Batteries/lithium Aa Mod?

[Kramy]

Forgive my newbish question, but I don't know anything about how the electricity gets from the battery to the internals of the GP2X - and since my GP2X hasn't arrived yet, I can't open it up to look.

Does anyone know if it's possible to use something like this in a GP2X?

I heard something about Dummy-AA batteries; if that Lithium Ion battery + a Dummy-AA were used in the GP2X, it'd provide 3.6v to it right? That wouldn't fry anything? :unsure:

What about these things? They have some sort of PCB inside the battery that regulates voltage. Any idea how that works? h34r: I love the 2200mah capacity, but...I don't have the knowledge to experiment with it without frying my GP2X. :lol:

 

[Squidge]

The GP2X is quite happy with 3.7V, and actually seems to use less wattage compared to 2.4V you get from normal rechargables.

However, I would ask yourself whether its worth it or not - how much extra capacity are those batteries + hacking up your gp2x going to give you?

 

[DaveC]

The GP2X is quite happy with 3.7V, and actually seems to use less wattage compared to 2.4V you get from normal rechargables.

However, I would ask yourself whether its worth it or not - how much extra capacity are those batteries + hacking up your gp2x going to give you?

Have you tried anything like that? I was going to try to put 2 18650 Lithium Ion Cells in parallel. That would give me 5 amp hours of power! I was just afraid I would puff my GP2X as many times the cells put out 4V when fully charged.

I could put a resistor in, but then the resistor would cut down the voltage too much when the batteries were low. I wouldn't get the full use of the battery charge then.

Man you are a MOD now! Don't ban me, bro' !

 

[DawnOfTheRent]

A while back I started using Li-Ions. It wasn't the AA sized ones, but instead a larger, 2600MAh variety. I've been using these for a while, and my GP2X has yet to do anything to indicate a problem. It runs for around 16 hours straight at 200Mhz. Also, with this set up, the GP2X now shuts off completely when the batteries die, instead of it's typical, slow dieing with funny colors, and sounds.

Here's the original forum topic. I doubt it's links still work though. (also, in this post I say I don't get more than 9.5 hours, but during that test, I had the PCBs wired incorrectly, all the other runs with the correct set up, I got around the 16 hour mark.)

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showt...=33513&st=0

As far as whether or not it's worth the hack.. That's for you to say, I personally wouldn't do this again. (one of the reasons I decided against purchasing a new GP2X F-200). Routing out the brackets to fit perfectly around the various components on the mother board, was a serious pain.

Good luck.

 

[Kramy]

Thanks for the link!

Yes, that does look rather...complicated. Certainly not a drop-in replacement. I guess I'll see how long my Eneloops last on average, and go from there.

 

[christo930]

Forgive my newbish question, but I don't know anything about how the electricity gets from the battery to the internals of the GP2X - and since my GP2X hasn't arrived yet, I can't open it up to look.

Does anyone know if it's possible to use something like this in a GP2X?

I heard something about Dummy-AA batteries; if that Lithium Ion battery + a Dummy-AA were used in the GP2X, it'd provide 3.6v to it right? That wouldn't fry anything? :unsure:

What about these things? They have some sort of PCB inside the battery that regulates voltage. Any idea how that works? h34r: I love the 2200mah capacity, but...I don't have the knowledge to experiment with it without frying my GP2X. :lol:



The first battery you link (3.6v at 850mah) actually has less power in it than an energizer 2500mah AA (2.8watt hours vs 3 watt hours). The second is much higher at 7.9 watt hours. The 2700 AA batteries have 3.25 watt hours and 2 of them give you 6.5 So moving to a single lithium battery isn't really going to get you much and it probably would require extensive modification to get it to fit. I think it's much taller than an AA and they barely fit as it is. I think AA's are up to about 2900mah at the high end which is about 3.5 watt hours, making a pair give you 7 watt hours. I suspect that AA's wont make it out of the 3xxxmah range, but will probably make it into the 3xxx range. What you could easily do, is make a little battery pack with 2 d batteries and run it in through the ac adapter port. D batteries are available as high as 15000mah which is 18 watt hours, 2 is 36 watt hours. That should keep you busy, especially in the winter (you can keep the battery pack in your coat pocket).

Chris

Chris