Dead Battery iPod + AAs = :D ?

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:00 pm

bicostp wrote:Hmm I wonder if the people at CrapUSA or Best Buy will give me a broken one...

I still never got your screen name.

But anyways, I know a guy who works at Staples, which should be relatively simlilar as far as exchange policies, somewhere in the...um...."outdoors"??? Anyways, in this strange place I know nothing of, he says that the company won't trade broken units for new ones unless they give them the broken units. Thus, if you can get your hands on a broken unit, the company loses one unit's worth of profits. So if you do, consider yourself very lucky to be dealing with an ignorant or corrupted employee.

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:08 pm

So by "the company" do you mean Apple, or the store?

Apple might give them something for the dead ones, so they can sell them as "Factory Refurbished". Because why else would stores keep dead iPods around if they're not going to get anything for them? If they just dump 'em, then there's a chance they might give me one. (After all you can get free used disposable cameras from CVS by asking, and they're easily rebuilt and resold...)

And about my screen name, I don't get it either.

It was just something spur-of-the-moment I came up with about 5 years ago so I could play Yahoo games. As far as I remember it has no meaning. It just stuck.

joevennix · Post by **joevennix** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 9:26 pm

Woo 800th post wooo!

Anyways, I just did the exact thing you're wanting to do. I've had a 1G, 5gb iPod that's been refusing to turn on, and I hooked it up to 3 Ni-Mh's. It ran fine, until the batteries ran out (they were out of juice anyways, I had just taken them out of my camera). That's a relief.

A quick look on ebay shows that a new battery goes for $12. I think I'm gonna go with that over the NiMh's, the 1G is bulky enough...

Unlike my new SLVR! YEAH!

-Joe

usbcd36 · Post by **usbcd36** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:12 pm

All I can say is that when you hook it up to your computer, be quick. I don't know how NiMHs react to being charged like li-ionsâ€¦

Just for reference, I have a 2.5 year-old 3G iPod. I stopped using the backlight unless necessary, and the battery STILL isn't dead.

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:28 pm

Does the 3G charge the batteries when it's plugged in through USB? Some places say they do, some say they don't. (Besides it's not too hard to install a SPST switch between the motherboard and the batteries...)

joevennix · Post by **joevennix** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 1:50 pm

Here are some pics from the 'install.'

You can see the mini DPDT switch I superglued to the side of the battery casing. BTW, I dremeled the casing out from some old toy a while ago, that's why it's so fugly.

I left it running (these are 2000mAh batteries, not 2500), and so far its gone for about an hour. Time to get iPod Linux on there. Anyone know if the original iPod has a serial port?

And, just for kicks:

-Joe

EDIT: Now that I think about it, it would have been better to just stick a diode on the + line. That would keep the firewire from trying to charge it. Oh well, maybe another day.

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 2:12 pm

So hotwiring batteries to the internal battery connector will work properly! Yey! Now I just have to get a dead-battery iPod. Found one on ebay that sounds promising.

The 3G only charges through Firewire? (I'll add a switch anyways just in case.) You can still load it with music through USB, right? (It would suck if it didn't; I have no Firewire stuff.

)

*is a chatterbox who posts too much in this thread*

limpport · Post by **limpport** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 3:54 pm

Why don't you just buy a new battery from somewhere like http://www.ifixit.com for $25? Ebay will probally have them for even cheaper.

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 4:39 pm

bicostp wrote:So hotwiring batteries to the internal battery connector will work properly! Yey! Now I just have to get a dead-battery iPod. Found one on ebay that sounds promising.

The 3G only charges through Firewire? (I'll add a switch anyways just in case.) You can still load it with music through USB, right? (It would suck if it didn't; I have no Firewire stuff. )

First off, you're not out of the park on the hotwiring idea... The original iPod has a simple positive and negative battery connector, whereas the newer iPods have a three pin connector. Any idea what the third wire is for?

Second, about the 3G iPods, they do not do anything through USB, everything is Firewire. Sorry

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 4:49 pm

limpport wrote:Why don't you just buy a new battery from somewhere like http://www.ifixit.com for $25? Ebay will probally have them for even cheaper.

Wheres your hacking spirit?
About the AA NiMHs, I tested 4 in series, no load, full charge and they were 5.4v. Thats about 1.35v each, and 4v for three. So unless they drop a lot when under load, you might want to be careful.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 5:24 pm

vskid wrote:About the AA NiMHs, I tested 4 in series, no load, full charge and they were 5.4v. Thats about 1.35v each, and 4v for three. So unless they drop a lot when under load, you might want to be careful.

the 1.35v is fully charged, that drops off pretty quickly to 1.25v.

anyways, a fully charged lithium battery is 4.2v

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 5:35 pm

@ sgtpepper: Are you sure about that?

According to Wikipedia the 3G can use USB for file transfer, but it cannot charge from it. (It needs the higher voltage Firewire provides.) Besides they call it the first iPod that "really took off", and more people had USB than Firewire at the time...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod#Models

@vskid:
I plan on using 3 1.2v rechargeables, which would ideally give 3.6 volts. If they do really charge up to 1.35 volts, that's still only 4.05 volts. Less than half a volt at such a low draw shouldn't cause too much of a problem, and like timmeh said the Li-Ion batteries charge up higher than that.

Once these last couple questions have been answered I can ask about bidding on one of the ones on eBay.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 5:55 pm

bicostp wrote:Once these last couple questions have been answered I can ask about bidding on one of the ones on eBay.

What else needs answered? I think its a good idea, if you want an answer for that question.

And for making an external charger for PSP (I don't want to mess with an internal battery), do you think it would handle the 5.4-4.8v range? (sorry about borrowing your thread bic

)

sgtpepper · Post by **sgtpepper** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 6:05 pm

bicostp wrote:@ sgtpepper: Are you sure about that?

Apparently not!

After seeing it on Wikipedia I figured I might as well just try it out, and what do you know, it can sync through USB! I guess I just never had the need since I've always had Firewire...