Can this battery be made to work with the 5500?

[aka1nas]

Hi all,
Just found this Li-Ion battery pack on All Electronics Website:
Li-Ion Cell

It has the right voltage and is 1200mAh, so a little more than the 5500's battery.  It is a little thicker than the original and slightly smaller in the other 2 dimensions.  Can this battery be made to work with a little resoldering of connections?  At $3.75 each, they would be a steal.

[Mahoro]

This look promising, but how can I charges it  ?
Anyway, want to ask if those battery extender works, those that are plugged into the AC adaptor one w/ 4 AA battery container.

[Shdwdrgn]

aka1nas: I'm not a battery expert, but on the surface it looks like those should work.  One thing different between the batteries you linked to and the ones I'm using is that my batteries include their own charge monitoring circuit onboard, so they protect the battery pack from overcharging.  I see no mention of this circuit on your link, which may explain the difference in price.

Mahoro: Yes they work great!  Take any 4-cell battery holder (AA or AAA) and solder on the correct power connector.  You can plug it straight into the Z, and the external pack will even recharge the internal batteries.  I have one of these packs with some 2100mAh NiMh rechargables and it's been working fine for the past couple years.

[V-Man]

Re: The 4AA external battery packs;

If you want I can send you detailed instructions and parts lists for making your own.  It also includes the parts list (instructions are the same) for making packs with 4 AAA batteries.  I would post it now, but it's at home.  Let me know if you want it.  There are some people on E-Bay that are selling identical versions to what I made, and a few that are selling even better ones.  

The AA packs last about 4 hours (in addition to the iternal battery) with heavy use and WiFi.  The AAA batteries are almost identical in life to the internal battery.

V-Man

PS also see shdwdrgn's topic on his adding an additional battery or two to the internal circuitry.

[Yasen]

Hi V-Man,
I'm intrested in those instruction and part list. I'm thinking for something like this.

I have also idea of lead 6V cell with ... ( I dont know english word for this. It's three pin thing, you connect  two to your cell and from "-" and third pin you get stable lower voltage). On my AC/DC Z charger is writen 5V/2A. Shouldn't such extender have same capability?

[Mahoro]

Samehere, I am interested in it.
Sooner or later, I am bring this Z for my trip to US, (I live in Canada)
Want to have a *longer battery life*,

Is good to hear those 4 AA battery work on Z, Ebay have those lying around, but seems little too big to carry around ,
However, it seems that's the "standard" size of a box of 4AA.


Also for the Li-Ion battery pack on that website.
I wonder how can I charge that bettery.

[V-Man]

How to construct a simple cheap external battery box

Items needed
1. 1-6' power cord (radio shack part #273-1740) $3.29
2. 2-4 AA battery box (radio shack part #270-0409) $1.79 each
This is the one with an on/off switch
3. 1-Adaptaplug size "B" (radio shack part #273-1705) $2.19
4. 8-AA NiMH batteries (1600 mAh) $22.94  (Larger capacity batteries are now available, even though they weren't when I wrote this)
Total cost of items: $32.00

Cut the power cord in half and solder into the battery box. This is harder than is sounds for bumble fingered people like me.

You end up with two battery boxes (at $16.00 ea). The boxes are almost exactly half the size of the Z, so are not a problem to cart around. The voltage ranges from 5.34v fully charged to 4.1v fully discharged. This should not strain the Z's input. The only problem I have noticed is that if the box is left connected to the Z (w/ the Z on) until the box is fully discharged, the Z shutdowns very ungracefully and you will have to reset your Z. After I found this out, I used the box until the charge light on the Z goes out. I get four hours out of each box, with light on full and intermittent use of Netgear MA701 WiFi card. I made some AAA boxes and get about two hours from them. These things are tiny, but only 700mAh.

The prices are about three years old (maybe two?), but shouldn't have changed much.  

I have also idea of lead 6V cell with ... ( I dont know english word for this. It's three pin thing, you connect two to your cell and from "-" and third pin you get stable lower voltage).

You are thinking of a "voltage regulator" chip.  You can't use it with a 6V battery as the specs require at least 7V supply.  I think the part number is 7805.  It is only rated to output 1A, and that only if properly heatsinked.  There is another chip that puts out up to 2A, but I don't remember that part number off hand.  I have used both and they seem to work quite well.  I will try to find the exact part numbers and who has a good price (they are only a couple of bucks each) on them.  Radio Shack used to carry the 7805.  My local Rat Shack said they were not going to order anymore after I bought their last three.  Your local Rat Shack may still have some 7805s in stock.  They do not carry the one that is rated at 2A.  Allied Electric Supply does though.  I really reccomend Allied.  They have always been very helpful when I was looking for odd bits and pieces in small quantities.  I use a Maha charger (don't remember the exact part number, but it has been replaced in current production by a different one).  This is the one that replaced mine: MH-C777PLUS-II.  I made a custom cable so I wouldn't have to take the boxes apart to charge the batteries.  Their web site is:  MahaEnergy  (http://www.mahaenergy.com).  Let me know if you have any other questions.

V-Man

[Mahoro]

The only problem I have noticed is that if the box is left connected to the Z (w/ the Z on) until the box is fully discharged, the Z shutdowns very ungracefully and you will have to reset your Z. After I found this out, I used the box until the charge light on the Z goes out.

Does that apply to Z if its internal battery is fully charged?

[Yasen]

V-Man I'm living in let say distant contry so I can't (or don't want for some reson)  shop online. I can by from local store those 7805s from local store. If they need at least 7V could I take 2 of them and conect tthem parallel to each other on 12V Lead cell and get those 5V/2A.
PS. Excuse my English.
PPS. I think that 5V/2A voltage regulator have part number 78S05

[Shdwdrgn]

Mahoro,
The external battery will drain it's charge while attempting to keep the internal battery topped off.  Once the external pack is drained, the internal battery will drain.  It is at this point, when the internal battery gets too low, that the Z will ungracefully turn off.  Most likely this is because the charge circuit is getting a false reading from the external pack, and doesn't know that the remain charge is actually lower than expected.

[V-Man]

Yasen:

Several people have reported using the 7805 chip in parrallel to get 2A.  I checked my Z's power consumption under various situations and it never got over 1A.  Of course I was doing this with a fully charged battery.  If you battery is low,  and you are using full backlight, and WiFi, you could exceed 1A draw.  I can't find my list of the current draw, but I think it was around 750mA (0.75A) with WiFi and backlight on full and battery fully charged.  

Someone else did a complete test in many different situations than I did for current draw.  Unfortunately, that is no longer available as it was on the old ZaurusZone forum which has been lost for quite some time.  If someone has a copy, please send it to me!!

V-Man

[soycap]

If they need at least 7V could I take 2 of them and conect tthem parallel to each other on 12V Lead cell and get those 5V/2A.

Using the LM7805 with a 12 volt power source will get you a 5 volt output (and I think it will pass 2a if you use them in parrallel), but it really isn't a great solution because...

- You will burn off about 60% of the the battery power into a heat sink (very wastful).
- You will need a large heat sink to handle the 7 volts you are burning off.
- The heat sink gets hotter than you may realize.

It's a good expermiment anyway and doesn't cost that much to try, so you should try it for yourself if you can find the 2 LM7805 or 1 LM780S5.

If you can't find these and still want to use 12 volts, hooking the battery up to a car cord like the one linked below may be an easy (and better) solution.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...5736075602&rd=1

My only concern is that car batteries normally run at approx 14 volts when the car is running, so I don't know what this adapter would put out with the clean 12v you will get from the lead batteries.  I doubt this will be a problem though because these run fine with the car not running, which I think normally puts out under 13 volts.

The cleanest soultion I came up with for myself that was not too expensive and was fun to make was this:

http://www.tekprosystems.com/zaurus/batterypack.htm

It's really just a variation on the 4 AA packs; just easier to charge and about 2 times the run time.

[arniel]

The most efficient solution is to use a switching convertor.  Maxim do ones that will take any voltage from 1.2 to whatever (can't quite remember), and output a steady 5v regardless.  I think the current is upwards of 4 amps.
Downside is that  these are surface mounted regulators and need a PCB with other components to work.  Upside is no heatsink required, can run off any reasonable voltage and are about 85% efficient.
I have samples at home, but need the time to test them out.  Rapid Electronics in the UK sell suitable PCBs.

[revdjenk]

Thanks to all of you on this thread. Finally built my own AA extender, thanks V-Man.  I used some different parts, but it satisfied my needs. And I have some new 2500 batteries. Last 4 - 5 hours depending on light power.

I am not brave enough to try the other ideas (se "custom battery pack") using the Sony and other brand li-ons, but the apparent success is interesting.