I have a concept that may be viable and need someone who knows electronics way better than I do to see if it will fly.
This thing will have a variable AC voltage input that will go through a diode bridge to be converted to pulsed DC.
The pulsed DC will go to a boost circuit to boost it to 4-5 vdc output.
the 4-5 vdc output will go to a charger circuit that will top off 3 a small battery (2-3 cells).
the cells will power a very low power radio that will wake up every few seconds and report it's status. (that's beyond the scope of my concept).
Thanks! Stu