Energizer High Energy NIMH Rechargable 2500 mAh batteries .
those sound good. I'll get them today. Also, on the regular alkaline batteries. They can activate the led light on the charger but nothing through to the axim battery. I didn't try a multimeter or anything, just hillbilly observations.
Okay, it's off to Walmart to buy a battery charger.
I have not tried Alkaline batteries (I'm too afraid of damaging my axim).. but I was always told from the start to use rechargables.. and so I am. I think they're a better investment in the end anyway,.
My Semsons one is different from the ones on ebay in that it has no LED or built-in adapter but ladies and gents it has kept my X50v at 100% all day! i'll post more details tomorrow as my bluetooth phone was stolen today and my girlfriend is getting ready for bed so I have to get off her computer now. DAMN, I miss having everywhere web access already.
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Don't Panic!
Bobby
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In the battery extender you should only use some really good NiMH batteries.
If you check the big battery websites (duracell etc..) you will find that alkaline batteries just do not have the MaH to do mcuh for you Axim.
In the extender the batteries are in a series so you will only get the Mah of a single battery, but higher voltage.
Example...
4 1.5 AA @ 2000MaH will yield 6V at 2000MaH.
The standard Axim battery is 1100MaH (I believe) so you should be able to charge it fully almost twice (minus loss of course).
If you hunt around you can find some seriously potent NiMH AA's, somewhere in the 2500 range.
A LI-ION battery life span is directly related to it's discharge and charge cycles. It has been found recently that the once the battery discharges below the %20 mark, it counts against it as a full discharge cycle. This is important because Li-ION batteries are only good for about 300-500 cycles before they lose most of thier capacity.
A Li-ION battery should keep about %80 percent of it's capacity at 300 discharge/charge cycles. After that it drops off quite a bit.
Yeah I know much more information that you wanted, but alas it's here and archived for future searches!
According to an email from them, it is their most powerful battery extender (1 amp, as described on their website).
As a test, I ran some test cases with my x50v (standard 1100mAh battery, using betaplayer and the demo movie from betaplayer website, repeated, and movie saved on my CF card) and this battery extender (generic 2400mAh NiMH batteries fully charged) and a DirectSync USB connecting the two
battery at 90%--battery extender charges with x50v off, x50v on (no apps running), x50v on playing movie
battery at 50%--battery extender charges with x50v off, x50v on (no apps running), x50v on playing movie
battery at 12%--battery extender charges with x50v off but battery extender does not charge with x50v on (no apps running) or x50v on playing movie (I guess that running a movie and such a deep charge requires more than 1 amp)
Even starting with the battery at 12%, a full charge from the battery extender did not take a lot from the 4AA batteries--they recharged quickly.
I tried alkaline batteries but they didn't work (read elsewhere that the combined 6V is too high). Replaced one alkaline with one NiMH and it worked, but did not run any test cases.
If you want to use either alkaline or NiMH, I've recently seen a battery extender that looks promising but haven't heard of anyone using it yet. Can't find the link but it's on aximsite somewhere.
Originally Posted by Don't Panic!
I got mine from www.semsons.com and regular alkalines just don't work, I used duracells.
I got some 2500Mah nihm energizers and it finally works, If your power button doesn't light up it's not working.
According to the website (via email response to me), they have not tested it with an x50v yet.
Originally Posted by PassaTed
If you want to use either alkaline or NiMH, I've recently seen a battery extender that looks promising but haven't heard of anyone using it yet. Can't find the link but it's on aximsite somewhere.
My Semsons one is different from the ones on ebay in that it has no LED or built-in adapter but ladies and gents it has kept my X50v at 100% all day! i'll post more details tomorrow as my bluetooth phone was stolen today and my girlfriend is getting ready for bed so I have to get off her computer now. DAMN, I miss having everywhere web access already.
I saw a "power pack" thing at Rat Shack that looked similar ($15 for all-in-one batt pack and charger).... the only question I had was that it had selectable output V... in multiple of assumed batteries... ie. 3, 4.5, 6 V. Now assuming it doesn't have charge pumps, or anything, then it can't output more than the batts so that 6V would be the ~5.6 wanted by the Axim, but wanted to be sure not to supply too much V.
Does your Semsons also have the adjustable output?
Ah, never mind on that last question.. I see this unit has 5.6V out... I wonder what the actual output is on the "6V" PowerBank units (when the 4AA batts are supplying 0.5-1V less)
I wonder what the actual output is on the "6V" PowerBank units (when the 4AA batts are supplying 0.5-1V less)
Thats why the Alks will have a hard time charging the Axim, if you look at a discharge graph for Alks, and NiMH you will see that voltage drops considerably for the Alks when under load making it very hard for them to muster the ommph needed to put juice into the Axim's battery.
Battery extenders work best when you charge the Axim, and then turn them off or remove them. It just wastes the batteries otherwise, as they continue discharging. I've got a straight charger (no regulating circuitry) and regulated ones, and the same goes for both.
It's BS that the Alks have a hard time charging the Axim. In fact, fresh Alks on a non regulated charger, charge it up pretty quick.
However, the charge reflection software on the Axims suck. It will indicate that it isn't charging, even when the Axim is fully charged. You won't know if it's working until you do a soft reset sometimes, or unplug it and then plug it in hot again.
Does your Semsons also have the adjustable output?
Thanks,
Mike
Mike I have the most basic battery extender in existence. A black plastic box, on/off switch, cable that I attach the dongle to, and a screw to hold it all together. I listened to MP3's for 2 and a half hours with the screen off and watched a half our of The Avengers on BetaPlayer over a 7.5 hour period. My X50 battery stayed at 100% when all was said and done. I don't know why the math doesn't support that result, but if you get the $6.99 one from Semsons and use the same batteries I did you can do it to. ;)
One last thing. When you're not using the Axim unplug the extender and turn it off. When I was in the theater I unplugged it. When I was eating dinner I unplugged it. Only connect and use the extender when you're actually using the Axim to reproduce my results.
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Don't Panic!
Bobby
42 Soft-reset is our Friend To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Please feel free to read the graphs on voltage drops over time when a load is applied. You will see for the most part alkaline batteries will quit pumping juice into your axim after 20-40 minutes. How much power are you going to be feeding your Axim in that amount of time? 500MaH?
Again you should try to avoid using normal alkalines, they are a poor performer in this application. This does not apply to any of the Photo Alkaline batteries, but they too will experience enough of a voltage drop to make them extremely inefficient.
Battery extenders work best when you charge the Axim, and then turn them off or remove them. It just wastes the batteries otherwise, as they continue discharging. I've got a straight charger (no regulating circuitry) and regulated ones, and the same goes for both.
It's BS that the Alks have a hard time charging the Axim. In fact, fresh Alks on a non regulated charger, charge it up pretty quick.
However, the charge reflection software on the Axims suck. It will indicate that it isn't charging, even when the Axim is fully charged. You won't know if it's working until you do a soft reset sometimes, or unplug it and then plug it in hot again.
This is very helpful information!
Where did you get your battery charager? Is it one of the name brand ones, or off-ebay ones?
It all depends on your device. Alkalines worked fine with My E-125 on which I listened to 6 hours of MP3's. They just don't work with iPaqs and X50vs. :)
Why? well it looks like that's been explained here. Relying on the manufacturers instructions is silly, Who every really RTFM or in this case the little slip of paper? ;)
I'm just glad these little baby's do use rechargeable batteries. :approve:
Oh, and guy's... don't get nasty okay? I've really enjoyed this thread and would hate to shut it down for trollishness. :)
Where did you get your battery charager? Is it one of the name brand ones, or off-ebay ones?
The one I've used the most is one of the off-ebay ones. I've gotten others to use for multiple devices (my Axim and AVL BT15 GPS) simultaneously with a USB hub. The new ones I have, have USB out instead of just the Axim connector.
The USB cable for my Axim at home is also an ebay special, cheapo one. The retractable is also an ebay special cheapo one. As is my AC/USB adaptor, and my pre-Versacharger car USB charger (I've got one of those in each of our cars).
I've used the ebay one on long motorcycle trips where I've left it plugged it, and just turned it on when the charge got low. Charged it up with Alks, turned it off when the ring was green, used it for a few more hours, rinse and repeat.
Each succeeding charge cycle takes longer and longer. When the orange charge light no longer lights up, the Alk's charge is below the LiON batteries, and you need to swap out more Alks.
I do like the combination AA battery charger and USB battery extender, which I keep in my briefcase. That works really well also, and I just plug it in when I get home if I used it. When it's plugged in, I can use it for running the Asus WL330g at the same time.
The USB (non-charger) extender is really nice too. It's a little larger than the ebay ones. With a pocket clip. But again, I can use it with a hub to power up the GPS at the same time as the Axim.
I've pretty much got one of everything at this point. I can use them in different ways, to make travelling as flexible with the smallest luggage footprint possible (I never travel with more than carry on luggage, which has even less storage space than my saddlebages).
Every one of them works. When something works perfectly for you, and you see none of what others are talking about, you have to assume they're missing something.
As I've said, the Axim software lies about the LiON's charge state. You need to do a soft reset sometimes to see the true charge state. I had this happen today with my car charger, and it was annoying because the battery was 75% charged, and before I did the SR, it was displaying symptoms of near total discharge and warnings that the charge was at 22%.
The charge accounting software is so idiosyncratic, that it might display near total discharge, and then when you kick on Bluetooth or WiFi, all of a sudden it's at 100%. If people are basing their analysis on what charge state the Axim reports, it would explain why their results are so different from mine.
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