portable power supply for Wii

yau · Post by **yau** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 4:04 am

Hi, I'd like to make a portable power supply for Wii with rechargable AA batteries, without any change on the motherboard.

Each AA battery should be 1.5v , so i'm wondering how many batteries i need for this. Thanks a lot!

Post by **Skyone** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 4:31 am

1.5v x 8 = 12v (Wii Power Requirement)

However, rechargeable AAs are only 1.2v, sound you'd need 10 of them (in series) to get 12v.

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:46 am

Yeah, but I think Ben said that Wii will not run on 10 AA's because of the power draw.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:37 am

lifeisbetterwithketchup wrote:Yeah, but I think Ben said that Wii will not run on 10 AA's because of the power draw.

Ya, thats what I thought.

yau · Post by **yau** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:40 am

Oh, I was wondering why Ben's wii laptop aren't powered up by portable batteries and perhaps "power draw" is the reason.

I've tried to google "power draw" but still haven't got an idea what it's exactly. Are there any solution for this?

Thanks again!

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:54 am

If you just have to use AAs, you might be able to have 2 parallel sets of 10 AAs in series. It might work. C batteries might be better.

yau · Post by **yau** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:23 am

vskid wrote:If you just have to use AAs, you might be able to have 2 parallel sets of 10 AAs in series. It might work. C batteries might be better.

It seems that rechargable C battery is also 1.2v for each and no much difference from AA battery. Why could it solve the problem of "power draw"? Sorry for asking these basic questions...I'm really new to it.

( http://www.battery-force.co.uk/detail_URCNIC002A.html )

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:43 am

Its kinda hard to explain. Theres a way of comparing water in a hose to electricity, so I'll do my best to tell it.
Volt- pretty much the pressure of the water
Amps- amount of water in the hose
Resistance- resistance in the hose (explains itself)

So with batteries, there is an Amp-hour rating, its like the amount of water in a bucket. So a 2500MAh (milliamp is a 1/1000th of an amp) or 2.5Ah can run something at 1 amp for 2.5hrs, or at 2.5A for 1 hr. And I think larger batteries or different chemistries can let water out of the bucket faster. So compare a AA to a C with the same MAh rating, with the AA being a 1 gallon milk jug (with its small hole at the top) and the C being a 1 gallon ice cream bucket. You can poor the water out of the ice cream bucket a lot faster.
I guess thats a good explanation, someone might be able to explain more.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:51 pm

yeah, basically.

but, if the C battery actually does have the same mAh rating as a AA battery from the same company, it probably means that its just the same AA battery in a C-sized shell.

and thus you gain nothing.

expect C cells to have like 3000mAh +

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 1:00 pm

timmeh87 wrote:yeah, basically.

Haha, I have gained the approval of a master! I was hoping I got the water comparison right, I couldn't find one with google.

yau · Post by **yau** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:18 am

vskid wrote:Its kinda hard to explain. Theres a way of comparing water in a hose to electricity, so I'll do my best to tell it.
Volt- pretty much the pressure of the water
Amps- amount of water in the hose
Resistance- resistance in the hose (explains itself)

So with batteries, there is an Amp-hour rating, its like the amount of water in a bucket. So a 2500MAh (milliamp is a 1/1000th of an amp) or 2.5Ah can run something at 1 amp for 2.5hrs, or at 2.5A for 1 hr. And I think larger batteries or different chemistries can let water out of the bucket faster. So compare a AA to a C with the same MAh rating, with the AA being a 1 gallon milk jug (with its small hole at the top) and the C being a 1 gallon ice cream bucket. You can poor the water out of the ice cream bucket a lot faster.
I guess thats a good explanation, someone might be able to explain more.

Thanks a lot! This information is very important to me. I'll try to make one based on C battery.

ShockSlayer · Post by **ShockSlayer** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 8:46 pm

Think this one will power a wii?

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=2208

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:14 pm

ShockSlayer wrote:Think this one will power a wii?

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=2208

That bad boy could almost start a car!!
Yes, it could run a Wii, maybe even a 360 for a couple minutes.

yau · Post by **yau** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:37 am

ShockSlayer wrote:Think this one will power a wii?

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?P ... rodID=2208

it's damned expensive to me, almost as expensive as a laptop battery.

Metroid fan · Post by **Metroid fan** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:16 pm

It's a really good battery though.