battery replacement

[RT_]

hi everyone, I've had my tx for a few years and my battery life is going down quickly. I think I'm going to need to replace it soon. Has anyone tried changing the tx battery to a lifedrive battery or maybe an ipod battery? Is it possible and more importantly, will it increase the battery life?
Thanks a lot

[vovka1965]

Here is the bottom line: if you want the same physical size battery, it will have the same capacity in maH. There are no miracles of science here. You can probably rig a higher capacity battery on the outside of the TX case-- see the discussions elsewhere on the forum..

[natharious]

I bought a high capacity battery off of eBay after my battery decided to randomly die one day. It was a gamble but I had already tried all of the other steps to revive a dead Palm TX. The battery cost me around $13 CDN including shipping and I was able to do the installation myself without solder. I just snipped the wires connecting the old battery and twisted them together with the new battery, insulating with heat shrink. It has been working great, no problems for over 6 months.

I know for sure that it runs longer because I do an annual camping trip which requires a 7 hour drive. Using my Palm as an mp3 player in my car, the battery has always run out before I reach my destination. However, this year it read that I still had about 1/3!

[Gregte]

I bought a high capacity battery off of eBay after my battery decided to randomly die one day. ...
Would you be willing to share with us the make of the battery and its size? Was it a Cameron Sino brand, 1400 mAh?

[vovka1965]

The so-called high capacity batteries are 1400 mAh. The so-called standard batteries are 1100 mAh. I believe all the palm TX batteries are now 1400 mAh. I am not surprised that some battery brands give you better performance and that the performance difference is significant. However, as long as these batteries fit inside the standard TX case, this performance improvement is not due to some "capacity" magic, but rather to the quality and the age of the battery at the time of its sale.

[gahenton]

I picked up one of the 1400ma batteries off of ebay, came with 2 screwdrivers. The battery was about 20% smaller that the one in the TX, but rater higher. I soldered it in and it seems to be better than new, but I have not run any valid test to say for sure.

GerryH

[Gregte]

I picked up one of the 1400ma batteries off of ebay, came with 2 screwdrivers. The battery was about 20% smaller that the one in the TX, but rater higher. I soldered it in and it seems to be better than new, but I have not run any valid test to say for sure.

GerryH
GerryH, could you give us the eBayer URL with this battery for sale?

Also, 20% smaller in which dimension, length, width or thickness?

[gahenton]

I did not take and measurements when I put it in( or pictures) I will see if I have the time/will to pull the TX apart and do so.

I managed to find the item/seller on ebay

ebay link (http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170246958675)

[wozofoz]

From the eBay link:
Capacity
1400 mAh
Voltage
3.7V
Type
li-ion polymer

My standard TX battery registers as 4.00 v at full charge, according to BatteryDA (www.rogame.com/pages/BatteryDA.html)

Could someone please tell me ( a battery dummy) if this is something that will make a difference in performance.
Thanks :)

All the best, woz of oz

[Gregte]

From the eBay link:
Capacity
1400 mAh
Voltage
3.7V
Type
li-ion polymer

My standard TX battery registers as 4.00 v at full charge, according to BatteryDA (www.rogame.com/pages/BatteryDA.html)

Could someone please tell me ( a battery dummy) if this is something that will make a difference in performance.
Thanks :)

All the best, woz of oz

The standard battery in a TX is 1250 mAh according to Palm so a 1400 mAh battery should last longer between charges. However, some people including me have bought a 1400 mAh battery made by Cameron Sino that is not as good as the original TX 1250. And to add insult to injury, the two that I bought actually lost capacity with the first 6 or 7 charge/discharge cycles.

The battery pictured in the ebay link above does not have the same labeling on it as the Cameron Sino battery so maybe it is made by a different company.

Also, when the TX reports the battery charge is 4.00 volts, that is not quite correct. All TXs report that as the full voltage even though the actual measured voltage using a volt meter will show the voltage to be somewhat higher at full charge. In other words, the TXs voltmeter is a bit off.

The 3.7 volt nominal rating of the battery on ebay is the standard nominal voltage of a lithium ion or lithium polymer cell when it is manufactured. This is the 40% charge voltage by the way, the best voltage for storing them.

[wozofoz]

Thanks for that easy to understand explanation :)

All the best, woz of oz

[martinloat]

The part number given on the e-bay site seems to belong to these guys:
http://www.eemb.com/index.html

They have a US outlet. I do not know if they are connected to Sino-Cameron.

[araj]

... I was able to do the installation myself without solder. I just snipped the wires connecting the old battery and twisted them together with the new battery, insulating with heat shrink. It has been working great, no problems for over 6 months.

I too snipped the old battery out, twisted the TX wires onto the new one (a Cameron Sino 1150mAh), covered the exposed copper with insulating tape and stuck the battery to the TX case with blue tak.

Sadly the Cameron Sino battery was defective. It gave me about 6 weeks' trouble-free use; then the voltage started fluctuating wildly. I was getting maybe an hour's use, compared to 3 hours when it was brand new.

So I replaced it with a Nokia BL-5J 1320mAh battery. This battery's connectors are little recessed slots. It's easy to jam insulated copper wire in there, cover with tape and twist onto the battery wires of the TX, covering the exposed ends with more tape of course.

Unfortunately this particular battery is a little thicker than the case allows. The Cameron Sino battery, which fit the TX case, had dimensions 64mm x 35mm x 3mm. While the length and width of the Nokia battery were fine, its thickness, 5mm, was too much. I had to squeeze to get the backplate back on. The backplate then developed a slight bulge. And the plastic surrounding the top screws looked set to crack.

I could've gone for a lower capacity battery. Nokia makes a 1100mAh model which is thinner and has recessed connectors. Instead I discarded the back plate. I padded a Boxwave aluminum TX hard case with toilet paper and strapped the pda into that with rubber bands. Looks remarkably ugly but works fine. Downside: I lost the speaker. I don't miss it though. And the earphone jack still works.

Added later: On further inspection, I was wrong. The BL-5J battery's thickness is fine. The bulge is caused by the wires I attached. It may be possible to get a good fit with better placement -- I'm working on that now.

Success! Strip the insulation from about 1cm of copper wire. Braid the strands, then snip the uninsulated bit free. Stick that in the positive terminal of the BL-5J battery. Jam another piece of stripped and braided copper wire in the negative terminal. Be careful to keep the two pieces separated. Poking with, eg, a T5 screwdriver raises sparks!

Twist the TX's power wires directly onto the copper poking out of the battery terminals. No insulation. Just keep the bare wires widely separated as you squeeze the back plate on. Presto, one rebatteried Palm TX! With backplate and no bulge!