Extra Battery On Pre-order?

[Hitnrun]

Will a second battery be included on the package, or be available to buy, in pre-order?

I ask this because I live in Brazil, shipping to here is slow and expensive, and as I would like to use the Pandora in long travels, having at least 2 batteries is a must.

I actually am one of the few people that prefer standard AA batteries, I got 6 2700 ones for the gp2x that gives me ~5 hours, so I can fly to japan and not worry about batteries at all!

 

[CronoTrig]

The battery is a standard off-the-shelf battery. As far as needing a lot of battery life, one should be able to last you 10-12+ hours (from what we've been told), depending on what you're doing.

 

[joa]

with the cpu on full load i hear it lasted about 8 hours. interview with evilDragon on youtube....

Off the shelf battery, i thought it would be a unique shell lithium battery?

 

[CronoTrig]

What kind of battery will it have?
Pandora will have a 4000mAh Lithium Polymer battery. Batteries will be user-replaceable and spares will be sold by Pandora retailers. 5000mAh extended batteries may also be available. Pricing has not been announced.

 

[VRAndy]

QUOTE
I actually am one of the few people that prefer standard AA batteries,

The big advantage to AA batteries is that when they die you can get more from anywhere and you don't have to wait until your one and only battery re-charges.

On a related note :
Will the Pandora work with one of those "external power" gadgets that you put AAs in and plug into your phone/PDA's usb port?

If it won't work with an off the shelf one, it should be easy to make one, right?

 

[Kyo]

It's a standard battery, you don't need to buy it from pandora distributors

 

[craigix]

The Pandora Battery *IS* a custom battery, although there isn't much stopping you using an off the shelf one if you know what you are doing.

It's custom because it's size is made to measure. There are off the shelf ones which are almost the same size (smaller).

Anyway, yes, it probably will be available to order.

 

[Kyo]

I gotta stop spreading wrong information

gotten from other people spreading wrong information

 

[Lord_Doku]

uhhhhhhh

is the battery thats going to be used like normal batteries for, lets say an MP3 player or more like GBA batteries ?

id rlly like to know, else i gotta haul everything in again instead of just the ports.

 

[Karel Jansens]

QUOTE
I actually am one of the few people that prefer standard AA batteries,

The big advantage to AA batteries is that when they die you can get more from anywhere and you don't have to wait until your one and only battery re-charges.

On a related note :
Will the Pandora work with one of those "external power" gadgets that you put AAs in and plug into your phone/PDA's usb port?

If it won't work with an off the shelf one, it should be easy to make one, right?

Whether Pandora works with off the shelf "emergency" chargers depends mainly on two things: What input voltage does the Pandora take (most of those chargers are meant for 5-6 volt, USB-type chargers), and how much power does the Pandora charging circuit require (if it's a lot over 750 mA -- which would equate to about 3-3.5 watts -- you probably won't be able to charge your Pandora fully from the emergency charger.

I have one that takes 4 rechargeable AA cells, originally meant for my Archos PMA430. It charges the Archos just fine, up to about two charges per set of 2500 mAh AAs, but if I use it on my Nokia N800 (its charger sucks 900 mA), I can charge its battery only up to about 85-90%. The Pandora has a battery almost 3 times the size of the N800, but I have no knowledge of the charger's specifics. My guess is that if the developers opted for a quickcharging solution, no AA-based charging pack is going to pack the punch needed. Also, there is no way you're going to be able to top the Pandora's battery off with even the best available rechargeables.

There is a loophole of sorts: Most chargers are rated to be able to charge the device while using it and charging while off or in standby draws a lot less amps. All this on the assumption the Pandora takes 5 volts and has intelligent enough charging circuitry to be able to cope with varying voltages...

EDIT: I know the USB port can be used to charge, but that's limited to 500 Ma (meaning that it would take forever) and it also means one blocked USB port (maybe not a big deal for some, but I already foresee it as one for me. It's amazing how quickly 2 USB ports go from "Wow! two ports!" to "Meh. Only barely enough").

 

[whiskthecat]

 

[Dunny]

QUOTE
I actually am one of the few people that prefer standard AA batteries,

The big advantage to AA batteries is that when they die you can get more from anywhere and you don't have to wait until your one and only battery re-charges.

And the thing that GPH really fucked up was with charging whilst the batteries are still in the console (GPH screwing up? OMG! No!).

If that had been included, then I'd not have had to save whatever I was doing (if possible) and then reboot whilst putting new batteries in. On my DS, I just plug it into the power socket when the red light comes on, and carry on going. I don't game away from a power source, so the AA "advantage" was of no use to me

D.

 

[Hitnrun]

The Pandora Battery *IS* a custom battery, although there isn't much stopping you using an off the shelf one if you know what you are doing.

It's custom because it's size is made to measure. There are off the shelf ones which are almost the same size (smaller).

Anyway, yes, it probably will be available to order.

Thanks, that's what I tought.

Even if it is not available to buy right at pre-order, if you just somewhat make an option to before shipping we could buy the extra battery, it would be great for us who live far away, and in a country with taxes everything 60%, including shipping.

Yes, I will need to pay 60% on the Pandora price in taxes, here in Brazil. :blink: If declaring a lesser value is possible, please say in the package that the pandora costs US$ 50 and is an old gameboy non-color in a new case. B)

 

[Kyo]

The Pandora Battery *IS* a custom battery, although there isn't much stopping you using an off the shelf one if you know what you are doing.

It's custom because it's size is made to measure. There are off the shelf ones which are almost the same size (smaller).

Anyway, yes, it probably will be available to order.

Thanks, that's what I tought.

Even if it is not available to buy right at pre-order, if you just somewhat make an option to before shipping we could buy the extra battery, it would be great for us who live far away, and in a country with taxes everything 60%, including shipping.

Yes, I will need to pay 60% on the Pandora price in taxes, here in Brazil. :blink: If declaring a lesser value is possible, please say in the package that the pandora costs US$ 50 and is an old gameboy non-color in a new case. B)


Yes, that's probably a very good idea

 

[quadomatic]

http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_pag...35feb31e6c3c8b1

You could build a mintyboost, but it only outputs 400ma.

How likely is it that the Pandora charging circuit needs 750ma?

 

[yosh64]

hey

I haven't read all the posts.

Anyhows I dunno if it would be wise to purchase a spare battery, as from what I've heard batteries degrade even if ya don't use them. So the spare battery might actually be useless by the time you need to use it?

Anyhows I dunno any of this for sure, so maybe you should wait and see what someone who knows more about such things has to say.

cyas

 

[CoMiKe]

From this Squidge post:

QUOTE
Thats what I like about a couple of my devices, if they are connected to a PC that talks to them, they use upto 500mA. If they are connected to a AC-USB adaptor that just provides power, they'll soak upto 3 times that amount.

Interesting, we need that kind of behavior for Pandora.

I've found out how it works now too. The mini-usb socket actually has five pins. The PC only uses 4, so the fifth pin is left floating; on the power supply it is grounded, so device can detect the difference and charge accordingly.

Will the Pandora detect if it's connected to an USB port or and USB charger and act accordingly?

I mean, like Squidge told in that quote.