Clip+ battery project: 150+ hours?

[clumsymoe]

A while back I ended up buying a clip plus to use along with my old X5L, but after a while the daughterboard in the X5L had some problems and I ended up having a clip plus as my main player. Of course, there were a few reasons I liked the ol cowon better. Storage was one, but that is easily fixed. The amplification circuit is another, but there isn't much I could do about that. The final thing, was battery life.

As it so happens, the clip (like most DAPs) uses a normal "3.7v" li-ion battery. Unfortunately, it only has a measly 290mah of capacity. So I set about finding some new batteries for it. I ended up buying a pair of "18650" cells, which are exactly the size of what an "A" size battery would be, if there was such a thing. They are also the same size as cells used in laptop batteries. The ones I got were rated for 3600mah each, which I reckoned would be enough. I popped open the clipp with a very small screwdriver and a razor blade and disconnected the OEM battery from it's protection circuit and soldered some wires onto said circuit. I then attempted to run the wires out of the microphone hole, then widened the hole a bit, and then successfully ran the wires though said enlarged hole. A few globs of hot glue, dabs of super glue, and wires later I was all done.

Unfortunately based on my tests comparing run time to the original battery, it came out to something like 1000mah between both cells. I probably should have realized when I saw the typo on the battery label... anywho I ordered some different batteries (this time 2200mah each), broke everything down and replaced the batteries.  I ended up with this.




Those are installed the same way the first set was. I used a small amount of super glue to secure wire connections and hot glue for everything else. Hot glue melts at a relatively low temperature (If you've got the right glue gun it doesn't even burn skin!) so it's safe to use on the batteries. I opted to keep the plastic casing around the batteries in order to wedge the wires between the plastic and the connections. Although it's certainly not pretty, aside from my hip-like-pelvis purple buttons, it's actually surprisingly durable. I'd say it's probably just as durable as the original clipp, unless the wires were to get caught on something or it take a fall big enough to directly damage the batteries.

Ah, but the important part; battery life. My bare minimum it to at least have 150 hours, which is the highest claimed of any mass produced DAC (the mobiblu DAH 1900 from the mid 2000s). As for how long it actually lasts, I'm not quite sure yet. I'm doing a full discharge on it right now, and the current run time is around 92 hours. The battery voltage is 3.77 or so, but it has really leveled out since it got to 3.775 or so. In fact, it's been hanging around 3.775 for 4 hours now. There are going to have to be more upgrades if I don't clear 150 hours. It's also worth noting that I believe these batteries are under spec as well, but I'm not sure as to the extent.

Well that about sums it up for now. I'll post the full batterybench when it's finally done running, hopefully in a few days.

[Eyjaffjaffjokull]

Hey,

what about your results?

What about charging? No problems occured?

Thanks!

[SheepCake]

you could use something similar to these http://www.all-battery.com/li-polyersinglecells.aspx

I have done some weird mods over the years using stuff like that, One mod was for a buddy who's samsung yp-u3 4gb battery went bad and popped the back off, he didnt want to change players, so I hacked a battery that was almost the same width as the player onto it, used f4 tape(look it up, its non sticky and quite strong)

in the end he got amazing battery life and a player that was only around 2x normal size....still uses it infact, despite the fact hes got a cowon d2+ and a fuze 8gb now. (he likes that the players smaller and fits well in his shirt pocket, and also, if he looses it or it gets stolen/broken, hes not loosing one of his higher priced players.

easiest way to find lots of choices of batteries is to google, I have been looking for a power source option for some cmoys i built that by default use 2x9v batts(pain in the arse) hence i have alot of experience looking for batteries lately

[brasssmunkye]

so, im getting my clip+ in the mail here shortly
and i am sure i will want a little more than 15hrs of battery
i was wondering if you guys thought these two batteries might work:
(after checking out the link posted by SheepCake)
http://www.all-battery.com/TenergyLIPO3.7V2380mAh753969Battery-30549-1.aspx
http://www.all-battery.com/polymerli-ionbattery37v900mah463455.aspx
even 900 mah would put me up in the 50ish hour range i would think, and its just the right size

[phr]

If this doesn't count as necro-ing, I'd stay away from those tenergy batteries since they've tended to have crappy performance.  I've thought of glueing a cellular phone battery to the back of the Clip+ (removing the pocket clip) which should about triple the runtime while keeping the size about the same as before.  But it may be easier to just get a Fuze, which is a nicer player with longer runtime and (I've heard) a more powerful amp, though it has an annoying ipod-like cable instead of standard usb.