bizt

Hi,

Trying to find the most cost effective battery extender kits. I would love to give the EB40 mod a go but its just too expensive for the risk of me screwing it up.

Has anyone used one of these (or similar) universal battery adapters with 4 AA batteries?

http://www.surplus-pda.com/catalog/...products_id=250

This idea suites me better coz when Im out camping its not really possible to charge from the mains. This would let me stop of at a shop and buy a pack of AA batteries and charge my PDA (or mobile phone).

Would it charge the UX well when used with a USB charge cradle (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sony-CLIE-UX5...1QQcmdZViewItem) so that it will accept a USB lead? I should supply roughly the same voltage as the cradle (4x1.5v AA = 6v).

Does it charge the UX pretty much the same as when used with the standard cradle? What happens when the batteries run low and isnt suppplying a strong charge? Would this happen? Is this damaging?

Any other points of thought would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Bizt

antoinepierre

Yes, something similar.Yes.Almost the same, sometimes it's clicking if the connection is not right.

It should be possible to mod your JC40 to add a miniUSB plug.

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m0nkeyb0y

Check out this thread for details of what is arguably the easiest mod to allow charging of your UX via USB (or battery extender equipped with a USB lead).

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toomanyhandles

Actually MM MD in a recent thread posted that this type of unregulated (right?) battery pack will not be ideal, and could be bad. the potput will drop as the batteries run down, which could be hard on the Clie.

Instead you can get this type of AA battery pack, that provides regulated output:
http://www.semsons.com/batexwitusb.html

$14.99, only a toch more than the unregulated one.

HTH.

m0nkeyb0y

The other option is to use rechargeable AA niMH cells which only have an output of 1.2V - this is what I have in my battery extender.

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bizt

What type of USB connector is this? Is it a type A female? I was thinking of buying one of those cradles with a mini-USB connector but was hoping to be able to use my sync cable (which has a type A on the other end from the UX).

Also, you mention that it is bad for the UX when the power from the batteries gets low. This was a concern of mine but is it bad for the UX or bad for the battery (with no harm coming to the UX).

Cheers

Bizt

toomanyhandles

It is the same USB port that is found on your computer. I use the same cable for everything. Sync desktop to Clie (mini-USB on the Clie), recharge Clie thru the soft case (mini-USB connector on the case) , power Clie from the battery pack I linked using the soft case (min-USB on the case).

Out-of-spec battery voltage would be bad for the Clie charging system. It's made to expect 5V constant, and while I'm sure some tolerance is present, it would be potentially bad for it to get too out of spec.

antoinepierre

I've this one !

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bizt

Looks like Ive found myself my next purchase :-)

So, with standard AA batteries - does it fully charge the PDA? If so, do you get anymore charges out of 4xAA?

antoinepierre

I just used it twice ! It charged fully my UX.

Take care of the shipping price !!

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bizt

Sorry, one more final question ... how does a fully charged EB40 compare to 44xAA batteries from the adapter? For the money, does the EB40 far out do the battery adapter?

dragonsgames

It depends what batteries you buy.

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m0nkeyb0y

No comparison. 44 AA cells are going to out-perform most commercially available batteries!

Just kidding. I've never seen anyone posting any comparisons and I've never really tested them myself. I just got fed up of lugging the battery extender around everywhere and went ahead and modded my cradle instead - far more versatile and portable

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Clie UX50 + 2GB MS Pro Duo + JCB40-1800 -> Aibo ERS-7M3! + PSP + iPhone 4GS

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bizt

The battery extender would probably do me better than the EB40 (although the modification might be something that I may attempt at some point). As I do the regular camping trip through the year, its pretty easy for me to pop into a shop and buy batteries where finding mains to charge my device may be harder. I just wanted to be sure that the 4xAA would at least give me at least one full charge.