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).

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

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."

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

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!

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.

There you go:

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

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/

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.)

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