New External battery pack for T/NR/SJ/NX series Clies

[rldunn]

Here's a link to this new battery pack that holds 4AAA batteries and plugs into the Hotsync port. Sells for $35.

http://www.pcables.com/cat3.html

I saw this mentioned on Palminfocenter.

[wellsjs]

There are similar ones on eBay from $9.95 up! ;)

[kstuart]

The Sony brand product, PEGA-BC10 lists for $39 and goes for $25 on ebay, and has a switch that switches from off to power without charging to charging.

It holds 4 AAs which have significantly more power than 4 AAAs.

[rldunn]

That's good to know. I hadn't looked into these at all, so I didn't know what a good price was. However, I have some trips coming up, so it may be worth investing in!!

[jmg_NX21]

Actually there are some on ebay for 7.95, I'll get one VERY soon.

[gvtexas]

Originally posted by kstuart
The Sony brand product, PEGA-BC10 lists for $39 and goes for $25 on ebay, and has a switch that switches from off to power without charging to charging.

So does the one on eBay for (I got it for $7.95...$9.95 is for the "buy it now", but not many people bid on these, so bid the opening and wait it out, or catch one near the end). Has an on/off switch and light...but no choice for power/charging mode. Works well (It's recharging my SJ30 as I'm typing this on the laptop), is small, and with the wimpy battery life of these Clies, I wouldn't own a Clie without one of these in tow...

Gary

P.S. eBay link:
http://tinyurl.com/5atq

[Jonavin]

I bought mine on eBay for $6.95. It works great with my T665. Do a search for "battery" for reviews and other comments.

[foghead]

Another nice thing about the Sony PEGA-BC10 is that it can use both Alkaline and rechargables. Most (but not all) of the third-party battery packs that I have seen are only set up for a single battery type.

[wnm]

Looks interesting. A design impovement would be to elimiante the cable and just plug the Clie into the unit. The cable looks kind of short.

[Jonavin]

I used Alklaine and NiMH rechargables in my eBay charger with out any problems.

The qulality of the unit isn't that great though. I've had to readjust the contacts a few times. If you buy the Sony one, you are at least guaranteed a certain quality.

[dtsimoncic]

What about the Seidio? You can charge with one 9V battery. I have one and works great for me, plus you can attach the car plug to the same charger(if you buy the accesory of course).

See you

[DanT]

Originally posted by wnm
Looks interesting. A design impovement would be to elimiante the cable and just plug the Clie into the unit. The cable looks kind of short.

BTW, it's pretty easy to build one yourself.  RadioShack sell the cases for 4AA or 4AAA battery with built-in switch on the case cover, similar to the one you see in pcables, for less than $2.00.  You can get the plug for T-series from PC-Mobile ( http://www.pc-mobile.net/conn.htm) for $6.00.  Then you can connect them together with however long the leads you want them to be.  Of course you can't beat the $6.95 deal at eBay, but you have fun building it.

If you have travel charger for the T-series (same as NR and SL/SJ), then you can connect the leads from the 4AA battery case to the travel charger and save yourself $6.00 + shipping cost for getting the T-series plug.

PC-Mobile also sell the same 4AA external battery pack for the T-series with longer leads for $15.00.  If you're into Clie and GPS, that is the place to browse.

[somas1]

This is the nicest battery extender I have ever used since it allows you to use alkaline or NiMH batteries to charge anything with a USB charging cable: http://www.semsons.com/batexwitusb.html

You are not restricted to one palm model with this and can also power your phone if it has a usb cable

[Shrink]

Originally posted by somas1
This is the nicest battery extender I have ever used since it allows you to use alkaline or NiMH batteries to charge anything with a USB charging cable: http://www.semsons.com/batexwitusb.html

You are not restricted to one palm model with this and can also power your phone if it has a usb cable
Looks like its for PPC only. I don't see anything about Clies.
?

[somas1]

It has a usb port at the top.  You plug a usb charging cable into it and then attach that you your palm.  This is not as cheap as some of the other options out there but it lets you charge any device as long as you have a usb cable for that device.  It is also a lot easier to put this in your coat pocket and connect to your clie in another coat pocket rather than have your battery extender dangle off of the end of your palm.

[Unregistered]

Didn't someone post about one that uses D batteries? Obviously not as portable, but would charge a whole lot more times.

[kstuart]

DanT - the missing element is a map of the pins of the T/NR series connector.

dtsimoncic - 9V batteries are more expensive, and somewhat harder to find - especially away from home when you want to use a travel charger. For example, almost any store in a Mexican resort town will have AA batteries, while 9V (or AAA) batteries would require a time consuming search (when you want to be spending your time on the beach!).  Or as they said in Toy Story - "Do you use Crystolic Fusion Power here?" "No we use AAs !".

[DanT]

kstuart, pin#1 and 18 are ground (-) and pin#8 is for 5.2VDC (+) for the charger. Your home work would be to figure out which end is pin #1.

[DanT]

OK, here is the pinout that I got from capricorn61 before the big data wipeout:

1 = GND, ground for signal/power supply
2 = D+, USB data+ signal
3 = D-, USB data- signal
4 = USB GND, ground for USB
5 = VBUS
6 = Reserved
7 = DC+B, External 5.2 VDC power supply terminal. The terminal supplying power to the main unit.
8 = CHARGE, 5.2 VDC charging terminal. Dedicated power terminal for charging.
9 = Reserved
10=UNREG_OUT, brute power supply 3.4-4.2V, 100 mA
11=HOT_SYNC
12=DTR
13=RXD
14=TXD
15=CTS
16=RTS
17=CNT
18=GND, same as 1

I know just enough to get myself into trouble, so use it at your own risk.

To connector experts, feel free to explain the codes.

[broth]

Originally posted by somas1
This is the nicest battery extender I have ever used since it allows you to use alkaline or NiMH batteries to charge anything with a USB charging cable: http://www.semsons.com/batexwitusb.html

You are not restricted to one palm model with this and can also power your phone if it has a usb cable


Question - How long does it take to charge for you? How many charges can you get out of a fully charged NiMH set? This sounds like a good travel option. Thanks

[somas1]

Originally posted by broth



Question - How long does it take to charge for you? How many charges can you get out of a fully charged NiMH set? This sounds like a good travel option. Thanks

 

It's a little hard for me to tell you how long it takes me to charge my nx with this battery extender since I have never fully drained my nx and then attempted to recharge it.  I think a usb charging cable or the usb port itself limits the amount of current that trickles into your palm so charging by usb (on a computer or on this battery extender) tends to be slow. 

What I can tell you is that I leave my house at 6:00 AM and get back home anywhere from 3:00 PM to 10:00 PM.  I listen to mp3s a minimum of 2 hours per day (I know this because I usually have about 135 minutes of music on my main memory stick and listen to every song on this stick at least once every day).  I have a lot of downtime during my longer days and will also watch anywhere from 30 to 120 minutes of movies on my nx in addition to the 2 hours of interspersed music I listen to.  I also use my nx for pim throughout my workday and use it to read ebooks if I have a lot of free time on a particular day.  I do not have consistent access to ac outlets so I do not carry my nx's power adapter.  If I plug my nx into my battery extender before it is reduced to 80% of its total power consistently, I arrive home with a 90-100% charge (if I am using a lot of multimedia on a particular day, I will leave my nx plugged into my extender the whole time I listen to music or watch movies).  I recharge my NiMH about once a week.  The NiMH would probably give me more reliable power if I recharged twice a week because I have noticed that these batteries are not powering my nx as well by Thursday and Friday. I hope I have answered your question. 

[rldunn]

Thanks for the info in this thread. I just got one of the chargers from ebay; my first ebay bid and win ever!! $8.00 + $5 shipping. Not bad!!

[jackson]

Actually a girl from ebay came to my house this morning with a newspaper, a cup of coffee and a doughnut, and gave me one of those chargers, and paid me $12. Boy, you can't beat that.

(Sorry - I am lying. I don't know what came over me. Sorry, I 'll try harder.)

Jackson