Tungsten T5 with 5700MAH battery

[Hawkeyefile]

Okay, first things first. This is not a battery pack! It replaces the 1050MAH battery completely and because it is taped to the back I had to buy myself an SPJST Mini switch. The switch can be bought at RadioShack. The battery use to be at batteryspace.com but they no longer carry this size. (guess 6400MAH would do). BTW there is no PCB needed for this. The battery is so large that it would never charge all the way if you used the pcb on the old battery. Luckily Palm has a built in PCB at the charge port. I got about nearly 1 week of continuous music playback. Not bad for something that is still smaller than an Ipod. I wonder how much music I could play back if I under clocked the CPU.....
I had made this because I was going on a 7 day Whitney hike and needed something that would play music for a long time. Rather than carry a thousand AA's (too much weight). I did what any good tekkie would do. There is about 800 OGG Vorbis encoded songs per 2gb card (out of 4). So I was not too worried about getting bored with my music.

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[PalmSole]

Dude it looks like you just charged up someC4 and are about to go to town on something :eek: but in all seriousness, once you get by all the suspicious public check points and explain to everyone you meet "its just a palm", this will save you the hassle of those pesky traveling recharges. I would love to do the same thing as you but are you not worried the battery is exposed to noxious forces such as the crush or puncture that might expose its contents or worse cause some explosion? Someone could make a mini-fortune if they came up with a separate container to house that battery and clip on to the back of the Palm.

[Hawkeyefile]

Not really worried had it about 4 months now. It's survived hiking 60 miles, running with me daily and just about every fall you can image. Polymer is only dangerous when the polymer sheets are punctured.
P.S. I had two of those batteries in parallel. Thats right 11.4AH. But it was just to darn big.

[netpower8]

can you show how you attached the battery pack ? how did you charge this battery pack ? is it possible to buy a battery pack and use the electric outlet charger plug cut off it's end (the last part where you plug the charger to the unit) and attach the wiring to the battery pack instead to have the unit power supplied thru the charger unit much like an electric outlet. hmmm but there's no way in knowing how much charge left on the battery pack if it's this method but at least the unit will not be damage. i assume you need to drill some holes thru the casing to have the wires out to connect to the custom battery back.

[netpower8]

btw i have a palm tx this custom battery looks promising to me it will make using the wi-fi last longer much longer than the usual use that's why am interest on the mechanics on how you did this.

ps. the most tricky part i think would be how to recharge the battery pack if it's gonna be seperate unit and not connected directly to the unit.

[netpower8]

i will try to assemble one (using 4pc AA) and maybe check it's battery life gauge on it.. will make further post after making it (if am successfull). will try to checkout battery packs like the picture you posted.. am not sure if they sell this kind of battery around here in my country.

[Tomohawk]

I've thought about doing that on my T|E, but it would never fit into the holster with the battery on it. I would rather carry a hand-powered (cranked) generator to charge the battery when outdoors. Could you make it a little thinner if you cut a hole in the case the size of the battery? I think I remember somebody mentioning that they were considering making a new back to enclose the larger battery. Just a thought...

[netpower8]

i was successfull on the 4pc AA battery plug in (where you plug in the palm unit using the electric outlet) and maintained the usefullness still of the original electric plug in charger. its possible to use both electric and battery power =)

as i suspected it's a bit hard to find battery packs like yours on the photo here in our country. will still try to look around for possiblity of assembling such a battery pack for the palm unit. will use a non intrusive type (will not make holes for the wires of the battery but rather use the plug in jack to "charge the unit" instead)

assemble time only 10 mins or so. using cheap parts. my opinion about it would be it's more or less safe but am a bit suspicious about the plugs i choosen (used RCA jacks male-female) to do the connections. the RCA "could" or "might" cause a short the plugs i want which the store nearest to my place dont have stock on it. was considering "mono-plugs" like the one you use on mono earphones the 3.5mm type. anybody have opinions about this ? what could be the safest way to connect the two ends and "safe from short circuit" ... well, anybody?

in a few days will test the performance of the new pack to see if it's considered "usefull accessory" (or emergency accessory in which electric plug in outlets are not available).

but i still like the idea about that 5700mah battery that can make the unit last 7 days (can you give us the exact detail in hours of use) will do test like non-stop mp3 play. or full brightness 100% (max hours turned on) and stuff like that.

ps. should anybody interested on how i did this... i'll post the picture for those who like to see. best of all i will still search for a battery pack thats like yours (flat type)... err the most problematic would be how to charge the thing. ? AA batteries is no problem i just remove them on the battery holder then put them on a charger. but how can i charge a 5700mah battery like the one on the pix ? (if my battery is removable) i cant just plug it directly with the plug-in charger the batt-pack might catch fire.

[netpower8]

here's the results of the EXTRA power charge

With the following parameters
- 100% bightness
- no bluetooth, no wi-fi (both off)
Results:
upon first warning of low power dialog box (around 17% battery power left), battery of the stock palm tx (mine, other's will have a different results depending on how new or old your battery). Stock battery lasted 230 mins (3hrs 50 mins)

With the EXTRA power plug-in
- using 4pc AA 2400mAH Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries
- 100% brightness
- no bluetooth, no wi-fi (both off)
Results:
- it appears with the plug-in power the low battery warning dialog box will most likely not appear or will appear only on very LOW LOW battery power. it's already 14% it did not give a low battery warning dialog. i think i should stop at 14% it's not healthy for the unit to have power level go so low. the low power dialog box appears after i remove the plug (AA batteries). From the 1st low battery warning using the stock palm tx battery (start of plug-in AA battery power) to the next 14% power level (always plug-in) power lasted 434 mins (7hrs 14mins) thats about 188% more power. also drains the AA battery pretty well almost all are drained dry.

power level last longer or shorter depending on your usage but parameters on this test are both the same. which is 100% brightness, both bluetooth and wi-fi are off. make me wonder if i could assemble something like the one like 5700mAH. how long would the battery power last? ... i wonder...