External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Folks,

If <insert the name of your most respected divinity here> wants (and UPS) I will be the (proud?) owner of a N810 next Wednesday. The main reasons why I went for a N810 rather than any competitor's gadget are the size factor, possibility to use an external keyboard (igo/stowaway like) and the fact that it runs linux, obviously; which makes software porting somewhat easy.

Now the catch is that I'm traveling quite often, and therefore you now understand why the size factor is important, I'm often stuck in planes for 9-10 hours in a row, or in other random places (not the jungle, but the like) where it's not always easy (or too expensive) to find a power source. And because I don't want to waste this precious time I intend to use my N810 during these 9-10 hours.

Now here's the catch, the embedded battery lifetime doesn't allow 9-10 hours of continuous use, subsequently, I'm looking for a "magic device" that's usually sold for cellphones to power the thing using regular AA batteries, those are easy to buy (although expensive) at airports or easy to carry with us (and yet, TSA still allows them, for now...).

This is an example of what I have in mind:

http://www.tangshop.com/universal-ex...tery-3685.html
http://www.chargetogo.com/store/pc/v...=2&idproduct=1
http://www.batterygeek.net/130Wh_Por...atterygeek.htm

Now, I have no experience with any of these, I've been so far carrying laptops and packs of external batteries, trying to preserve energy as much as I could. If you have been traveling recently, you'll know that it's getting worse and worse out there, planes delayed or flights canceled are now the usual trend, and when you have to carry 10 pounds of batteries with you, this is quite unacceptable. Size matters.

Therefore I am asking the Nokia user community if one had some experience with any of these and what's the expected battery lifetime with one of these (under different pattern uses, like watching a movie, using an emulator, or using abiword/octave/gnumeric for instance). And, if necessary, which power connectors to purchase with the device itself.

Now I understand that different options are available, either a small sized external battery with only one or two AA batteries, or some more heavy-duty adapter that has to be recharged when time/power allows. I'd rather go with the former and carry 5-10 spare AA batteries, those are disposable and cheap enough and can be found virtually anywhere. This assumes that swapping batteries can be performed without shutting down the Nokia, obviously. Although I have to admit that, if the device advertised in my first link above meets its expectations it would be a good candidate for my intended use and its "universality" would make it convenient to charge other devices I carry with me such as camera or phone, possibly all at the same time, perhaps.

Another possibility are solar power adapters, but I am afraid none can provide the N810 enough juice to keep going. Another option, which is probably somewhat entertaining is to use the plane's power (legally), for that purpose some people have reported using the headsets connectors in planes (crank the volume up as much as you can) with some sort of adapter to squeeze enough milliAmps to power an ipod or the like, I do not know if this would be enough for a N810, although I highly doubt it, but that's an interesting option to consider, anything that doesn't require to purchase expensive additional sets of original N810 batteries.

Whichever solution provided would have to be of acceptable size and weight, I do not intend to carry car or truck batteries with me to power a handheld device. So, as a requirement here I would state that the size of the "battery pack" can not exceed the size of the N810 itself, otherwise it somewhat defeats its own purpose. Yet, the option of buying several N810 is not to be considered either (look, I'm not moneybags).


Thank you.

PS: This is why Garmin, for instance uses some regular AA batteries on their hi-end portable GPS systems, because often, when using a GPS navigation system, there's no battery around you (ever went hiking?). I own a 60cxs (which is great btw) and the convenience of having 2 AA batteries in it is somewhat great; no need to worry about power, just pack a few batteries with you and you're set (or at least won't get lost). Now I understand that the N810's gps is more targeted to car users, but this is not really what I'm after here (and I drive a bike btw).

PS#2: Lithium-Ion battery pack is likely to be preferred as an external battery source as this packs a higher density of power than NiMh AAs, and might be quite a satisfactory solution should I want to plug other devices to this. If you have any experience with products out there, please share them. Also it would be quite convenient if this battery pack had a charge level indicator (even a blinking light or whatever).

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Would you not just be better off getting 1 (or more) spare batteries. Charge them and swap them out as needed.

Only takes a minute to power down, swap battery and power up again. The batteries are quite reasonabley priced.

If having to use the device to charge the extra batteries is a problem, find the cheapest other Nokia phone that uses the same battery and pick one up off eBay and use that as a second charger.

Tha't my plan anyway, though I don't think I'll bother with a second phone for charging. Swapping is easy enough...

Zuber

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

This is indeed the cheap solution, which would work for 99% of users, unfortunately, in my very specific case, I need something that would provide me over 10 if not 20 hours of power, I could certainly buy 5 to 10 additional batteries but there's got to be some device that would do this better.

Also, buying spare batteries doesn't help charging other electronic components, which would be a nice plus here. I've seen some posts on this forum about people hacking an external battery kit for 770 or whom found some sub-$25 adapters that gives them an extra hour or two, but what I'm looking for is some more heavy-duty power source. Something that obsoletes the included nokia power adapter. Something that makes this irrelevant: "Oh I can't work on this, the file's on my laptop and the battery's dead, let's wait until we get to the new airport so I can wifi the file over."

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Hey, I did similar research before buying my n800 - was looking for a USB charging solution so I could charge the n800 (with adapter) as well as other components. I found the following...

AA:

http://www.semsons.com/pocpowban.html

The Semsons one is interesting as it has no cables, can hold 10000 mah if you use 4x2500mah AAs, and you could use standard alkalines if you're not near somewhere to recharge.

http://www.amazon.com/BoxWave-Corpor.../dp/B000NW48EE

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Concep.../dp/B000GBPMBK

http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-Eneloop-.../dp/B000IV0REA



AAA:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AV4NDE

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Concep.../dp/B000GBPMBK

http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-Eneloop-.../dp/B000IV2YLY

When looking for a USB charging cable for the n800 I found a SIDO Usb charger, usb->n800 charging cable, and 2x generic n800 batteries on eBay for $6.95. Took 3 weeks to arrive from Hong Kong but works good. Turns out in the end that the n800's excellent battery life + the 2 spare batteries was enough for me and I didnt buy any of the above chargers.

However, I did end up buying a couple of these to power other gadgets (they sell cheap 900mah NiMH AAA's as well) :

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3205

Hope this helps :)

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

This does help tremendously, could you report the battery lifetime one could expect to get running the external battery source you've purchased? (assuming different usage types, i.e. watching a movie, or doing some light work). This would be very valuable information to me, yes I understand that technically it's limited to the number of AA/AAA batteries you're able to carry with you, but I would very much appreciate some quantification (as I'm sure others are also interested about this).

Thanks!

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Is there some way to loop the video on mplayer? The one that comes with os2008 is only a few mins long. If we can set it up to loop I'll leave it running and see how long it keeps going for when hooked up to the soshine 4xAAA charger I got from dealextreme.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

There you go:

-loop <number>
Loops movie playback <number> times. 0 means forever.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

For my Nokia IT and N82 phone, I use a solar power charger which gets me about 10-15hrs per charge, Universal USB Charger Kit, Emergency Cell Phone Charger (4-AAA gets about 30 mins) (I also have a few other travel, car/plane/plug/battery, chargers that I have not yet tried that might work out)

here are the links to get you started...

http://www.solio.com/charger/

http://www.cellphoneshop.net/

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

I ended up with one of these -- an iGo power extender. It's not the cheapest item that'll do the job, but it runs off AA cells ... and it has a huge range of interchangeable tips. I travel with a small pouch with the iGo and tips for: mini-USB, palm, Nokia mini, iPod, Nintendo DS, and Sony-Ericsson phone -- that's one charger, up to six different device types -- on the assumption that alkaline AA cells are ubiquitous.

(When I travel it's usually intercontinental, and it's easier to stick most of the wall warts in my hold luggage than carry all of them in my carry-on. The iGo is basically insurance against overnight delays or luggage going astray, and it works well, although I still need to keep my laptop's charger to hand.)

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Try either doing a search here with the words ' proporta battery' or just go to Proportas web page. I currently have one of these on order from them. It is external and does , of course, have a wire that connects to your power input port since it comes with Nokia adapters. It will probably easily power your n810 for the 10 hours you need.
And I think the price is quite reasonable as well. It is costing me $64 including shipping from the UK to Seattle, WA, USA. It is quite versatile since that price buys you the battery, plus a power charge cable that has a USB end that can be plugged into your computer or a car power adapter, or a universal AC power adapter. ( both of these supplied with the product)
Check out youtube for video on this product.
My experience was that they seem to only sell direct rather than through other dealers.

Hope this helps.
Neil

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

I would not recommend the solio charger. Yes I know it may be enticing and all with the ''power from the sun'' marketing spiel, but the bottom line is, you're better off charging it through an outlet. I live in Southern California and it took 3 days for this thing to fully charge in full sun! 3 days!!! So I would suggest save your money and buy something less expensive.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

hmmm... where?

I tried mediaplayer-ui -loop 0 file.avi in an xterm but that didnt seem to work.

Where can I find the man page for mediaplayer command line opts?

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

mediaplayer-ui is a different program from mplayer, mplayer -loop is what you want.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

doh! I thought mplayer was the default player :confused: (bear in mind I only got my n800 6 days ago :) )

So, mplayer isn't pathed and find / -name mplayer -print is borking on system files. Is mplayer installed by default in os2008 or do I have to install it? I don't see it in Application Manager.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

This is what I use http://www.tekkeon.com/site/products-mypowergo.php even comes with a connector that works with with my 770 which i believe is same as the N800. I use 2500 mha AA batteries with it and was able to easily get 10 plus hours out of my 770 watching movies. And even then the AA has 50% of life left while the 770 battery was still fully charged. And it was a nice price, under $20.

But it should be noted that it doesn't actually charge my 770, I don't think there is enough current to do so, but works great as a supplement power supply.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

I have a proporta charger and really recommend it. I use it all the time for my N95 for when I go on a photo project.

It has 3400 mah of storage, that should be 2 full recharges for a tablet.

http://www.proporta.com/F02/PPF02P05...725&t_mode=des

I had an Energizer AA battery charger. I didnt like it.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Looks like that is discontinued.

I think this is the new model:

TekCharge MP1550

Compatibility list is here:

myCharger Compatibility

I see the old one mentioned MP1500 mentioned as being specifically n800/n810 compatible but no mention of the new MP1550.

Update: ordered one :D

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Indeed very interesting thread, I'm somewhat suspicious of the advertised specs of the mp1500, but considering it (or should) provide 1500mAh and the Nokia (pretty much all the Nxx0) are using 1000mAh it makes sense that this would provide 1.5 hence 1h30mn of external power source. For $30, it's pretty good (+ few bucks for the batteries).

Now, nobody said we couldn't put "bigger" batteries in the mp1500, such as these:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-2500-Rech...9157240&sr=8-1
or better:
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Battery-C...9157763&sr=8-1

That might get interesting, a whooping 2.5 hours of lifetime for a few bucks, this ain't bad. This obviously assumes that the discharge characteristics of Ni-Mh batteries allow the mp1500 to provide a solid 5v, talking about batteries, is the Nxx0 using a Li-ion or Ni-Mh internally?

Petergunn, would you be able to let us know what sort of battery lifetime you get out of the MP1500 whenever you receive it, under different load patters obviously.

Thanks! (and a happy 2008)

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Sure, I ordered 4xAA 2000mah Sanyo Eneloops so I should be able to compare the MP1550@8000mah with the generic Soshine unit I got from dealextreme (BeOne@3600mah on cheapo soshine NiMH AAAs).

Have to wait until it turns up next year or course, and I get a break from work etc., but I'll post when I get some info.

BTW I see 2700mah NiMH AAs on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-NiMH-Rec.../dp/B000IV413S

Anyway, still need a nice easy stress test to do the compare. I don't seem to have mplayer and its not in any of my current os2008 repos.

In the meantime - happy new year! (55mins to go for me but I'm on the Whisky already (just the Irish stuff for now ;) )).

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Well, thanks a lot, your findings will be quite valuable for the entire community. I've been waiting for a long time for "the perfect pda", but how good is a pda when its battery is dead? Well, thanks to you, we might have a solution there.

(3hours 45mns to go before 2008 on the west coast, time to open some bottles)

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Found & installed mplayer in the Extras-devel repo. Tried to get some baseline numbers for the n800 without the external battery pack. However mplayer ignores the -loop 0 command line args and exists after the movie is complete.

Mplayer seems like a pretty poor application - not even a slider to advance through the movie. I decided to uninstall it.

Any other ideas for emulating usage?

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Hi, I figured I'd report on what I use, since it took a while to find it. I wanted a retractable cable, and the Nokia seems picky about them. After trying some from eBay, I found that this one works:

http://www.boxwave.com/products/mini...-n800_2569.htm

It's also picky about battery packs. The following two work:

http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/242/p/1/pt/32/product.asp
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/...base_sku=UPB10

The Iogear and Lenmar battery packs don't work. I don't know how long they run for, I use them as overnight chargers for the nightstand when traveling.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

A slider would be up to the gui frontend.

up/down/left/right keys can be used to seek, and you can bring up an on screen display to see where you are in the video.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Mine doesnt seem super picky - the generic Soshine 4xAAA from DealExtreme for ~$15 ($9 charger+$6 for 4xAAA NiMH) unit seems to charge it fine using a USB charging cable (at least it says its charging on the n800 :) ).

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

I have this unit from Tekkeon and love it. I use it with my N800 and my Digital SLR camera.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Well like I mention my Tekkeon MP1500 works great (which I guess is now MP1550). As for rechargeable AA, I suggest this place http://thomasdistributing.com/shop/b...uueocujq3pp902 for buying them, especially the Nexcell, bought a set almost 10 years ago and they are still charging up great today!!

Also found a nice review of the Tekkeon for those who want to learn more http://www.geardiary.com/2007/04/18/...mp1500-review/

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Here is a review of the MP1550...

http://www.evdoforums.com/thread7814.html

3 differences from the MP1500...

1. MP1550 has 5v voltage regulator (this is why I bought it)
2. MP1550 has standard charging connector
3. MP1550 is black :)

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Would the MP15x0 power the device, or charge the battery which itself power the device? I'm under the impression that devices that provide power over USB do not charge the battery, subsequently if the battery is dead, this solution would not allow to hot-swap batteries without shutting down the nokia itself. This may not be a big deal for most, but I wanted to clarify for others. Please correct me if I'm wrong...

Nevertheless, for that price range, this is pretty good indeed.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

If this description is accurate, the APC UPB10 should be able to power up the n8x0/n770 for about 7-8 hours:

http://www.apc.com/resource/include/...=documentation

Amazon.com $60 + free shipping.

This isn't too bad.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

the apc batt is really nice ... but for some reason it doesnt work unless thier is a usb hub in the mix... i dunno why ...

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Weird indeed, I think there's really two categories of "external batteries" out there for two different kind of users. I will classify them as such:

sub-$100 external batteries adapters: provide a few hours of battery lifetime, small, light, cheap, disposable.

$100 and above ( such as the ones found there: www.batterygeek.net ): professional use, heavy, expensive (or sometimes VERY expensive) will power any device, reliable.

Depending in which category you belong you may have to break the piggy bank to do serious work... or not. I personally see it as an investment, such as this is a battery you will keep for 3+ years, while you will change PDAs/Laptops/Cameras a few times between. May be worth it, I'm tempted getting one, we'll see how many days I can keep the N810 up; that could be interesting.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

I'd just like confirmation that the Tekkeon MP1550 does come with an adapter to power the N800?

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

[edit: not pertinent] I bought two cheap internal SIDO batteries, Charger, and Retractable USB-Nokia cable from Ebay. The batteries have less life than the one that comes with Nokia, but the USB-Nokia charger does work just fine.

FYI, I just found out you can't fly with spare batteries in checked luggage, you must carry them with you on-board. You might not be able to fly with the expensive external batteries mentioned above at all. That's the USA for you.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Yes, nicer unit then the MP1500. Overall though excellent little external power supply source. I've been very happy with my MP1500.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

Yes, confirmed.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

It charges the device very very slowly to the point where I don't think its worth using it as a charger. I found it best to use as a supplement supply to the internal battery.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

That's Lithium batteries
/edit
GAD you had me worried!!, Thanks for providing the link.

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

I'm thinking of buying a tekkeon 1550, but have one question.
Can you plug the 1550 into a wall socket to charge up the
batteries? Is there a special adapter you need to accomplish
this?

Cheers,
Rich

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

how about this LenMar - 48.8 watt-hours:

http://www.lenmar.com/web/SearchResu...nmarsku&Catid=


sells for $99.99 at Fry's

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/531...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG



size is: 6.7W x 3.3H x 0.87D - and weighs 1.09 lbs


has a USB port that supplies 5 volt

i think i may try this, probably recharge a PDA 8-10 times...
am looking to buy the n800, hopefully this will work with..

(my first post)

Re: External battery pack for N8x0/770.
 

My Tekkeon MP1550 arrived in the mail today. First impressions are that is very small (~30% larger than 4xAAs), looks nice but is pretty flimsy - sliding battery door isn't super secure and may come off if the unit loose in a bag and the on off switch seems a little loose. Shiny black finish is a finger print magnet :)

Still seems to do the job - quick check shows it charges the N800 and can at least spin up a 2.5 in hard drive - however it was reporting 'missing filesystem' which I guess might be down to NTFS not being supported?

I'm charging up the batteries (4xAA eneloop) now - hopefully get a chance to run some benchmarks in a day or two. I still dont have a great test - perhaps I'll try running mplayer repeatedly from a shell script in an xterm.