Rockbox Technical Forums
Support and General Use => Hardware => Topic started by: woodensoul on April 11, 2007, 09:22:20 PM
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I searched and couldn't find any recommendations for a replacement battery for the Gigabeat F. If it matters, I have the F40.
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Here's some information... the gigabeat battery (Li-ion) is 2 X 1 3/8 X 1/4 inches (50mm X 35MM X 7mm) and reads 4.01 volts on my meter although I'm thinking it's 3.7 (because that's what the rest of the world runs on and my meter is not the best).
any battery roughly that size, chemistry and voltage should work and I'm willing to experiment & post results if anyone can help me locate such a battery. thank you.
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The Ipod Generation 4 batteries might fit. I can't get a good reading on the actual dimensions though as different listings have different sizes. I also don't know how reliable the Ebay listing information is. It looks like it could fit though:
Dimensions:
.75" x 1.8" x .21" inch (WxLxH)
51 x 37 x 4 mm <-Majority stated this size (although that was from one seller)
Capacity:
1200mAh <-seems like a stretch
950mAh
750mAh
Voltage:
3.7V
The 3rd gen's may fit as well:
Dimensions:
48mm x 5.5mm x 32 mm
48 x 29 x 5 mm
Capacity:
850mAh
Voltage:
3.7V
If you do a search for "Ipod generation 4 battery" or "Ipod generation 3 battery" you should come up with a bunch of options.
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Is there a replacement battery for the Gigabeat F series? Mine is starting to die out on me. Would any battery that puts out the same amount as the Gigabeat battery work? or would the battery have to have other things that were the same?
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Someone found a site in the UK selling replacement Gigabeat batteries - have a hunt through the logs - it was in the last few days.
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Cool. Thanks for the info. ;D
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I am getting the below battery and testing this out.
1200mah 4G Ipod Battery (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=150140977692&rd=1&rd=1)
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Goo luck! And please let us know how it works out.
There are some things to watch out for: for example, the iriver H1xx's battery can be replaced by a ipod 1/2gen battery, but the polarity of the connector is reversed, so pay close attention if that's the case here.
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Good luck, if it fits then I'm getting myself the highest capacity battery I can find with that size.
I just measured my battery, it's around 52x35x5mm, and that's with me rounding up the measurements, so 4G ipod batteries should technically fit because there's still some room around the battery in the case.
EDIT: The 1200mah actually seems plausible, it's lithium polymer instead of the usual lithium ion. li-po is a better technology. But the 4g batteries I see have a 3-pin connector. Usually, 3 pins means there's a small PCB attached to the battery to prevent it from over-charging, which will have to be removed if you want to put it in the gigabeat.
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Did you find it? I really want to replace my battery and I want to at least know the official specs.
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I'd be very careful with a replacement battery which is not made for the device.
There are several reports of these batteries at least failing after a while, if not ballooning or leaking inside the player when used in the Irivers as markun mentioned. It doesn't even have to be bad quality but the fact that they aren't "treated" or charged the same way as in the player they were made for.
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I guess it's possible, but pretty unlikely. MP3 player change and discharge very slowly, so balooning due to amperage isn't a problem, but some players might charge to a higher voltage, which may cause ballooning. I wouldn't be worried though.
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I've merged two threads that both related to replacement batteries for the Gigabeat F series.
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Both the gigabeat and the Ipod batteries have PCBs connected to the wires. But what I need is a dead battery to take the PCB from to be used on the Ipod battery. If someone has a dead gigabeat battery that you can send to me PM me.
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There should be a PCB on your old Gigabeat battery!
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Yeah but that one is my backup in case something happens.
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I am getting sent some used gigabeat batteries so I can take the PCB off of them and connect it to the Ipod battery. I'll give an update when I get it.
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Any news on this? It's easy to source these new Cameron Sino batteries (quoted at 1000 mAh) on eBay, but I would like to know if they are the real deal or not (plus there are higher capacity batteries for iPod 4G, in case they're compatible).
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I have been moving my stuff and just got everything unpacked so will be diving into this pretty soon.
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Great! :)
Looking forward to your results. Thanks in advance for sharing.
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Any news? :)
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Actually yes I do. I just soldered the Ipod battery to the gigabeat battery PCB and it is charging as I post this. So I will have some Battery Benchmarks tomorrow or the next.
Gorman, What is the biggest capacity Ipod or Gigabeat battery you have found? I am using a 1200mah Ipod 4G I found on ebay.
Update:
Below is the Battery Benchmark file. One question should I have used a album or is a 1hr long track okay?
Got a file size error when attaching the file. So here is a link.
battery_bench.txt (http://jacobnwendy.com/battery_bench.txt)
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So it fits huh? Time for me to get a new battery. ;D
EDIT: Just bought this one: http://cgi.ebay.ca/1200mAh-HIGH-BATTERY-FOR-APPLE-IPOD-4-Photo-MANUAL-TOOL_W0QQitemZ270166276052QQihZ017QQcategoryZ38331QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Hope it fits. What did you have to do to get it to work?
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It takes a bit of soldering. You have to take the PCB from a Gigabeat battery and solder it to the Ipod Battery. Essentially swapping the PCBs. If you need a extra battery contact the below person he has Gigabeat batteries for sale. I used a bad battery but I also got a good one just in case.
http://myworld.ebay.com/mikecustom
If you have anymore questions let me know.
Note:
I am also preforming another battery benchmark tonite to see if I get the same results.
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I'll just take the PCB off my battery, it's already in bad condition.
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Also make sure out find the Positive and Negative, and under the Gigabeat PCB (take off the white protection strip) it shows which is Positive and Negative. I'll post some Pics possibly today after I get home from work.
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That's no problem, I have a voltmeter for that. Pictures would be helpful, although I'm pretty sure I can do it myself.
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I got a couple picture, I will have some that show you the process after I got some Ipod batteries to mod.
If you take the sticker off the battery you will see that the gigabeat battery has the PCB on the side while the Ipod has on top. So I soldered the gigabeat PCB on the top (note: you have to trim off some of the terminals for the gigabeat PCB to fit on top of the Ipod battery). Also make sure that the terminals don't touch the metal casing.
Pictures (http://jacobnwendy.com/gigabeat)
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This is nice news, but please put static information in the wiki.
AND
Is there a reason we trust the original battery protection PCB more than we trust the one from a 4G iPod battery? What I'm getting at is I was under the impression that the PCB on the battery was simply a protection circuit, and not the charging circuit. I would assume that if the 4G battery already has one, there is no need to remove it simply to replace it with another one.
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Is there a reason we trust the original battery protection PCB more than we trust the one from a 4G iPod battery? What I'm getting at is I was under the impression that the PCB on the battery was simply a protection circuit, and not the charging circuit. I would assume that if the 4G battery already has one, there is no need to remove it simply to replace it with another one.
That is true but the iPod battery has a 3 pin connection while the Gigabeat has a 2 pin connection.
Also should I post in the wiki that it is possible to use a iPod 4G battery in the Gigabeat or post how to mod the battery to work with the Gigabeat?
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Is there a reason we trust the original battery protection PCB more than we trust the one from a 4G iPod battery? What I'm getting at is I was under the impression that the PCB on the battery was simply a protection circuit, and not the charging circuit. I would assume that if the 4G battery already has one, there is no need to remove it simply to replace it with another one.
That is true but the iPod battery has a 3 pin connection while the Gigabeat has a 2 pin connection.
Also should I post in the wiki that it is possible to use a iPod 4G battery in the Gigabeat or post how to mod the battery to work with the Gigabeat?
Yes, that information would be nice. Maybe post a small how-to and some pictures.
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Soap has brought up a good point I might just be able to switch the connector instead of the whole PCB which would be alot easier. I will have to wait for my other iPod batteries to come in the mail to test it out.
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I'll be getting my battery by thursday hopefully, I'll try switching the connector.
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Is there a reason we trust the original battery protection PCB more than we trust the one from a 4G iPod battery? What I'm getting at is I was under the impression that the PCB on the battery was simply a protection circuit, and not the charging circuit. I would assume that if the 4G battery already has one, there is no need to remove it simply to replace it with another one.
That is true but the iPod battery has a 3 pin connection while the Gigabeat has a 2 pin connection.
Also should I post in the wiki that it is possible to use a iPod 4G battery in the Gigabeat or post how to mod the battery to work with the Gigabeat?
I suggest you post in the wiki everything.
...the difference between a 3 pin connector and a 2 pin connector - and why one can't simply be replaced with the other.
...how to mod.
...what batteries are known to work.
...photos
...instructions galore.
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Thanks Mad Cow
Below is a pic of what I am thinking of doing just removing the connector from the gigabeat battery and putting it on the iPod battery and snipping off the third wire.
IMG_2351.JPG (http://jacobnwendy.com/gigabeat/IMG_2351.JPG)
Anyone have any comments on that?
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I once removed the PCB of a cellphone battery and soldered an ipod nano's battery onto it (after snipping off the third wire), and it worked for me. No explosions or similar ;)
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I did a google on Gigabeat F40 battery and this link came up.
http://www.ipods99.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=TOSHGIGBTXL&Click=6711&gclid=CMy0i9rZ344CFQJsPAodr3tVMQ
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I did a google on Gigabeat F40 battery and this link came up.
http://www.ipods99.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=TOSHGIGBTXL&Click=6711&gclid=CMy0i9rZ344CFQJsPAodr3tVMQ
That's cool, but alot more expensive than buying and modifying an ebay 4G battery. I guess it's better for people with little or no experience.
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And I'm not sure that this battery fits in the Gigabeat...
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I got 2 new iPod batteries. I swapped the connectors (check the below picture) but the iPod wire terminals are too small to fit over the terminals on the gigabeat but it does work with just changing out the connectors (you have to push the connector on with a finger nail) it charged and I am doing a battery benchmark on it right now. Also I don't know how good of a connection it has for real world use the wires may disconnect. To make everything fit snug it looks like you just have to switch out the wires (solder the gigabeat wires to the iPod PCB/battery [no switching of PCBs necessary]).
IMG_2569.jpg (http://jacobnwendy.com/gigabeat/IMG_2569.jpg)
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Madcow,
Is that battery lasting or close lasting as long as the battery benchmark I posted?
These 2 batteries I just got are lasting around 18hrs but the first one I got lasts about 25hrs and they both say 1200mah.
Could it be the PCB or is it just a fake 1200mah battery thats really 900/1000mah?
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I don't know yet, I think something went wrong somewhere along the shipping route, still haven't got it yet.
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Just got it today, soldered on the original wires/connector, it's charing right now. I'll do a battery bench tomorrow. The hardest part about the whole thing was fitting the thicker battery into my dented, busted up case. :D
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Yeah the iPod batteries are definitely thicker than the OE gigabeat batteries.
Can't wait to see your benchmarks to see if they are comparable to the first iPod battery or the second one I got.
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Does you touchpad work weirdly with this new battery? On mine, the up part of the cross isn't as responsive as the other parts, and it sticks a bit if I hold it down for more than a second. I'm thinking it's the case, but I'm not sure.
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Yes that happened to me but I bent out the 4 corners a bit and it fixed all that.
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Which way did you bend them?
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Because my touchpad was not responding at all.
I bent the 4 corners of the case not the touchpad.
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This can't be right, mine only lasted 14 hours. But this was playing through over 2GB of albums consecutively, with caption backlight on. Maybe it didn't fully charge or something. Anyway, I'm gonna let it charge fully without touching it and try again.
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Try turning off caption backlight. That's a ridiculous battery waster.
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Try turning off caption backlight. That's a ridiculous battery waster.
Yea I think I should, I started using it a long time ago, but now I don't see the point, but still use it for some reason. :P New bench coming up after it charges.
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One of the biggest possible drains on any player we support pretty much is "turning on the backlight", so I wouldn't be surprised if you see a quite measurable gain doing a new bench with it disabled.
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I got 18hrs on the second batch of iPod batteries I got but I have ordered some more of the first batteries I got which show a benchmark of 25hrs.
Madcow,
Do you have the AC adapter for your gigabeat or do you use the USB to charge it?
Also I didn't see the below post, I bent the 4 corners out or away from the player.Which way did you bend them?
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I always use the AC adaptor, I only use USB if I don't have anything else. I'm running a new battery bench right now without caption backlight, and it seems to be doing much better, hopefully I'll get 25h. ;D
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I ordered some more batteries from the same person I got the first (25hr) one from. Check them out if your interested.
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcellular-link
search for "4th 1200"
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That looks the same as my battery, I bought this one: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270166276052&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=017
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Madcow,
I think the one you got is a knock off of mine. Yours doesn't have the logo in the bottom right like the one I got. I researched my battery and found out it is made by Cameron Sino (http://www.cameronsino.net/). Maybe that is why mine lasts 25hrs and yours is lasting 14hrs. I will see when the other 2 I got come in, which are the same (25hr battery) kind from the same person.
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Mine's a CameronSino too, it does have that logo. Also, the battery bench just finished, after 12 hours. ??? This makes absolutely no sense. So battery life is 2 hours shorter without caption backlight?
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That is pretty weird then. Hopefully the 2 batteries I ordered don't have the same problem.
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Well I found the problem, for some reason it discharges really quickly, even when it's not being used. It might be because the metal case somehow touched something metal because I used the original heatshrink wrapping and it didn't cover everything. I wrapped the battery in teflon tape now, hopefully that'll help.
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Interesting....are you going to run another benchmark?
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Maybe later, I'll probably have one by the end of the week.
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16 hours this time, I might've screwed up the battery somehow, maybe I'll buy the latest one you posted.
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16 hours this time, I might've screwed up the battery somehow, maybe I'll buy the latest one you posted.
Go to the below person the last batteries I bought only lasted 18hrs where as the below person's batteries lasted 25hrs
I ordered some more batteries from the same person I got the first (25hr) one from. Check them out if your interested.
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcellular-link
search for "4th 1200"
whenever I receive the batteries I ordered I will post a tutorial with pics on the wiki as suggested earlier.
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Just bought one from that store. Hopefully I'll have more luck this time. 25 hours seems really nice.
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Me too
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Got mine in the mail. These are the same as my first one I got. It went for 26hrs. So if anyone wants to get a battery I suggest you get it from the below person.
http://myworld.ebay.com/cellular-link
Also I will be posting a how-to in the wiki this week.
Check out the benchmark. http://jacobnwendy.com/battery-bench.txt
Update:
I have the info & pics ready and will be posting a how-to on the wiki.
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Just got the battery and installed it. It's a bit different from the other one. This one has smaller writing on the label, different tape inside the plastic and a slightly different PCB. These are probably newer revisions or something.
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Does it last around 25hrs on the benchmark?
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No idea, I just got it today, so I don't know how long it'll run.
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I have made the how-to.
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/GigabeatBatteryUpgrade
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Very nice, but I use the 4G battery heatshrink instead of the gigabeat one. I find it fits better. You should also add your battery bench to the gigabeat runtime wiki page. I will when I get mine done.
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Why bother opening up both batteries to swap out the wires and connectors?
Wouldn't it be easier to just snip of the connector from the ipod battery and solder the
wire with connector from the old gigabeat battery to the wires of the new ipod battery
(covering the joints with heat shrink tubing)? If the extra wire length isn't a problem under the covers this way you don't have to open up the batteries, just change out
the connector / wires.
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Why bother opening up both batteries to swap out the wires and connectors?
Wouldn't it be easier to just snip of the connector from the ipod battery and solder the
wire with connector from the old gigabeat battery to the wires of the new ipod battery
(covering the joints with heat shrink tubing)? If the extra wire length isn't a problem under the covers this way you don't have to open up the batteries, just change out
the connector / wires.
You cold do that, but they way we do it looks more professional, and there really isn't much room for a longer wire beside the battery, even the ipod wire itself is a bit long. It would also be ahrder to get a good, small solder joint your way.
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Added my info to the battery runtime wiki.
MadCow,
I cut my iPod heat shrink with a razor knife so it was not usable anymore. Also I think it looks pretty good with the gigabeat heat shrink ;D.
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23:44 on the my latest bench. No doubt these batteries are better. I checked on it every once in a while and it felt like it would just keep going on forever. :D
EDIT: Could you also add mine if I upload it here? I don't have a wiki account and I'm kinda busy right now.
EDIT2: I used both VBR and CRB MP3s on an F40, volume at -27, with svn build r14964M-071005 (self-compiled build though) Take the .txt out of the filename and unzip it.
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yeah post it.
The zip was corrupt just email it to me
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Could some detail as to the why and how of bending out the front cover be added to the wiki please?
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you might have to bend the front cover because the battery is thicker than the normal gigabeat battery.
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Email sent, also, I didn't have to bend the front cover at all.
You should also add a link to that wiki page from the gigabeat page, to make it easier to find.
Just a quick question: did you good batteries come in the package shown in you how-to? Because that's the same package as my bad one came in.
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MadCow,
Posted
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Thanks.
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Yep that is the package they came in.
Updated the GigabeatFXPort page
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A thought.... If you could find a 5mm thick hard disk (like the one in the F41) and put it in the F40 you would have 3mm of space between the battery and the back case. That might be enough room for a much larger battery, maybe even a 3500ma/h unit. Assuming you could snake the battery cable around the circuit board to the other side.
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I've though about that too. You could easily fit 2 batteries behind a thinner hard disk, but it would be hard to connect them to the terminal. The pins on the battery connector on the PCB don't reach the hard drive said, and it would be hard to bring them to the other side, not not impossible. The PCB has 4 places that you could fit the wires through with some PCB trimming. You can see them clearly in this picture :http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/viewfile/Main/GigabeatInfo?rev=1.1;filename=2.jpg (the 2 cutout parts on the bottom)
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Very interesting, but how much heavier would the player be?
It would be nice if you could fit a iPod 1st gen battery in the player they go up to 2200mah.
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jac0b and madcow:
On the battery run time wiki page, could you swap the date formats you have used to year-month-day please? As you may know in Europe we use day-month-year not month-day-year as in the US, and so what you have put is confusing. To me it looks like one was done in September and one in May. I know you have just done them in October and therefore must have used US format, but in the future it will be confusing.
I haven't done it myself just to make doubly sure I'm not being stupid (but I'm pretty sure they are the ones you have just done :))
Cheers
Edit: I've gone ahead and changed it.
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ordered my battery today :)
edit: ok, I just received the battery! My Gigabeat is charging and it all seems to be working fine.
I didn't remove the plastic but removed the wires from the connectors and switched them around. The wires of the new battery are a bit thin so I hope they don't get loose inside my player..
Because the touchpad didn't work I also had to bend the case a little. Might have to do it a bit more as the top and bottom of the cross are not equally sensitive anymore.
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https://www.ipods99.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=TOSHGIGBTXL
ordered this battery on monday, got it on saturday. it fit perfectly in my F10. im charging now, but it at least turned on..
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Another thought. I'm going to replace the HD in my F10 with a CF card using an adapter. If the combo is smaller than the original HD there might be enough room left to stuff a battery in the remaining space. Wonder if you can connect two Li batteries in parallel?
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Id just Like to add here that you dont really have to de-solder and re solder the wires actually on the battery. you can do this if you trust yourself unlike me. What i did wwas just removed the white wire from the battery and then replaced the connectors. You can put the gigabeat connector on the ipod battery but it seems that you cannot put the ipod connector on the gigabeat battery. hopefully I get as good results as MadCow did :) how long should it take to fully charge the battery?
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I'm thinking of replacing my gigabeat battery because I think there is something wrong with it. It doesn't hold a charge, at all. Could this be something besides the battery?
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Yeah that is most likely the battery if it won't hold a charge. Make sure your battery switch is not on off.