Smaller Batteries?

[Nation.A.List]

Six hour busrides with a smaller battery? Sorry, just no.

Six hours! I hope you're the driver

 

[WizardStan]

Six hour busrides with a smaller battery? Sorry, just no.

Six hours! I hope you're the driver

If he's playing his Pandora, I hope he isn't! :blink:

 

[j6cubic]

Optional accessory. Why don't people read? >_<

Confirmed: MDave wants all Pandoras to ship with a 200 mAh battery.

 

[borgqueenx]

With a 4200mah battery im going to do all my homework on pandora. No need for a stopid big notebook of 17inch anymore that only lasts 50 minutes on a full charge with energy saving on max. I really dont want any less then 4200mah thats about 3 and a half time my 3gs has

 

[nikkopt]

Apparently he thinks they did...

Right.. :rolleyes:

 

[emusan]

Apparently he thinks they did...

Right.. :rolleyes:

then why did you outright deny that any other battery would work, its not like this is some new "wonder battery", its just a common battery type with a custom length and width, however, you could(at least with the current knowledge of physics, if you know more please let me know), fit a battery with a smaller length and width into the same area(assuming thickness is the same). I really don't see why you said it would not work.

 

[nikkopt]

Apparently he thinks they did...

Right.. :rolleyes:

then why did you outright deny that any other battery would work, its not like this is some new "wonder battery", its just a common battery type with a custom length and width, however, you could(at least with the current knowledge of physics, if you know more please let me know), fit a battery with a smaller length and width into the same area(assuming thickness is the same). I really don't see why you said it would not work.

It never crossed my mind that he would want to solder some wires on the pandora's battery contacts. I thought he wanted something that worked out of the box. If you think like that, then yes, you can do lot's of things to your console, you can even try to add more ram if ur crazy enough (note: i said try). What about warranty? Will the OP team repair your unit for free if they note that you have been soldering things to it? (I know you have special pads to add things like bottom shoulder buttons, but i also think that you will lose the warranty if you do this, anyone correct me if i'm wrong).
About the physics subject, i'm sorry that i have mistaken mass with volume. Anyway, i don't even need to explain myself in this matter, but i'm glad you never made a mistake
Also, i'm sorry about my poor english writing..

I really don't see why you said it would not work.

I did?

 

[WizardStan]

What about warranty? Will the OP team repair your unit for free if they note that you have been soldering things to it? (I know you have special pads to add things like bottom shoulder buttons, but i also think that you will lose the warranty if you do this, anyone correct me if i'm wrong).

I can't remember the exact quote, but we were told that opening it up wouldn't void the warranty as long as you you were reasonable.
Soldering on shoulder buttons = reasonable
Trying to swap out the ram or wifi module = not reasonable
Using a different battery not designed for the Pandora... eh... it could go either way.

 

[emusan]

It never crossed my mind that he would want to solder some wires on the pandora's battery contacts. I thought he wanted something that worked out of the box.

I haven't had a good look at how the pandora connects to the battery yet, but I would assume its just a standard header, in which case most batteries have that(if they don't you can easily crimp one on, no need for solder).

If however, they are just SMD-type contacts, then I was mistaken, I had assumed that it was standard headers.

Also, I never said mass, I said area, which, while only being a two-dimensional measurement, is OK, because I then stated that thickness was the same.

I'm sorry if I got a bit rude, I just don't like it when people outright say that something is impossible, it hurts everything that this project(and many others) stand for.

 

[twent4]

It never crossed my mind that he would want to solder some wires on the pandora's battery contacts. I thought he wanted something that worked out of the box.

I haven't had a good look at how the pandora connects to the battery yet, but I would assume its just a standard header, in which case most batteries have that(if they don't you can easily crimp one on, no need for solder).

If however, they are just SMD-type contacts, then I was mistaken, I had assumed that it was standard headers.

Also, I never said mass, I said area, which, while only being a two-dimensional measurement, is OK, because I then stated that thickness was the same.

I'm sorry if I got a bit rude, I just don't like it when people outright say that something is impossible, it hurts everything that this project(and many others) stand for.

Much like with many other questions on here, people have to read through 3 pages of absolute tangents before reaching an answer to their question. Like a few weeks ago someone asked if it's possible to get more storage for the pandora (and i also asked about sdxc a while back), and the first replies were along the lines of "64gb should suffice anyone". damn.
</bitch>
k, i feel better now

 

[emusan]

Much like with many other questions on here, people have to read through 3 pages of absolute tangents before reaching an answer to their question. Like a few weeks ago someone asked if it's possible to get more storage for the pandora (and i also asked about sdxc a while back), and the first replies were along the lines of "64gb should suffice anyone". damn.
</bitch>
k, i feel better now

lol is there anything better than a good argument to help the long wait?

P.S. lets not argue about this...lol

 

[nikkopt]

What about warranty? Will the OP team repair your unit for free if they note that you have been soldering things to it? (I know you have special pads to add things like bottom shoulder buttons, but i also think that you will lose the warranty if you do this, anyone correct me if i'm wrong).

I can't remember the exact quote, but we were told that opening it up wouldn't void the warranty as long as you you were reasonable.
Soldering on shoulder buttons = reasonable
Trying to swap out the ram or wifi module = not reasonable
Using a different battery not designed for the Pandora... eh... it could go either way.

The thing that i like so much about this project is that it's being built to be as open as possible, even at the hardware level. MWeston made it so easy for us to change and add things internally, you even have extra pads for extra LED's. But the team will lose lots of money just by letting people mod the console, even if it's just adding a LED. Imagine, someone open its pandora and lets a screw driver fall into the board, a small resistor pops out with the impact.. no problem, OP team will fix it for free. A guy knows so much what he's doing that he connects a 9V battery to the 2nd shoulder button pads, killing its unit in the process (i don't know if it does, it's just an example).. no visible damage was done, let him send the console back because it will be repaired for free.. You can kill it in so many ways just by doing little things (if you don't know what you're doing), leaving no visible damage.
I'm not being negative, just realistic. If the OP team can really afford to do this, i'm as happy as you are then.. I just don't think it's a reliable business. Maybe they'll start by allowing this little mods and later modify the warranty terms if they are being abused..

 

[MWeston]

I can't remember the exact quote, but we were told that opening it up wouldn't void the warranty as long as you you were reasonable.

I seriously don't think anyone can honestly expect warranty if you start soldering or cramming stuff inside the case. Even with the best of intentions something can go wrong and that shouldn't be on us to fix. Hell, I've gotten boards back from the factory with little solder balls rolling around the board like a game of pinball and they're supposed to be the pros. An accident like that from a customer could fry something, the ball could roll off during shipping and then we're stuck with the bill replacing the entire PCB because we can't tell what happened. The hacker stuff inside is there for people who don't care about warranty and will mod anyway, like they do with PSPs I see with nasty lights everywhere.

I tried searching the forum for a comment about warranty from Craig but I didn't find anything. The search feature doesn't seem to work well. I know forum users have made up this statement as fact just because that is what they wanted but that doesn't make it true. The EXT port is a more accessible mod feature that doesn't break warranty unless abused (beat with a hammer, probed with a stun gun!) but it is protected against short circuits and ESD up to +/- 15kV (HBM) in order to be as robust as realistically possible.

 

[WizardStan]

The thing that i like so much about this project is that it's being built to be as open as possible, even at the hardware level. MWeston made it so easy for us to change and add things internally, you even have extra pads for extra LED's. But the team will lose lots of money just by letting people mod the console, even if it's just adding a LED. Imagine, someone open its pandora and lets a screw driver fall into the board, a small resistor pops out with the impact.. no problem, OP team will fix it for free. A guy knows so much what he's doing that he connects a 9V battery to the 2nd shoulder button pads, killing its unit in the process (i don't know if it does, it's just an example).. no visible damage was done, let him send the console back because it will be repaired for free.. You can kill it in so many ways just by doing little things (if you don't know what you're doing), leaving no visible damage.

Yeah, I don't see where you're going with this. Both those circumstances leave obvious traces that the person was either not being careful or not responsible. No warranty should protect you from being careless or stupid. Their warranty is a little looser in that, days or weeks after you've opened it up and successfully soldered new buttons on, if it breaks down they'll look into it. Standard warranties void the instant you open it.

 

[WizardStan]

I seriously don't think anyone can honestly expect warranty if you start soldering or cramming stuff inside the case. Even with the best of intentions something can go wrong and that shouldn't be on us to fix. Hell, I've gotten boards back from the factory with little solder balls rolling around the board like a game of pinball and they're supposed to be the pros. An accident like that from a customer could fry something, the ball could roll off during shipping and then we're stuck with the bill replacing the entire PCB because we can't tell what happened. The hacker stuff inside is there for people who don't care about warranty and will mod anyway, like they do with PSPs I see with nasty lights everywhere.

I tried searching the forum for a comment about warranty from Craig but I didn't find anything. The search feature doesn't seem to work well. I know forum users have made up this statement as fact just because that is what they wanted but that doesn't make it true. The EXT port is a more accessible mod feature that doesn't break warranty unless abused (beat with a hammer, probed with a stun gun!) but it is protected against short circuits and ESD up to +/- 15kV (HBM) in order to be as robust as realistically possible.

Squidge, actually. He seems to be saying that modding it doesn't void the warranty. Unless I and everyone that posted following him misunderstood.

 

[MWeston]

Squidge has always been smart enough to say that his words are his opinion or understanding to prevent such confusion but I see where you got your information from. I think it has always been assumed that opening the case to move the buttons around or drop in a new language keymat would be allowed but actually modifying the guts is a solo effort.

 

[WizardStan]

Squidge has always been smart enough to say that his words are his opinion or understanding to prevent such confusion but I see where you got your information from. I think it has always been assumed that opening the case to move the buttons around or drop in a new language keymat would be allowed but actually modifying the guts is a solo effort.

Aye, well, it was a year ago. Things change. Someone may actually have said something to the contrary and I hadn't fixed it in my head. I only just started remembering about the loss of the i2c lines on the EXT port, and that happened quite some time ago.
Anywho, sorry for the misinformation there.

 

[Tokiopop]

Could there be a possibility of 'approved' mods later on? Where once a modding pproved if you do them correctly and didn't break it whilst it, the warranty is still valid for everything except the mod.

 

[MDave]

Squidge has always been smart enough to say that his words are his opinion or understanding to prevent such confusion but I see where you got your information from. I think it has always been assumed that opening the case to move the buttons around or drop in a new language keymat would be allowed but actually modifying the guts is a solo effort.

MWeston, any input from you about the possibility of it being okay using smaller capacity batteries, either made officially from Open Pandora or by us using stock off the shelf ones?

 

[MWeston]

MWeston, any input from you about the possibility of it being okay using smaller capacity batteries, either made officially from Open Pandora or by us using stock off the shelf ones?

I honestly don't see it happening in an official capacity. Creating a new mold for a new battery, adding the custom protection PCB (with pads that line up with springs on Pandora PCB) and wrapping it up isn't going to be an effort worth pursuing for a few people. The current battery weighs about 88g so I can see that it is a significant portion of the total weight but I don't remember if you were after a lighter unit or trying to make space in the compartment for mods.

The battery fuel gauge is calibrated for the big battery so it might not read properly. The charge current is set for a larger battery so that could hit a small battery quite hard unless you modify the settings. The smaller battery will also discharge faster if you start using all of the Pandora features at once (especially USB host) and likely have a shorter life (fewer recharge cycles).

I've run a Pandora board off of an NDS battery many times so there's nothing unique about the chemistry or anything. You could take any LiPo cell from a phone or portable device and solder some wires to the terminals, maybe even make a male/female clip combo. Then solder the other clip to wires that are soldered on the Pandora PCB. There are pads (holes) on the PCB used in production testing so the boards can be run on regulated supplies for days during burn in testing.

Could there be a possibility of 'approved' mods later on? Where once a modding pproved if you do them correctly and didn't break it whilst it, the warranty is still valid for everything except the mod.

No, even if there was such a thing as an approved mod, there wouldn't be an approved modder.