Xtreme Battery Mod!!!

[mexiKan]

Well first of all please excuse my poor English, but I will try my best...

This story begins with me finding a old TJ36 in my closet, and I thought that the battery will be useful, but as I found that this battery is bigger than the one in the UX series I was back in the low battery wagon, but then I got my modding tools and I begun to grind, cut, and crumble pieces.

and...

I WAS SUCCESSFUL!!!
I took a lot of pictures of the final results but the lighting was just not the best, but I will take more tomorrow and post them.

It is indeed a “mexicanada” but you guys have the final word.

[dragonsgames]

Very interesting.
I am sure more detailed instructions and better pictures would be appreciated. :)

[JAmerican]

I was truely thinking of that as well but then I realized that removing the MS slot would take away from the reason for me having the battery mod in the first place due to the battery would feed my media addiction (such as music and videos). But I'm assuming that the Int. Media and RAM is enough for you and that you use your UX for more of its wireless capabilites.

[dragonsgames]

Did you remove the MS slot? Or did you put it under the battery or something?

[mexiKan]

I modded the ms slot, because I love music so I had to figure out a way to still have my card in use, so what I did was to minimize the ms slot to its maximum, well, I took it apart, took the ms and took it out of its casing and the soldering begun.
I managed to put it between the battery and the mobo.
Since i'm into xbox modding as well my soldering skills are more than a amateur.

[dragonsgames]

Great work! :eek: :D

[mexiKan]

As I said I will take some pictures of the insides tomorrow with good lighting and resolution, I got to open it because one of the wires of the camera came off so it will not change the orientation when you flip it all the way, I will take that opportunity to take the pictures.

[Clocker]

Have you seen junglemike/raspabalsa's mods?

[frozerino]

I like this mod!
howmuch mAh is the TJ36 battery?
And i really would like to see where you put the ms slot.
nice modding anyway:)

[mexiKan]

here is a better picture.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/mexiKan/4a3493cc.jpg

[JAmerican]

WOW! This is probably one od the best ones yet :) Great work man :) I think Sony needs to hire people like you lol.

JAmerican

[dragonsgames]

How difficult is it to perform? I know JA has said he doesn't like soldering ;)

[mexiKan]

How difficult is it to perform? I know JA has said he doesn't like soldering ;)
well is like soldering in 20 little spots; 10 from the ms and 10 from the slot cable.
By the way, the red stuff in top of the ms are the cables that I soldered on it.

[dragonsgames]

Did you replace it with an MS Duo slot or is that the standard MS slot?

[JAmerican]

If you look at the attachment, I see some chips that are not apart of the Motherboard and are not standard in the UX. I'm assuming that you dissembled an MS card and added it to your UX to store your media somewhat of another permanent internal media. Cool man :). How large is the card.

JAmerican

[JAmerican]

I guess I was right lol...

http://www.marshallbrain.com/gif/inside-memory-stick.jpg

I modded the ms slot, because I love music so I had to figure out a way to still have my card in use, so what I did was to minimize the ms slot to its maximum, well, I took it apart, took the ms and took it out of its casing and the soldering begun.
I managed to put it between the battery and the mobo.
Since i'm into xbox modding as well my soldering skills are more than a amateur.

Didn't understand what you meant before but I get it now.

JAmerican

[mexiKan]

I guess I was right lol...

http://www.marshallbrain.com/gif/inside-memory-stick.jpg



Didn't understand what you meant before but I get it now.

JAmerican
yes well that's what I did...

I have some other mods in mind but I cant do them right now, but I will.

Porfavor belive it!!!

[dragonsgames]

Yes, we believe it. :)

[JAmerican]

I second the believing. Seeing is believing :)

JAmerican

[kennyd]

MexiKan you Rock!!! Someone mentioned JungleMike...you've got to check out some of his mods on zire units. Mike uh doesn't exactly like to stay inside the lines though. He has a zire unit that will run for like 46 hours or something crazy!!! but you have tote the unit on a dolly : ) This is a very intriguing mod that i'm very interested in looking further into.

There was a guy at TapLand that took a wifi sd card and permantly installed it internally in the unit...brilliant. I love mods like that.

[Bullitt]

Great Idea, mexiKan !!!

Just curious, how have you done the "Soldering" and
can you post some detailed pictures ???

Thanks and keep up the good work ! ;)

[JAmerican]

Wow, I may actually try this. First I need to learn how to solder. If I do this, I'll move back to the UX. But I'm gonna need a new MB due to dead WiFi Chip.

JAmerican

[JAmerican]

How did you break that center divider between battery and MS slot

[frozerino]

mexiKan, how much watt is your soldering iron?
mine is 40 watt, but i think that's to much, it gets really hot, so i'm scarred of burning things.

[kennyd]

Has anyone tried using one of the Cold Heat (http://www.coldheat.com/products.cfm?section=pro) soldering irons?

[dragonsgames]

The guy at Home Depot said they are crap, but I think they look cool.

[mexiKan]

Great Idea, mexiKan !!!

Just curious, how have you done the "Soldering" and
Can you post some detailed pictures ???

Thanks and keep up the good work!
Well since the main purpose of this mod is to make enough room for the battery to fit, so the ms card holder needs to be gone; you have to unsolder it from the ribbon cable, and from the remaining solder exposed you solder the wires that go to the ms to be soldered too.
Believe me it does not have too much science involved on it
I will post some pictures later, cause I cant do it right now.

How did you break that center divider between battery and MS slot
Grinding with a dremel, but be careful because the thing is metal and conducts energy!!!, you will have to take it apart completely from the ux case so the dust created(that will be a lot) wont get stuck on the MB, be aware that that dust is very sticky and after you finish you'll have to cover the exposed metal part(I used liquid tape).

mexiKan, how much watt is your soldering iron?
Mine is 40 watt, but I think that's to much, it gets really hot, so I’m scarred of burning things.
Well the one I used is 30W and is a crappy one from Wal-Mart.
If you know how to solder do it with what you feel comfortable with, but if you don’t know how to solder very well go with a 15W soldering iron, I had used mine on this project but I took it to Mexico and left it there.

I will be traveling tomorrow; I’m going to Mexico, the school is waiting, but I want to keep on modding my UX, so I will :D

One last thing:
Hey JAmerican does your wireless keyboard supports multiple key pressings at the same time so you can play games?

Well thanks everyone for your interest in my modification and wish me luck in my trip!!!

[m0nkeyb0y]

Is it therefore hypothetically possible to solder more than one dismantled memory stick in parallel for increased capacity (up to the Sony-imposed 2GB ceiling)?

[frozerino]

Possible yes,
But however it is very unlikely to work.
If you would just solder them parallel to eachother, the ux would want to adress one of the memory sticks (for example, to load an mp3 that is located on one of the memory sticks) but would eventually adress them both (as they are parallel).
I think it is even dangerous to do so, it would probably brake your ux and/or your memory sticks.
For this to work, you would need 2 ms-interfaces on the ux mobo. and this isn't the case:(

If it would be possible, i would solder 5 2gig sticks on it, 10gb memory thats more then twice the lifedrive :p


Well the one I used is 30W and is a crappy one from Wal-Mart.
If you know how to solder do it with what you feel comfortable with, but if you don’t know how to solder very well go with a 15W soldering iron, I had used mine on this project but I took it to Mexico and left it there.
I'll go buy a 25W or so. I know how to solder, but just don't trust my 40W giant, the ux looks so tiny and vulnerable!


One last thing:
Hey JAmerican does your wireless keyboard supports multiple key pressings at the same time so you can play games?

Well thanks everyone for your interest in my modification and wish me luck in my trip!!!
Good question, never thought about it, but i'm interested in the answer as well! JAmerican?

Good luck in Mexico :D

[dragonsgames]

Is it therefore hypothetically possible to solder more than one dismantled memory stick in parallel for increased capacity (up to the Sony-imposed 2GB ceiling)?
Actually, you can format a 4GB card into FAT16 and use 4GB. PM golomo (or something like that, don't know his username)

[JAmerican]

I have a ColdHeat soldering iron. I used it on my EB to connect a broken wire but I didn't use flux (didn't know you needed that stuff) so it burnt the wire. Lol.

As for the keyboard, it works with the UX but it does glitch while using it with the UX like sometimes it stays in all caps while I'm typing while on TX, everything works smoothly. Sometimes the keyboard has issues where it does not work at all and even if you slide it off and on, you still can't get it to work. I use rechargable batteries so when I charged them, it still didn't work. It took a little time before it started working again. Very weird. You can map those keys to LJP if you wanted to. They are each considered a unique keypress although the keypress pickup is kind of laggy. Make sure you don't have notification-hog and bloated apps like CodeDiver and Keyquick running because they really slow down the pickup of the UWK's keypresses.

JAmerican

[dansalan]

FYI. For the technically challenged you can just use as replacement battery the Sonnet Replacement battery for 3rd generation IPOD.
it's 850mAh, 3.7v and approximately the same size as the UX battery. It's a much simpler solution. IMHO.

[dragonsgames]

Good luck connecting it... :rolleyes:
All the Clie's batteries have the same connector :p

[Romeol]

O rly? I believe the TG50 I had earlier, I had ordered a 1000 mAh battery for. . . interesting. . .

[m0nkeyb0y]

The 900 mAh option from eBay is the best option by far because it at least has the correct connectors and a higher mAh rating.

[MrNako]

Es chingón ser Mexicano :p

[m0nkeyb0y]

Si

(I think :p )

[ixle]

Possible yes,
But however it is very unlikely to work.
If you would just solder them parallel to eachother, the ux would want to adress one of the memory sticks (for example, to load an mp3 that is located on one of the memory sticks) but would eventually adress them both (as they are parallel).
I think it is even dangerous to do so, it would probably brake your ux and/or your memory sticks.
For this to work, you would need 2 ms-interfaces on the ux mobo. and this isn't the case:(


What if you hard wired two disassembled memory sticks and had them fork off a switch that would toggle between the leads? You could have the switch mounted externally on the side of the UX. You could theoretically switch between as many sticks as you could fit inside the device.

[Assegai]

Would it be possible to shrink the memory card slot to DUO or M2 size? This could perhaps be done using a DUO or M2 adaptor as all they really do is ferry the current from each contact to a full-sized Memory Stick profile.