You assume that you’ll be able to get parts forever… after all: The Internet. But what if you can’t justify paying the price for them? [Cristi C.] was in this situation, not wanting to fork over $30+ for a replacement PSP battery. The handheld gaming rig itself was just discontinued this year but supposedly the batteries have been out of production for some time. What you see above is the controller board from an original battery, with the cell from a camera battery.
The key is protection. The chemistry in Lithium cells of several types brings a working voltage of around 3.7V. Swapping the cells — even if they are different capacities — should work as protection circuits generally measure current, voltage, and sometimes temperature as they charge in order to know when the cell is full. With this in mind [Christi] cracked open a used Canon NB-6L type battery and grabbed the prismatic cell as a replacement for the pouch cell in the Sony S110 case (PDF). The Canon cell is enclosed in a metal case and is just a bit smaller than the pouch was. This means with careful work it fit back inside the original plastic enclosure.
On a somewhat related note, be careful when sourcing brand-x batteries. Some manufacturers implement checks for OEM equipment but there are ways around that.
I used to do that with cell-phone and mp3 player batteries. It works okay because protection circuit does not have any memory. Laptop batteries are different story, they have an EEPROM with data about done cycles, cell condition and some other stuff. So when you replace cells you don’t get a new battery.
Tried this on an el cheapo netbook and it did work somewhat, seemed to charge and discharge fine. Maybe made before the H&S jackboots trampled on “memoryless” Li charge controllers?
Did you get sent this or just steal it from my WordPress account?
Delete previous post please (and this as it just an alert message)
Although I’m pissed, The above comment is not justified!
Hi James,
Not sure what you’re getting at but the PDF file was sent to our tips line.
Thanks now can you get that rude comment of mine deleted?
The file was sent to me by the writer and I was altered to it being sent any ware else.
As I said in the second post, my comment is warranted so can you delete it please!
Oh for gods sake, that should read UN-Warranted,
I wish there was an edit function and no damn autocorrect!
James, please fix your lame ass content monitoring filter. “Franken-Cell” clearly does not equal “Purcell”.
I already have but the file linked to was posted on my wordpress account first thing this morning before ending up here.
If I could delete it i would but I have reported it and I hope you will too!
http://ajb2k3.wordpress.com
+99 to the Edit button request }:¬)
use table had_comments;
select count(*) from comments where comment like “%edit button%”;
SQL Error P0003 – TOO MANY ROWS
}:¬)
While I’m still not impressed with li-cells , cost too F-ing much and just Too damn persnickity over care & feeding them still. “AA”cells have gotten acceptable shelf life now and their usage and charging needs just fit my personal needs better still.
But I see that Canon has bailed on AAs for a li-pack in the sx-1xx powershot line, So I guess when I can’t trawl C’list for working AA powered models , then im going to have to deal with the lithiums.
Was a shame when Panasonic dropped AAs from the Lumix line.
I liked the reds and highlights much better withe Panys.
But Panansonic went to lithiums and cell-DRM first…ARRGH!
$40~$50 USD per battery pack?? and you need to carry a minimum
of two spares (prefer having 3) batteries when you head out to shoot pics on along day.
Sigh…. Looks like I’m going to have to ghetto rig/hack an AA powered battery grip from a DSLR to screw under the next camera
and hope the hack mentioned in an older article of using the original power pack and i.d. chip will get me by the Fucking battery DRM.
But then that kills the small space storage in a kit with those extra
batteries and memory cards.
i do this all the time, my mouse has a cell phone battery with the original protection pcb. i also use recovered laptop batteries for practically everything.
deal extreme still sells psp batteries for 4$ no?
Generic, low cost batteries with low-quality power management/charging functions. I had one that lasted a week. I read reviews strongly advising against buying one. I suspect that Sony did not publish their specification for the charging function. In addition to that, the generic batteries (that’s what I read somewhere else) do not implement a communication function with the PSP.
Did something similar on a “broken” Sony Ericsson phone, actually used it for a full month before the replacement cell lost capacity enough to make it fail.
Protip: lots of “replacement” batteries use inferior button Li batteries instead of the correct prismatic cell to save money, I got stung by this too.
A good test is to take the untested (presumably less than 3V) cell, charge it carefully using a current limited to 0.7C where C is the capacity to 3.7V MAX until C drops to less than 5% of start current.
Then put it on a shelf for one week, if it drops by more than 0.2V it is bad and should be recycled responsibly.
This avoids much of the risk with full charging and reduces the odds of hazardous Li plating to near zero, YMMV.
another not hack stupid post. slow day at the office? changes batteries hackaday makes a post. brilliant.
Very nice tip. I bought a NB-6L battery from Walmart for 3$ and used it to fix the PSP battery. Of course my kid is happy. Thanks.