portable device. However, additional pins for communication between the battery and the portable device may increase manufacturing cost, reduce reliability, and the like. In addition, many batteries nowadays have a resistor between their ground pin and temperature sense pin that may be used for sensing temperature of the battery as well as providing battery type information to the portable device. The present invention employs a one wire transceiver using the existing temperature sense pin and the resistor, thereby allowing additional information exchange with the battery without increasing manufacturing cost or reducing reliability.