Related
here's how we make cheap external batteries here in Romania.
this is a DIY concept so if you're not that type of person this may not be for you.
Anyway you must get yourself a sealed acid-lead 12v battery (they are built in the same way as a car battery but smaller) from an electronics shop. They are cheap and come in various sizes. If you want more juice, just buy 2 or 3 of those and couple them in parallel.
Next buy a 12v-220v converter like the ones used in cars. Those that are connected via the cigarete lighter. The smallest cheaper model you'll find will do the job right as long as it can provide 30w.
Don't connect the shift to the batteries, don't be tempted to do this, even if apparently the shift needs 12 v and those batteries supply this voltage. Use the converter.
Now, as you may guesed, simply connect the batteries to the converter and the shift's charger to the converter's output. The converter will suply about 220v at it's output. That's good and that's desirable. Even if your country may use standard 110V values at it's sockets, buy a 220v converter instead.
Now you got a bulky, ugly looking external battery. What's the fun with it?
Well here's the good part.
A standard external battery will give you about 2-3 hours of usage because by the time this is over, it's voltage output will drop from it's nominal value to somewhere around 9-10V. The battery will still be able to provide a fairly large amount of current (amps) but however by this time the shift will be powered off because it needs a nominal value of 12 v (+/- 0.80V) to work (it's internal converter needs it, and has a small tollerance about variations in this voltage). So, 2-3-4 hours of usage, then recharge.
The home made external battery has the following advantage.
After some usage (couple of hours - depending on how much big is the battery you use) the output voltage of the cells will drop. This is normal, and this will happen like the case with standard batteries. BUT you have that converter hooked up. If the converter needs 12 V to supply an output of 220V ac, if you apply only 10 V (the voltage on the battery has dropped because of usage) it will supply only 180V ac. (an estimation). This is well under 220 v. BUT the shift will still work. Why? Here's the cool part. The shift power charger has a nominal imput voltage of 100-240 V (it is rated on it's sticker as the imput voltage). THIS MEANS IT WILL SUPPLY THE 12 V OUTPUT FOR THE SHIFT AS LONG AS THE INPUT VOLTAGE IS SOMETHING IN THE AREA 100-240 V ac. So the converter supplies 180V but that's ok, the shift will still work. So you use it for a longer period of time. When the battery is flat out and has somewhere around 7 volts the converter will supply somewhere under 100v or will stop to work because the battery will also have not enought current (amps) to run the converter's main circuitry or to supply the shift's power requiests.
There are some things that must be said about the eficiency of this method. First you use 2 converters one will raise the voltage from the external batteries ( - your car converter) and the other will lower the voltage to the 12v required by the shift ( - your shift charger). These, both have an eficiency factor. Because of the tehnology used you will have a general factor of about 85%. The rest will be lost in the transfer as thermal heat or EM field radiation.
Still you should get 30-50% more juice then a similar capacity comercial product . And it's more cheaper to buy.
You may achieve the same results if you buy a converter...aah...and a car. Car batteries will provide some good dozens of hours for the shift to work.
That is smart!
But too bulky for me.
yep it's bulky. I'll use it on small camping vacations when a longer battery life is required. No way i'm carring this battery with me as a simple replacement.
yep... I've made one already.
Introducing the shift external battery version 1.0.0. At a hefty 8 kilo it is made for the strong people. It is practically a mobile power house composed of two 12V / 15A acid-lead batteries and a power converter that can output 150W max at 220V. It should give the Shift some 30h of continuos power at maximum requirements. It can also be recharged or powered from anything you can throw at it. Total costs, something around 100 euro. Therefore, shift goes to camping along with my asus eeepc. Hope I find an WLAN enabled forest or something.
Shift external battery version 1.1.0 will use prismatic Li-Polimer cells linked in a matrix and capable of delivering the same amount of power but at 1,5 kilograms. This will be expensive as hell.
sorry, i was probably too amused with my creation and double posted.
you should try this with a battery like first robotics compition uses not that they are that great but they are small batteries like the size of a small boat battery, like 9inches wide by 6 tall and like 4thick but it is like 45 lbs, but outputting a redicoulus 200amps id last like 200 hours continuos max draw...
Dear facdemol ,
It is a very bright idea to mod using sealed lead acid battery to power up our htc shift , i too keen to try out your idea , but how do you recharge back the used acid battery , what charger did you bought and used , can you help me by posting some - many pictures of both your batteries configuration and charger as well ? How long ( hours ) is it you need to fully charge your batteries from flat out ? I dont mind if the set up is looking big and ugly and messy , as long as it is cheap , easy , enough power to last at least 6 hours of solid shift usages , i really now thinking of investing into this . So , please help out and assist in any way possible - will you ? Thanks and best regards to you -
jimmunsw
Dear facdemol ,
What charger are u using to recharge your diy battery ( volt and amp ) ? And how many hours it take to fully charge both of your diy batteries ? I am keen to try out your idea as today i have found many cheap sealed batteries sizes for sale in my area and it fits my usage requirement of just 6 to 7 hours of continious shift usage . Thanks and regards - jimmunsw
I have a car charger for a BT GPS unit. It is Mini-USB and fits into the RhodiumW just fine. I checked the output on the TP2's stock wall charger and it matches the GPS car charger (Output: 5V). Is this safe to use?
Matthew1034 said:
I have a car charger for a BT GPS unit. It is Mini-USB and fits into the RhodiumW just fine. I checked the output on the TP2's stock wall charger and it matches the GPS car charger (Output: 5V). Is this safe to use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my guess... yes... plug it in and see if it starts charging. I'm pretty much 100% sure it will I've bought chargers that were meant for GPS units to charge my phones before and never had an issue
You don't say how much current it can supply. If it's not enough, it might not charge (or might charge slowly), but it shouldn't cause any harm to try.
like Rob said. that's how it is.
no harm could be done but some phones have managed charging and can detect how strong charger is used. Could take even 5 hours if current it could provide is below 500mA. Use attached app, that will show you how big current is going to the pda.
note, that charging really starts after about 5-10 mins.
First various test are performed, then you should see real current going into battery. It's not the same current going out from charger, as some is wasted in controller itself and some is used for powering the phone.
if it will show at least 400mA going to batt, it's quite ok for a car charger, though not quite a lot. in theory 1500mAh rhodium batt needs above 2000mAh to be put in. with 400 it's 5 hours. But depends how real the values reported by power controller are.
--
Power Guard
http://www.vandenmuyzenberg.nl/PowerGuard/
go to control tab and hit start monitor
edit: I just run into pinouts of htc, where its claimed that the unused mini-usb pin is for 1A charge sense.
That would mean, if it's grounded (by connector on powerful charger) mobile would sense the charger is the powerful one, providing 1 amp output, and would change into fast charge mode. This is not a standard thing, so I suppose only htc chargers have that and rhodium charger is 1A.
papo said:
like Rob said. that's how it is.
no harm could be done but some phones have managed charging and can detect how strong charger is used. Could take even 5 hours if current it could provide is below 500mA. Use attached app, that will show you how big current is going to the pda.
note, that charging really starts after about 5-10 mins.
First various test are performed, then you should see real current going into battery. It's not the same current going out from charger, as some is wasted in controller itself and some is used for powering the phone.
if it will show at least 400mA going to batt, it's quite ok for a car charger, though not quite a lot. in theory 1500mAh rhodium batt needs above 2000mAh to be put in. with 400 it's 5 hours. But depends how real the values reported by power controller are.
--
Power Guard
http://www.vandenmuyzenberg.nl/PowerGuard/
go to control tab and hit start monitor
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a well written.. very valuable post. Thanks! I'm not even the TS!
i´ve a car charger with 5V for my Touch Pro2 and it works... so try it out
Any third party extended battery options for the S7? I prefer the slim version if possible.
Sent from my SGH-T849 using XDA App
I rigged up a battery pack using 4 rechargeable Energizer AAA's and just plug it into the DC power socket and double-sided taped it to the back of the unit
I imagine I could use some left over spare Li-Ion batteries from other phones though.
UPDATE: someone asked how
STEP 1: Buy something similar to this http://www.littlebirdelectronics.com/products/4%2dAAA-Battery-Holder.html
STEP 2: Buy a male plug that fits the female power socket on the S7 Like this but the correct size http://www.littlebirdelectronics.com/products/1.3MM-PLUG%2d2.5MM-SOCKET-DC-ADAPTOR.html
STEP 3: Solder them together so that the + and - charge come out of the same wires as the wall-charger
STEP 4: Plug in batteries
If this looks/sounds difficult, don't even attempt it, you WILL break your tablet.
Since the original battery do last too long, i found this 2 option that i think that work with S7:
Good price and free shipping
lol i cant post links yet, sorry guys...
here goes the links for the battery extender....
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4284~r.14121877
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.48449~r.14121877
Nice guys! I was searching for an internal battery solution.
These battery packs look nice but be carefull, the output is only 500 mA. The S7 charger is a 2amp output charger. I'm not sure how well it will run on a lower input.
Ives
mowermech said:
These battery packs look nice but be carefull, the output is only 500 mA. The S7 charger is a 2amp output charger. I'm not sure how well it will run on a lower input.
Ives
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The DC pack will only feed what the unit draws, and I doubt very much that it draws the entire 2000mA.
I have rigged up a USB charging cable for myself, USB pumps out 5v at 500mA max per port (I'm only using 1) and it charges a little slower than from the wall, depending on which computer I'm charging from, but apart from that it works great still and I can use the same cable to charge from other USB-charging devices like the one I have in my car.
The 500mA output will just mean it charges slower, and seeing how it's only a battery extender (IE, the oem battery is still required) and not a charging solution (the S7 can run without the battery off only the charge from the wall), the charge provided will be fine for extending the battery life.
davidcampbell said:
The DC pack will only feed what the unit draws, and I doubt very much that it draws the entire 2000mA.
I have rigged up a USB charging cable for myself, USB pumps out 5v at 500mA max per port (I'm only using 1) and it charges a little slower than from the wall, depending on which computer I'm charging from, but apart from that it works great still and I can use the same cable to charge from other USB-charging devices like the one I have in my car.
The 500mA output will just mean it charges slower, and seeing how it's only a battery extender (IE, the oem battery is still required) and not a charging solution (the S7 can run without the battery off only the charge from the wall), the charge provided will be fine for extending the battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
500mAh as supplied by standard USB will charge but as you say only slowly.
It will not start a charge if the battery has been allowed to drop too low. That's common with all Lion batteries and is why you get a high current wall charger to do the job.
If you are using the device at the same time (and depending on the functions in use and the state of charge of the battery) you will definately struggle with any positive charge and will experience heat build up in the USB port, cable and device so be carefull!
If you are also using the device as a phone and get a call there will be an extra high peak current draw that has to be contended with and that complicates things further.
With all the tests that I have done allong these lines 1000mAh is a bare minimum to cope with eventualities and even then it's borderline.
I have blown car adapter fuses and had low current phone chargers get really hot.
I now only use 2000mAH rated chargers.
Are there any? I would really want to have a battery that could last at least 6 hrs... Any suggestions?
Stjom said:
Are there any? I would really want to have a battery that could last at least 6 hrs... Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Energizer XPAL XP18000
That will give you about an extra 12-18 hours,
But no internal battery larger than standard. Why would you want one when the external packs are usable with any device and don't become redundant when you upgrade to a different model?
I made such a battery of two packages of Chinese Tablet battery voltage of 7.4V LiJon / 1500mAh connected in series and used a converter on the circuit LM2576 (with car charger navigation) [//chomikuj.pl/wibi) -> Huawei Ideos S7/Dodatkowa bateria]. This additional charger to recharge your battery voltage 8.4V. Pictures and diagrams from the following link will explain everything.
Has anyone found a portable Battery pack that we can use on the TF? I have several that I have used for my iPhone and my old iPad2 but all are only 5v. is there one out there that can charge out TF or is the keyboard dock the only way to go for extra Battery?
There are several battery packs used for notebook computers that will work listed on Amazon. Just be sure they have a 12Volt output. EverReady had as battery pack that will also work but you will need an adapter provided by them. The key is that you need an output of 12 to 15 volts to charge the TF or Keyboard. You might read Devcake's post on a DIY charger for the TF as information on the voltages required to charge the TF. There is also a post on external batteries that might help.
hshoem1
By chance do you have a link to the EverReady battery pack? I would like to see it
hshoem1 said:
There are several battery packs used for notebook computers that will work listed on Amazon. Just be sure they have a 12Volt output. EverReady had as battery pack that will also work but you will need an adapter provided by them. The key is that you need an output of 12 to 15 volts to charge the TF or Keyboard. You might read Devcake's post on a DIY charger for the TF as information on the voltages required to charge the TF. There is also a post on external batteries that might help.
hshoem1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an XP8000 from Energizer, and work perfectly.
w w w.energizerpowerpacks.com/us/products/xp8000/
You will need a conector for Asus (Willy cable WI15) from them. You will have two free tips a year for the life of product
By any chance do you know the tip number?
The cable you note doesn't appear to connect directly to the Transformer.
What setup are you using to connect to the Transformer?
Thanks
steve
The cable it's a Female USB with 16V output. You need the Asus cable.
xp8000
I looked in the web site and it is expensiver than Asus keyboard!
alberteske said:
I looked in the web site and it is expensiver than Asus keyboard!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May as well get the keyboard then xD. Thats the whole point of it being a transformer anyways
RojoNinja said:
May as well get the keyboard then xD. Thats the whole point of it being a transformer anyways
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or get both, even better
I just saw this while I'm looking for a battery pack.
On a german page I found this interesting:
w w w.intecro.de/XTPower-MP-16000-Powerbank-mobiler-Akku-mit-16000mAh-fuer-Laptop-Handy-iPhone-iPod-iPad-PDA-MP3-Player-mit-20-Adaptern
(can'f find an english page for this product)
Could I use this one by using an adapter?
I just got an Anker Astro3 10000mAh battery pack. I plan to use it while camping this summer, mainly to charge a phone, but occasionally to charge my tablet.
It is intended to charge 5V USB devices, and has two USB ports. It also has a 12 volt port. The adapters for the 12 volt port, of course, do not work with USB or the Transformer. So I made an adapter, and I am good to go now for charging the tablet.
The battery pack charges from a 12 volt wall charger. I have also made an adapter to charge it from the 12 volts on my motorcycle. So I will be charging it from the motorcycle during the day when riding, then using it to charge my devices in the evening at the camp. I've already tried it a couple of times, and it worked well.
I tried to charge the battery pack using a solar panel, but the solar panel was far too wimpy. It was like trying to run a house air conditioner from a penlight battery. It may make you feel good to try it, but it isn't going to do much.
So far so good. This is very close to what I need.
The issues I have had to work around are:
1) I want to also charge an in helmet bluetooth intercom from the USB port. But the charge current is so low, the battery pack auto powers off, thinking nothing is plugged in. Not a big deal because I can plug in my phone at the same time. That keeps it turned on until everything is charged, then it auto shuts down.
2) When I charge the Asus Tablet, it doesn't appear to auto shut down. Just the opposite of #1, it looks like the load stays high enough to never shut down when charging the tablet. This may not really be true, as I have only tried it a couple of times. Also, it isn't good for much more then one and a half charges of the tablet, as expected.
3) You need to figure out your own harness to get the 12 volts to the tablet.
4) No charge cable for a car. I mean this is rated for an input of like 10 to 15 volts, or some such. This thing is GREAT for charging portable devices. Charging it from a car is as simple as a cable, but there isn't one.
Over all this charger is a winner. At right around $55 US, I recommend it, if you can fabricate a plug for charging the Transformer.
Try a 12V UPS type battery along with a 2A fuse and adapters. It only costs about $20 or so. Plan on using only 50% of its capacity and recharge often to get the most life out of it.
Someone posted this product on another post
http://www.sobuying.com/products/Solar-Charger-For-Notebook,-Ipad,-tablet-pc,-Cell-phone,-MP3,-Laptop-11200mAh.html
May suit your needs
NiHaoMike said:
Try a 12V UPS type battery along with a 2A fuse and adapters. It only costs about $20 or so. Plan on using only 50% of its capacity and recharge often to get the most life out of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For me, this is actually what I use now. But it has issues.
One is simply that it is large. I carry it in the trailer that I tow behind the motorcycle, so it is OK, but a bit too large and heavy. It is a gel cell that has about a 48 WattHr capacity. LiIon has a a lot less and weight. In this case, it has about the same capacity, in a very small light weight package.
The other problem is charging the lead acid battery is an issue. I need to carry a AC charger and find AC when camping. I put a diode/resistor combo in the trailer and tapped off of the taillights. but by the time the weak motorcycle voltage gets to the taillights, add in the diode and other losses, and I'm lucky to see 13 volts at the battery. Not enough to charge it very well. The LiIon pack I use has the supply built in to charge properly from +12.
So I've tossed the lead brick battery (literally) and upgraded to a portable LiIon pack. So far so good.
This is what I use "Portable 12V DC USB 5V Rechargeable Lithium Li-ion Battery Pack for CCTV Camera" search on ebay, you can get one up to 13AH
I got a 3.8AH version for $16 , Dimension: 9.2cm X 6.0cm X 3.0cm
Outout rated 5V (5.8AH) and 12.8V (3.8AH)
small modification because the charger is NON-US wall plug, I just pull the plug pin out and add in a regular power cord cut off from an old appliance
Keep the USB plug for 5V use, cut the 12V DC cable and connect it to a female USB cable (pin 1 and pin 4) , then you can plug in the Asus usb/charge cable directly and charge or power the Asus
...
I'm looking for an external battery charger (preferably solar powered) for taking my Note on backpacking trips. Unfortunately, most of the solar packs that I've found have only .5 - .7 amps available for USB output. If I'm using a 1amp charging cable (with the data leads shorted), will .7 amps kick in the AC charging speed? Is .5 amps enough to charge the phone while I sleep for 7 hours?
I suppose it depends on how long you are out without power but another alternative is an external battery that allows you to charge your phone by plugging it into the external battery.
This one here (at $75 USD) will let you charge the Note from completely dead to a full complete charge 4.4 times.
http://www.amazon.com/New-Trent-IMP...Z64Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1336084828&sr=8-2
So, if you started your backpacking with a full charge on both the phone and the battery pack, and assuming you charge the phone every night at say 20% battery left, you should get 6 days. If you need more than that, you can just buy a second battery pack (personally, Id want to have two just in case).
That's a good suggestion from littlewierdo. I would also have at least 2 spare batteries for the note. I don't think that .5 amps is enough.
Budge said:
I'm looking for an external battery charger (preferably solar powered) for taking my Note on backpacking trips. Unfortunately, most of the solar packs that I've found have only .5 - .7 amps available for USB output. If I'm using a 1amp charging cable (with the data leads shorted), will .7 amps kick in the AC charging speed? Is .5 amps enough to charge the phone while I sleep for 7 hours?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Budge I had an HTC evo 4g and got a 5400mah battery. This worked ok. However the output is .5a which will not charge the note if you are using maps with gps or bluetooth or playing tunes. It wil charge when not using those. Say at night when you are asleep. I think you would have to find a battery with output better than 1a to actually charge when you are actively using your phone. I am not sure of the actual output you would need. I will research it though for my own needs. I do use my note on my motorcyle with a charger which outputs .5a and this is nowhere near what is needed to use google maps and bluetooth and play tunes.
I am actively looking for a solution which will charge my note while using google maps, bluetooth, and playing tunes etc. I may have found a solution with a usb y cable which is connected a 2a source and a .5a source on my motorcycle.
The only solution for backpacking may be to charge when not using the note. I am fairly sure it will charge at .5a when sleeping.
Good luck.
kimtyson said:
That's a good suggestion from littlewierdo. I would also have at least 2 spare batteries for the note. I don't think that .5 amps is enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
imesg said:
I am actively looking for a solution which will charge my note while using google maps, bluetooth, and playing tunes etc. I may have found a solution with a usb y cable which is connected a 2a source and a .5a source on my motorcycle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im not sure where you got the .5 amps from, it outputs 1 amp, so it will charge the Note with the screen on. However, it wont charge quite as fast as the wall charger will it will actually charge the phone.
It should be able to handle keeping the screen on, bluetooth doesnt use much power at all so playing music shouldnt be an issue and gps uses very little battery as well. I dont see an issue with it.
Admittedly, I dont have one of these, dont really have much of a use for one at the moment but I cant possibly see any issues with this.
HOWEVER, there are alternative external battery packs that are MUCH cheaper with less mah capacity (meaning, in simple speak, you would get less power storage meaning that you wouldnt be able to charge your phone as many times as you might like). There are other USB battery packs that might also have less power output (or more) which might mean that you wouldnt be able to keep the screen on AND charge the phone.
Truth be told, I only looked for the highest capacity battery pack given what your situation was AND I tend to buy higher end if the price makes sense. In the case of battery packs similar to this design (external usb battery packs), they generally start at $30 and go to about $80 so buying the best possible makes sense. However, if the highest/best possible was $200, Id probably get something cheaper, but since its only ~$80, if I were in your shoes, that would be my choice.
Id probably consider getting two of them (that is, if we are talking about longer than 1 week excursions, if under a week, just get 1) and a decently long usb cable (3-4 ft) but not too long (you dont want to be tripping over the cable but you need it long enough that if you need to, you can charge the phone mid-day while hiking).
You dont need multiple batteries for the Note, the whole point of this external battery pack is to eliminate the need for them.
littlewierdo said:
Im not sure where you got the .5 amps from, it outputs 1 amp, so it will charge the Note with the screen on. However, it wont charge quite as fast as the wall charger will it will actually charge the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
littlewierdo I was not necessarily speaking of the device you suggested but one I had. I was warning Budge to be careful and not get a device which outputs only .5a. I was suggesting that he find one which will put out 2a if such exists. The device which you suggested will put out 1a. However I don't believe this would be enough for my purposes and maybe no Budge's either. i was not refering to your device or you. Not my intent to get in an argument with you but to help Budge find a suitable solution.
link to imp1000 manual:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...sg=AFQjCNFPt8XfUpeSr8olPnKLYCivrRvqFg&cad=rja
Couldn't make the link post as a link. Do a search for 'imp1000 manual'.
Ciao
Littlewierdo- I didn't disagree with your suggestion to use another battery pack to charge the existing battery. In fact, I have one and use that option myself. I was adding that it may be a good idea to have a spare. I was responding to the OP who mentioned .5 amps. I assume that's where imesg was coming from, too.