Personal computing discussed

$5 PDA battery extender...

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drfish
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$5 PDA battery extender...

Tue Apr 19, 2005 7:20 pm

I mentioned wanting more PDA battery life in my Bali thread and linked to a couple "extenders" that looked like they might be what I needed... After a little more looking I decided to build one myself instead of shelling out $20 for one... So on my way home I stopped and bought the supplies I needed and shortly after had one that works perfectly for under $5... :)

Now to test it to see what kind of life I get... Should be fun. I'll let you know.
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drfish
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Wed Apr 20, 2005 7:59 pm

Still in the middle of testing my new toy and I'm very pleased so far! I started out by running the main battery on the PDA all the way down to completely dead. Then I plugged in the extender with four freshly charged 2300mAh AAs and turned the PDA back on...

My test consists of watching and episode of Futurama over an over again (which keeps the processor busy and the backlight on) until it runs dead.

After 2 hours the PDA is still running off the extender and the main battery of the PDA is actually fully recharged! Meaning that even after the extender runs out I've still got a good 2-3 hours out of the LiIon onboard the PDA! Best $5 I ever spent... :D
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SpotTheCat
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Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:03 pm

nice, even if the thing is ugly, if you take it on a plane or something you can just leave it there for a quickcharge.
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drfish
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Wed Apr 20, 2005 8:37 pm

It's not ugly, I put some heatshrink tubing over the wires and it looks perfectly professional. :)
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AbsolutCamper
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Thu Apr 21, 2005 7:36 am

$5? Damn. I just spent 50 bucks on a 4000mah power brick and it can't even charge my x50v properly. It takes ages to charge and can't even do a warm charge. Anyways, FOUR 2300MAh AAs? that thing must be a monster. If you could make a proper product for less than 20 bucks im sure it would sell.
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drfish
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Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:00 am

Actually the exact thing I made turns out to be pretty common... I didn't know when I made it but lots have people have used Radio Shack to make one...

BTW, I quit my testing after 3 hours last night and will return to it tonight... When I stopped, the PDA was still fully charged and still running off the extender...

Also check this out, 11,000mAh D batteries ... And they sell four D battery holders as well... Maybe I need to make a super extender! Now I just need a charger for D batteries... And here it is! Cool... :cool: That would be what, almost 5 times the power of what I just made?! :o At least 15 hours on one charge?! :o
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drfish
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Sat Apr 23, 2005 10:21 am

Well, after 6 1/2 hours of on again off again testing the extender was finally drained enough that it could no longer charge the PDA, so the main battery slowly started to drain... The voltage output of the extender is now below 5v but since the batteries still have power left in them and the PDA of course has a voltage regulator, the main battery drains much faster without the extender plugged in... All the same I'm going to call it quits on my testing. I don't want to stress the PDA with voltage conversion nor the batteries with a more rapid power drain.

I am very pleased with the results! Now to decide whether to invest in four 11,000mAh D batteries or just pick up more AAs...

Bottom line, for $5 plus the cost of batteries you can easily extend the life of your PDA while consuming maximum power to 6 1/2 hours or more. I imagine that if you started with both a fully charged PDA and batteries and let it run until both were completely drained you'd have around 10 hours of total battery life.

Try it!
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Nimrod
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Thu May 19, 2005 2:33 am

What about the issue of voltage regulation?

I'm worried if I biuld it and voltage goes beyond 5v, it could damage my axim x50mid.

Is this fear unfounded? Any help would be greatly appreciated
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drfish
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Sat Oct 01, 2005 9:04 pm

Sorry to take so long to reply, just noticed your post now since this thread got mentioned somewhere else... Anyway, four 1.25v NiMh batteries add up perfectly to 5v so unless your batteries are really ****ed you don't have anything to worry about. :) I wouldn't use alkalines though. 1.5v*4=6v... :o
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Nimrod
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Fri Nov 04, 2005 3:25 am

Thanks for the reply, even though its slighly late, lol. :wink:
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