Battery Mod

[abigsmurf]

I remember the GBA having third party rechargable battery packs that would sit in the battery compartment which also had a DC in to charge it. Its likely you could use one of these with a bit of dremelling?

Also what about using a DS battery? with two screens to power along with an ARM9 surely they will have enough juice, you just need a way to recharge it.

EDIT: Just realised that the DS batteries are only 850mAh and are 3.7v so I doubt they would last long in a GP2X. What eats all the juice in the GP2X? did the TV-out circuit get fixed? is it likely to get better with newer firmware?

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The DS is a system designed for low power consumption. It's got efficient, low clockspeed processors and good quality low power screens. It's interesting to note the DS Lite actually has even better battery life (and brighter screens)

For a clip on battery pack, some method of charging the battery without removing it is the best. My pack has a couple of contacts where I clip the charger to. Just don't turn the power on when charging (I have no idea what would happen and don't intend to find out).

The idea solution for mass made long life batterypacks (short of new technology like fuel cells) would be a replacement back cover. With OEM battery solutions you've a huge range of sizes and it wouldn't be too hard to find a large, flat and thin battery that would cover most of the back of the unit. The unit would probably be made 5-10mm thicker doing this (but would eliminate the hump). However even if you bought a ready made version, you'd still be required to make irreversible changes yourself (cutting down the contacts can attatching a wire from the remains of them to the battery contacts).

However this would need someone to be knowledgable in plastics design and production and would need a significant investment (looking at thousands). Judging from the research I did for my own pack and producing replacement thumbsticks I would estimate a retail price of such a pack to be between £25-30.

*note*

This is all speculation by me, as far as I know no one has any intention of mass producing any sort of battery pack

 

[nubie]

The volts start at 1.4-1.5V then go down to 1.2V. That means 4.2-4.5V!!! NOT GOOD.... We will need a voltage converter to 3.6V so that the voltage converter in the GP2X won't die.....

We need a voltage converter for the voltage converter.... weird....

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I am willing to check it out and try it when I get my next one.

I am not sure what it is under load, it is likely less than open voltage.

I should check out the voltage regulator, I have some of the hi-res pics of the pre-release dev-boards.

I wonder if I will find the efficiency of the regulator listed, I wonder if this mod would result in longer battery life due to more efficiency.