yet another case battery mod

[toomanyhandles]

Hi all;

On my UX-50, I have been using the soft case from www.gadgetinfinity.com, to provide protection and USB charging in one case. I also am using their AA USB charger solution as a poor mans EB40 (in conjunction with this case of course).

I recently put a new internal battery in the UX50, and am looking at the soft case thinking... there is padding in the "lid" part, the thing is thick enough I could cut it open, put in a battery and wiring, close it up, and have a nice case that has both USB charging and a battery boosting capability as well.

The base of the case has charging circuitry; perhaps it could charge additional batteries without breaking, perhaps not.

If you search http://www.gadgetinfinity.com for UX50 you will pull up the soft case; it has charging circuitry in the bottom with pins to press on the 2 charge pads on the UX50. I think most people here know the case.

Seems that it should be possible to wire in batteries to those posts in such a way that they'd both be charged by the case, and boost the UX50 just like the pins on the EB40 would.

This seems like a nice way to have both USB charging and battery boosting in one solution, without my having to modify the UX50 itself.

Thoughts? I know I'm wondering how the power goes as regards charging with this case; it has jsut the 2 contacts, where the official base charger is different.

[JAmerican]

Hi all;

On my UX-50, I have been using the soft case from www.gadgetinfinity.com, to provide protection and USB charging in one case. I also am using their AA USB charger solution as a poor mans EB40 (in conjunction with this case of course).

I recently put a new internal battery in the UX50, and am looking at the soft case thinking... there is padding in the "lid" part, the thing is thick enough I could cut it open, put in a battery and wiring, close it up, and have a nice case that has both USB charging and a battery boosting capability as well.

The base of the case has charging circuitry; perhaps it could charge additional batteries without breaking, perhaps not.

If you search http://www.gadgetinfinity.com for UX50 you will pull up the soft case; it has charging circuitry in the bottom with pins to press on the 2 charge pads on the UX50. I think most people here know the case.

Seems that it should be possible to wire in batteries to those posts in such a way that they'd both be charged by the case, and boost the UX50 just like the pins on the EB40 would.

This seems like a nice way to have both USB charging and battery boosting in one solution, without my having to modify the UX50 itself.

Thoughts? I know I'm wondering how the power goes as regards charging with this case; it has jsut the 2 contacts, where the official base charger is different.

MM MD, see if you could help out this user. This user first posted on my forums and I referred the person here.

Seeing as you've just done this.

JAmerican

[MM MD]

Hi all;

On my UX-50, I have been using the soft case from www.gadgetinfinity.com, to provide protection and USB charging in one case. I also am using their AA USB charger solution as a poor mans EB40 (in conjunction with this case of course).

I recently put a new internal battery in the UX50, and am looking at the soft case thinking... there is padding in the "lid" part, the thing is thick enough I could cut it open, put in a battery and wiring, close it up, and have a nice case that has both USB charging and a battery boosting capability as well.

The base of the case has charging circuitry; perhaps it could charge additional batteries without breaking, perhaps not. The base of the leather case DOES NOT have a charging circuit, it's a simple connection to the USB, and relies on the internal UX charging mechanism.

If you search http://www.gadgetinfinity.com for UX50 you will pull up the soft case; it has charging circuitry in the bottom with pins to press on the 2 charge pads on the UX50. I think most people here know the case.

Seems that it should be possible to wire in batteries to those posts in such a way that they'd both be charged by the case, and boost the UX50 just like the pins on the EB40 would. Nop, if you plan to charge the UX without modifying it's internal connections, i.e. create a EB40, you will need a boost circuit (step-up, to change the voltage from the LiPo battery of 3.7-4.2 to the required ~5v), this will add some bulk and decrease effeciency of the process, meaning you will not get the full mAH of the battery.

This seems like a nice way to have both USB charging and battery boosting in one solution, without my having to modify the UX50 itself.

Thoughts? I know I'm wondering how the power goes as regards charging with this case; it has jsut the 2 contacts, where the official base charger is different. Again, its a simple connection to the USB (5v) providing what the original charging case does (~5v regulated)


You actually can create a EB40 using the JC40, the above mentioned boost circuit (they are tiny these days, and go for less than $15 a piece), and add a third spring connector for pin 2. I don't know if it is easy, or worth, trying to figure the automatic switching from the internal to the external battery when EB40 is connected.
Did you want to check my similar recent modification? http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107077

This will need the UX internal rewiring.
Good luck :)

[toomanyhandles]

You actually can create a EB40 using the JC40, the above mentioned boost circuit (they are tiny these days, and go for less than $15 a piece), and add a third spring connector for pin 2. I don't know if it is easy, or worth, trying to figure the automatic switching from the internal to the external battery when EB40 is connected.
Did you want to check my similar recent modification? http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=107077

This will need the UX internal rewiring.
Good luck :)


hmmm... I believe you, you've messed around with these, but I really really do not wish to mod the UX50 and remove options- the mod means I have to always use the EB40 (or for my intentions the case) after, and charge thru USB on the UX50 from then on? If I interpret the wiring diagram that JAmerican posted earlier.

Still seems a little unneeded to me to mod the UX50 for what I am thinking about; the case charger will run the UX50 and charge the UX50 battery at the same time, using just the 2 contacts; I still am missing what would be different from supplying power in from a battery instead of USB in this case. After all, I can do the same thing with this case charger with a AA battery pack to fake USB power. Can you explain why this is? I guess I'm still missing something :)

Is there any way to do this without a mod of the UX50... something on the case charger- switches to bring pin 2 in and out perhaps?

Thanks, sorry to be thick--

[MM MD]

hmmm... I believe you, you've messed around with these, but I really really do not wish to mod the UX50 and remove options- the mod means I have to always use the EB40 (or for my intentions the case) after, and charge thru USB on the UX50 from then on? If I interpret the wiring diagram that JAmerican posted earlier. Actually you can use the JC40 as usual, I didn't study JA wiring very much, but Hippo's wiring diagram, that I also used and recommend, allows you to do that, you can charge using the jc40, the UX USB connector, or the leather case you have.

Still seems a little unneeded to me to mod the UX50 for what I am thinking about; the case charger will run the UX50 and charge the UX50 battery at the same time, using just the 2 contacts; I still am missing what would be different from supplying power in from a battery instead of USB in this case. After all, I can do the same thing with this case charger with a AA battery pack to fake USB power. Can you explain why this is? I guess I'm still missing something :) The 4 batteries will provide unregulated voltage depending on their level of charge, the USB provides a more regulated level at ~5v. You may be supplying the UX with either too high or too low of voltage if you just simply connect the batteries in series, it might work but I wouldn't take the risk. You can get similar results as I mentioned by using a regulator-booster, but I wouldn't recommend venturing with building this unless you have some experience. The other, easier option is to use a battery extender, premade, that houses the regulator and provides you with USB-like output. The one I'm familiar with is from semsons, you can find it here http://store.yahoo.com/semsons-inc/batexwitusb.html
You will need 4 rechargable batteries and a charger to be able to use this one, I believe many used it before on this forum. It is not very bulky, I'm sure there are other similar products.

Is there any way to do this without a mod of the UX50... something on the case charger- switches to bring pin 2 in and out perhaps? If you use the above mentioned (semsons or the like) battery extender, then you don't need to modify the uX in any way, you just use the leather case as usual to charge, that's another advantage to this simple approach.
Thanks, sorry to be thick--

I hope this helps :)

[toomanyhandles]

Thanks, I see why the mod is always needed now. OK, I don't wish to do that to my UX50.

Thanks for the link to the Semsons storefront- the nice regulated AA pack is $15 or so at this time- nice price.