http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale/...esc&SortType=y

and i gotta ask.... did you read #1 post in this thread???

Did you put the second battery a little back on top of the first battery?

You may also try solder wire because it is much softer so the cover can just "reshape" it in order to fit in :-)

Hey dr_frost I have a couple of questions and will appreciate any help you can give on them. The first question is simple but the explanation I have given is very long and detailed, so please bear with me.

I have read your first 3 posts as well as the last 10 pages of this thread, I must say I'm very impressed.

What I want to know is:

1. Based on the following information, would you reccomend a single scud or the double battery method with 2x scuds?

I run an a custom kernel device, over clocked at 1150 Mhz, with 8 desktop screens active. I cannot lower the clock settings, these are the only settings that handle my heavy usage and multi tasking. Any lower and phone becomes unresponsive. The screens contain around 14 widgets and about 50 icons in total.

I am always on the move and use my device when travelling to and from work, cinema, restaurants etc. constantly listening to music until I reach my destination. This usually totals to around 4 hours of playback per day. I also use the FM transmitter for around 1-2 hours per day when driving in the evenings/nights.

I am also texting around 150+ total messages per day to my friends, girlfriend and work colleagues, sometimes these are long messages so phone screen stays on alot while typing. I am using using moderate internet for browsing facebook, emails, talk maemo, ebay, amazon, paypal and some random google searches, totalling around 2 hours per day. This can be through Wifi or through the onboard 3g connection, depending on if I have access to a wifi spot or not.

I also have around 5gb of applications installed on this device (custom firmware to allow 8gb of total app space), most of this space is taken up by the WebOS games, but currently I cannot play them more than a few mintues as it kills my battery rapidly.

I use the original nokia battery that came with this product and it is about a year and 3 months old.

As you can see I heavily use my device, I have been using it the above way for about 7-8 months now. In the beginning of this, my battery life dropped from about 24hrs to about 14 hours when I switched from moderate usage to the above heavy usage, but that is understandable and I was actually impressed by it lasting this long, it also allowed for a lot of gaming use within this time.

But over the past 8 months or so, I have kept the same usagae but battery life has gone from 14 hours, down to around 10 hours, then 8 hours and now I am bordering the 5-6 hour mark with the above usage. This is a huge drop in 8 months.

This means I have to fully charge my phone at least 2 and sometimes 3 times per day.

This is highly inconvenient and causes limitations on usage. For example, within these 6 hours full charge, about 3 hours would be music, maybe 30 mins to an hour of browsing. Alot of texting (still 150 or so per day) and very low app usage, moderate multi tasking usage, I try to avoid it as much as possible. Virtually no game usage at all. The rest is praying the battery doesn't die out. So you can see how much I am restricting my self due to the battery charge running out so fast.

Since my original nokia battery is 15 months old, I understand this plays a big part in battery life dropping as prolonged usage lowers efficiency. Combined with the heavy usage of this phone and overclocking to 1150 Mhz, I understand why I have killed this battery from 14 hours down to about 6 hours in 8 months.

I don't mind buying another original Nokia battery for £25 and use it for another 8 months, then replace it again. This is worth it to me as I use my phone heavily for its multi tasking capabilites. I love it and rely on it for many many hours of day to day use. So I was going to buy the original Nokia battery again but came across your thread.

I know the scud is better than the original nokia battery, so I will definitely be buying that instead.

But my question is, for the heavy usage that I have described in detail above, will one Scud be enough? I am honestly not sure, but have a feeling I will have to do your dual battery mod with 2x scuds.

I don't have any desire to last a single charge for more than 24 hours, let alone 3 days. In fact if I get the 14 hours that I used to get on one charge, with such heavy usage, I will be so so happy and grateful!

Could you please do this test for me and find out? Leave the wifi on and media player constantly playing (mute it if it gets annoying), and do some browsing if you can - around 30mins to an hour. Some gaming, maybe 30mins and leave many apps running for a few hours, switch between them from time to time if you can, as well as whatever other things you fell you need to do to use phone heavily. And see how long 1x scud lasts you please?

Also do the same test with 2x scuds please? I know its a lot to ask, but I would really prefer NOT to go with the 2x scud method as I love the current back cover and shutter, and do not want to increase thickness of phone by even 1 millimeter. Although I will if I have to but I really don't want to.

So I really need to know, with my heavy usage, will a brand new scud fully charged, be sufficent enough to last at least 14 hours per day?

2. Also, second question, if I do go with the 2x scud option, is there another cover choice instead of the mugen? Like the original back cover, with the back cut out where the second battery is and a raised clear plastic piece covering this 'cut out' hole and second battery. So battery will be visible but not exposed. Only the area where battery is will be raised, rest will be with standard back cover and shutter.

Is there a modified back cover available such as this? Or are you able to modify a standard back cover to do this and send it to me? I can gladly pay for cost and postage as well as donate decently for your efforts.

If you can manage something like this, I would be so thankful. I will try to include a diagram to be clear of what I mean.

I understand this is a very long post so I thank anyone that took their time out to read it and respond to it, thank you to anyone that tries to help me in this situation.

he doesnt even have the time to make dual scud setups and sell them to us ( i already ask him before) do you think he got the time to make a modded cover?

I didn't know if he had the time to do this or not, that is why I asked.

If he doesn't then thats ok, no problem. But I thought it can't hurt to ask.

And if anyone else has the ability to make a modded back cover please post

1. I have read your post, and I have experienced the scud battery for about a week now, so I will see how I can advice you. Firstly, there are 2 main options for you IMHO.

The first is to buy 2 scud batterys and keep 1 charged with you as a spare for when the first one dies out on you. You might want to consider an external charger for when you want to charge 2 empty batts faster. Note that the scud battery has approx. 15 percent more juice, so you can make your own calculations based on the standard BL5J, possibly considering the age of the battery. Seeing your usage, 2 scuds will probably handle it.

The second is to make a dual (scud) battery mod as read in this thread multiple times, with the mugen battery cover to seal those in properly. This adds some bulk, but no need for swapping. You know the (dis)advantages of each one I persume.

2. Not that I know of, cause if there was one, one'd have probably been found by an forum member here and have been discussed in one of the battery threads. The mugen is probably better than any selfmade thicker cover.

Cheers.

Thanks for your reply.

1. Since you have a scud could you possibly do a quick test for me next time you home and have just fully charged please? What I would like is for you to leave the media player running, mute it if you like, leave the wifi connected as well, do not let it disconnect, leave 2 or 3 other apps running in the background too, conversations, calendar etc. And while all this is running do some web browsing on your phone for like 30 mins or an hour if you have the time. Leave the rest running and see how long it lasts please.

If you could do this and post your results I would find it very useful as it will be a practical test rather than a calculation. And will help me decide whether to buy one scud or two. As I am really hoping one scud can do the above job for at least 14 hours.

2. I am in the process of modifying my current cover now and will post my results in the next few days if I find its viabale to use the original cover and 2 batteries.

Thanks again!

This Thread really has it own momentum, i don't have to answer anymore i have my trusted fellow maemo members answering for me , and i thank you guys very much, saves me some time.

But to answer the questions myself:

No i sadly doesn't have the time to make battery's and modded covers for you out there, if i had i would have no problem making a small production

I don't know if one scud is enough i haven't run with a single battery since i started making dual battery's

If you really want POWER do a dual mod, it will without a doubt go for 24hours heavy usage, my previous runtime posts (some posts back) it went for 30+ hours of moderate usage (note 1)

I would opt for a mugen cover if i where you, it is no problem modding the normal cover to fit a dual battery, but the uniform mugen cover will be nicer to hold, to have in the pocket & as i stated in Q&A and many others have stated, it is much nicer to hold and write on the N900 with the mugen cover

On runtime with one scud, users have reported getting better through the day, the 15% really counts, and under high load there is a good change that it will give you more then 15%, look into discharge graphs, short explanation is that the more capacity means that it will be drained softer then a battery with less capacity, this is something i can confirm with my 1000 diy flashlights and of course my EV's + other battery operated "crap"

Note 1. everything on: wifi search, 3G, skype + msn high screen brightness etc....

Appreciate your responses, that Note 1 really helped me out. I've ordered the Mugen cover and 2x Scuds.

Till they arrive, I'm doing a little dual battery mod for fun with 1x Original Nokia battery and 1x Cheap Knock Battery, did that just now and testing how long it lasts me before dying out.

I've also attempted a mod to the Original Nokia battery cover and can guarantee that it is not possible to have a viable mod without completely having the bottom of the cover removed.

The reason for this is the bottom of the camera shutter is quite low. If you cut just underneath it, it gives just enough space to fit the 2nd battery in and that battery goes all the way down to the bottom of the phone, which means it fits perfectly, it is the correct length and measurement.

But it means you would have to cut off the bottom of the original cover, so rather than having a battery shaped rectangle inside the original cover, you will have one that is inside the cover from the top and the sides but not from the bottom, sort of like a picture frame with no bottom bar.

That still allows you to use the original cover with dual batteries. So if you dont mind that then go ahead, keep a spare cover though in case you mess up. I did a quick rough mod, didn't focus on precision and the cuts aren't clean, but if you do it with finesse it looks pretty sweet.

And the empty bit is where you add the clear plastic cover, the sort of things that AA batteries are packed in, or magnetic earrings are contained in. So get hold of one of those thats the right size and use it to cover this empty whole bit, it will sit nicely on top of the battery. Best thing is its clear so it looks pretty neat.

You can also spray paint it any color you like.

I will post up pics soon enough

First image -: Obviously the original cover.

Second Image -: This is how it *should* ideally be cut to go over the 2nd battery, but this type of cut is not possible due to the size of the battery and the position of the camera shutter on the back cover.

Third Image -: Therefore you have to cut it like it is shown in this image. Remeber if you are using the plastic cover thingy showin in [Fourth Image] then take into account its size when making the cut show in this image, as the cut would have to fit over the clear plastic thingy that would be on top of the battery.

Fourth Image -: This is the clear plastic cover thingy I was talking about, this particular one is too big, but you need something that looks like this but a little smaller, you can find these on almost any small cheap products such as AA batteries.

This is what will cover the whole you have made in [Third Image]. You may need to cut/modify this cover to fit in properly with the modded N900 back cover.


Final Note -:

As mentioned before this is a very rough mod that I have done, not clean at all, done quickly to just test that its possible. And it is by no means finished, right now it looks pretty shoddy.

You have a good chance of ruining your back cover so only try at your own risk and if you don't mind buying/already have a spare cover.

Most likely I will use this mod and buy a cheap N900 black rubber case, to go over the back and hide the modifications I have made. The rubber is stretchy so should fit over the 2nd battery with ease, should be a nice fit. It also hides my entire back cover except the camera lense, so all the rough cuts I have made are no longer visible anymore.

So I can keep my original n900 camera lens (which is the only reason why I wanted to use the original cover) and have dual batteries and cover up my shoddy DIYing with the rubber case on the back of my n900.

Still is much slimmer than the Mugen option and allows the usage of original camera lens.