junglemike

OK, I know this is completely crazy, but ...... well, i don't care how it looks like, i only care of how it works.
I fed up with battery ending in the middle of the movie watching or when you have to do something important with your palm.
It often occures to me that i spend some time in the places where i can't recharge my palm so i need it running at lest some 10-15 hours on full power without battery recharge. First, i made a portable charger with auxiliary battery. Actually, i converted a Zire's cradle to a charger. So whenever i need to recharge on the road - i just take the cradle with battery. This is how it looks like:

I't a good solution , but it's not comfortable enough for me - you have to carry 2 additional item with you all the time.
So i decided to just "install" a larger battery into the zire itself.
So i opened my zire71 and replace a built-in li-ion battery with 4AA 2100mah rechargables,
As a result, unit works about 4-5 times longer, look at the last screen shot. It was about 25 hours in ON since last charge, and it's still holding. Byt the way, since that mod i ouly use 100% brightness. And I finally can watch a pack of good movies without worrying about a battery:-)
here's the process:

MarkVI

1st off...
You need to scale the pics down to around 25%. No one has a screen resolution that big, I use 1280x960 and they are still WAY too big.
2nd...
OMG, I am speechless...
...just speechless...

kennyd

I have been laughing my head off. Tears in my eyes. My wife doesn't understand why I am laughing so hard. She said that I have been using a Palm for too long. This thread champions all other threads. There has never been another like it, and never will be. Jungle Mike. You rock!

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strider_mt2k

Wow, did that guy's dog get a-hold of his PDA?
People shouldn't leave stuff around where animals can get at them.
Wouldn't it have fallen apart on it's own? Why accelerate the process?

But seriously...?

1) The pictures are WAY too big. Waaaaay too big. lol! Turn the electron microscope off please.

2) While the mod has technical merit, the PDAs asthetics have been ruined, not to mention the fact that there are huge holes for dirt to get in now.

3) Couldn't the existing charge connection have been used to save hacking that other connector in?


I'm a modder myself, so I don't know if I should be taking this seriously or not! It seems like an external battery pack would have been a bit more elegant, even if it would be yet another thing to manage.


EDIT:

Back in the day, I started putting together a project to install rechargeable batteries in the Palm m125 and make use of the charging contacts in the Palm Universal Connector. I called it "The m127 Mod".

The trouble is, I wimped out and bought an m130, so it got shelved.

I don't mean to come off rough on your mod. If it was successful, and it works for you that's great.
I'm a little jealous that I don't have any cool stuff that I can spare to mod right now.
(An external antenna connector on my TH55 would be very cool...)

Kudos on the successful hack! Harware hackers rule.

kennyd

I laughed real hard, but I really think it rocks. I laughed just because it's so crazy.

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Biddlesby

Calm down on the pictures. I didn't see them all because i'm on dial-up, please be considerate.

You are definitely mad.

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A lovely, spanking, Zire 72

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maceyr

I guess it's time that other forums get informed of junglemike's expertise in relation to the Palm Zire 71 and other Palms. At Brighthand's forums, he's been showing us how to take apart our Zires to improve camera quality, repair the sync cable, among many other things. He certainly isn't afraid to open up his Palm and improve it in any way.

Pdaman

Are you crazy ? Your zire could explode or something !
But anyway, please put your pictures to smaller size...

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Sony Clie Th55 = Simple as that, the the best pda what I have ever owned! However even it didn't keep me in the Pda world. About my gadgets, I'm now just using my psp, camera and cellphone. Maybe I will someday get a new pda, but it must to have phone cababilities so I don't need to use my regular cellphone anymore. And yeah, this means I won't be hanging in here 1src that much anymore. If someone want me to remove unfinished threads from 1src or something just pm me. Keep your gadgets running!

junglemike

[Wow, did that guy's dog get a-hold of his PDA?
People shouldn't leave stuff around where animals can get at them.
Wouldn't it have fallen apart on it's own? Why accelerate the process?
[/quote]
You can put down all the lyrics, i don't think it's necessary.


Well , it it ME that don't care how my things look. All mods that i made to my friends do look ok. For example, i put large speaker inside IIIX without damaging it's look


Another example, I upgraded to my friends' M515 a battery to a larger one. To do this , i needed to remove a plastic above the battery to be able to insert a larger one. Again - no visible deformation to the unit - it looks as good as new.

junglemike

Infact, before some time - when i didnt' want to mutilate my zire - i made a charger out of Z71 creddle. Since Z71's cradle is empy i put inside the charging circuit, and made a plug - for an external battery. Another thing - i made cradle "unplagable".
All this was made without even touching the my zire71 - look by yourself. Some time later i decided that i don't care - and i put the batteries inside the zire71 as you saw alredy.

junglemike

Just couple of weeks ago i did similair thing with my old VX - but even better - i installed external huge battery INSIDE THE CRADLE itself. It' internal battery is enough for 8-10 complete charges of VX. And when the credle is connected to pwer -both internal VX's battery and and installed_by_me battery are being charged, it of course can be used as cradle should be - for syncing. So , say if you need to go for cople of weeks to somewhere without an access to electricity - you take this VX's cradle with you and you're done. Again - take into consideration - all this modification is carried upon cradle only and you don't need to touch the vX itself.

MrNako

Do you get free rechargeable batterys from some place? And I want to know what digital camera you use for taking the pictures of your modded zire

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Paleo_man

Oh my god,it must be the largest page on 1source. Great pda surgeon!
I was also planning to modify my ux50 extended battery with 4 AA NiCa 1.3V batteries. Is it possible? Will these batteries fit in the case? Will it have any problem with intergrated curcuit in the extented battery?

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junglemike

Free?? - no, notheing is free in this world. but it's not a big deal - i bought 4 AA 2100 ni-mh for 15$ in closest store. I think it worth it.
I used Canon Powershot A70 - The camera is pretty good. My father adviced it to me - and he is expert in phatography. I know that i'm not that good at taking pics, especially macroshooting.. .

2 strider_mt2k

what do you mean by "wimped". I'm sorry i'm not that good in english? What did exactly happen to that m130?