Solving Palm's poor battery performance problem

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

"Michael" <muchael4@012.net.il> climbed onto an orange crate and
shouted:

>Hi everyone. I recently bought a Tungsten T3 from second hand to replace my
>poor old Zire71.
>
>The device it terrific, especially watching movies, but battery life is just
>catastrophic.

Given that you bought it second hand, might the battery be failing?
There are sources for replacement batteries.

[snip info on power supply -- nice to see there are other hardware
hackers out there...]



--
"Dude, we totally forgot our slogan..." ~ Medical Marijuana Association
Billboard

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

I watch movies on a T3 and I find the battery life pretty good. I bought a
'battery extender' off ebay really cheap, which uses 4 AA batteries and
extends the life.
I agree that battery life is a really problem. I use it for GPS mapping on a
mountain bike and I have to constantly switch it on and off to conserve the
battery.
Mick
"Michael" <muchael4@012.net.il> wrote in message
news:413a4e66@news.012.net.il...
> Hi everyone. I recently bought a Tungsten T3 from second hand to replace
my
> poor old Zire71.
>
> The device it terrific, especially watching movies, but battery life is
just
> catastrophic. I read sometimes that people are saying that T3 battery
> performance is bad, but I didn't know it is THAT bad!. I work 2 times
less
> then Zire71 with it's original battery (as far as I can remember it) and
5-6
> times less than my Zire71 works now from it's "new" battery,
> Here.
>
> This is completely unacceptable for me. I can't even watch 2 full movies
> from full charge.
>
> This problem alone spoils all other advantages of T3 over Z71. I looked at
> the famous "Increase your battery life up to 40%" thread. This could be a
> good solution, but not good enough for me. Even If I could fit, say,
1500mah
> battery inside - it would be still not enough. I want my 20-25 hours back
> !!! (with 100% brightness) that I had with my Z71. [34 hour max at low
> brightness reading books] So I decided to take action ?
>
> In fact T3 is very thin and small, so I decided not to install large
battery
> inside so it will look similar to my Zire71. Well, at least yet. But I'm
> afraid my T3 will look soon not batter than 71. It is always the same way,
> when I get smth new, i say to myself : "This device is new, so please
don't
> make it ugly". But finally , everything looks like my Z71 now (my cell
> phone, laptop,..)
>
> But I decided that my T3 should stay at least some week or two in it's
> original state :-)
>
> So the best solution I could find - is to make a charger inside the
cradle,
> and make cradle detachable. So that I can take a cradle with me and use it
> when needed. I did this procedure twice in the past, one for PalmVX and
> second for Z71, see
>
Here. But this time it is a lot
> better solution. First, the battery is inside the cradle itself. Second ,
I
> don't need any additional hi-voltage adaptor to charge it. I just use the
5v
> adaptor that came with T3. Third, the cradle charge is absolutely
automatic,
> I can leave it being charge as long as I want. I will just show couple of
> pics without to much technical details. If anybody needs them - tell me.
>
> OK, so this is how T3's (or any other ) cradle looks inside:
>
> [img]
>
>
>
> It's pretty empty, It just has connectors and wires, nothing more. As a
> auxiliary battery I took a 4 large Li-ion rechargeable cells (much larger
> than AA) 3.7v 1350mah each. These cells are taken from dead laptop. So I
> didn't have any other use of them. But you can also fit there standard AA
> batteries also (you would need 6 of them )
>
> http://junglemike.pisem.net/new_t3_cradle_2.jpg[/img]
>
> Than I put them inside:
>
> [img]
>
> This is how looks all the scheme already assembled: It includes, palm
> universal connector, 4 cells, charging circuit (that charges these 4
> batteries), 3-position switch, and Lm317 stabilizer scheme, which produces
> precisely 5v from aux. battery for palm when not plugged to wall.
>
> http://junglemike.pisem.net/new_t3_cradle_6.jpg[/img]
>
> Here's what cradle can do: It has 3 modes (that's why I needed 3-position
> switch).
>
>
>
> First, of course it acts as any other normal cradle, synchronizing palm
and
> charging it from wall adaptor.
>
> Second, it can recharge it's auxiliary battery from same adaptor, when
> plugged into outlet.
>
> Third, It can recharge palm from aux. battery just as good as it was
plugged
> into wall.
>
> Forgot to tell that in order to make this cradle portable - I needed
> additional modification - ability to be detached from a USB cable that it
is
> connected to.
>
> So , this cradle sits on the table , doing it's usual work, and when
needed,
> I just grab it , put it in the bag, and can recharge the palm on the road
or
> any other place not near the outlet.
>
> In fact, it is very comfortable that palm is sitting in the cradle than
just
> lying on the table.
>
> There is another small plus that this cradle has: it is little heavy,
which
> means you would not easily drop your palm form the table and crack it.
> Remember old cradle from V/ VX or M5xx models? They all have a bulk metal
> object inside to be heavy. Unfortunately T3's own cradle does not have
this
> ability. Probably Palm needed to save money on something...
>
> Couple of words about charging: I made a test and already recharged my T3
> twice from empty battery to 100% and it is still holding. So I'm expecting
> for 3 full charges or even more. Time will show. Of course I can use this
> cradle with any palm that is using universal connector. The charging
> process (and time) is absolutely identical "from the point of palm" to the
> regular charge from adaptor. So T3 fully charges in 2.4 hours.
>
>
>
>