Buy Looking for an Irex reader, US only

nhimclc · 01-08-2012, 01:05 PM

Much to my sadness, my Irex Iliad is dying and does not hold charge any more. I am looking for another Irex reader to replace it. I am a grad student, and I can't afford something too expensive, maybe $250 top. Thanks.

Dr. Drib · 01-08-2012, 01:53 PM

NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS:

Please read the STICKY, which is directed toward ALL careful Members of MobileRead.

Don
(Moderator)

pimmis · 01-12-2012, 11:14 AM

If your reader seems to function as before without any new strange or unexpected behaviour, then I would guess that the electronics hasn't got crazy draining your batteries quicker than normally. The rechargeable battery in your unit is of the Lithium Ione type (I am almost 100% sure of it), and those are said to loose ~20% of their capacity per year whatever you do with them. Even if they are just shelfed at the warehouse. The most straight-forward ought to be to just exchange your battery to a new one. This solution requires one to know how to disassembly the unit + where to get new batteries. But it may likely be cheapier than to buy another used reader with a battery in less than perfect condition (but maybe better than yours anyway). Just my view. Does anyone else have any opinions for or against my suggestion?

/pimmis

nhimclc · 01-12-2012, 03:46 PM

Thanks for your thoughts, pimmis. I have decided to post a thread about my reader's problems here:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=165038
Hopefully, someone will help me save my reader

eBookLuke · 01-13-2012, 01:20 AM

Hi,

if the problem is the battery, I have some replacement battery kit for your iLiad. The batteries are not new, but in very good condition.

If you have a minimal technical knowledge, or you can ask for help to a friend, you can check the battery status in this way:

1) remove all the torx T6 screw in the back
2) carefully remove the back cover. There are two cables connecting the back to the main board. The first s the speaker, the second is the battery pack. First remove the speaker, then the battery.
3) now you can check the batteries glued on the back. The battery kit is composed by two battery pack and one board. Thera ere two kind of these assemblies: the older has the batteries soldered directly to the board, the newest has the batteries connected to the board with a red/black detachable cable.
4) Check the battery integrity: both battery must look as flat, rectangular, silver pack. If one or both are swollen or broken, then the battery is gone.
5) test the battery efficiency: with a digital tester, check the voltage of both batteries. The voltage of each battery should be between 2.7 volts and 4.1 volts. Another very important thing is that the voltage MUST be equal in both batteries.
The batteries are good IF the voltage is >= 3V AND both voltages are identical.
A battery is damaged IF their voltage is < 2V.
The batteries are damaged IF the voltage are not identical.

Now:
As I stated, in the Museum we have some batteries for you. Anyway, the battery must be replaced both, to ensure a correct balance in the voltage.
But the bigger problem is how to send to you. The Li-Ion batteries are dangerous goods, must be declared in shipment and cannot fly (for a strange law, only if the battery travels alone, not inserted in an instrument… Bah!)
I will check for available shipment method.

Please let me know what kind of battery are installed in your iLiad (soldered or not)

Thanks

Luke

nhimclc · 01-14-2012, 07:54 PM

Excellent! Thank you so much. I don't have the torx T6 screw at home right now; will go to Home Depot to get a set tomorrow cause the regular screwdriver I have does not work. I will get back to you once I can open this thing. Once again, thank you.

pimmis · 01-15-2012, 12:49 AM

[QUOTE=eBookLuke;1922127]Hi,

---8<---
3) now you can check the batteries glued on the back. The battery kit is composed by two battery pack and one board. Thera ere two kind of these assemblies: the older has the batteries soldered directly to the board, the newest has the batteries connected to the board with a red/black detachable cable.
4) Check the battery integrity: both battery must look as flat, rectangular, silver pack. If one or both are swollen or broken, then the battery is gone.
5) test the battery efficiency: with a digital tester, check the voltage of both batteries. The voltage of each battery should be between 2.7 volts and 4.1 volts. Another very important thing is that the voltage MUST be equal in both batteries.
The batteries are good IF the voltage is >= 3V AND both voltages are identical.
A battery is damaged IF their voltage is < 2V.
The batteries are damaged IF the voltage are not identical.

Now:
As I stated, in the Museum we have some batteries for you. Anyway, the battery must be replaced both, to ensure a correct balance in the voltage.
--->8---

A few remarks: I didn't know that this particular model had two identical batteries, but don't doubt that this is the case. My main remarks are in the details - how to determine that the batteries indeed are the culprits and if it may be so that only one of them makes most of the trouble. To charge LiIon batteries properly is a real science in itself. There is statistically a slim chance that both batteries have aged in the exact same way, however from practice I would not bet my head on it.

To proper compare two batteries of the same model I would first start to charge them. Measure the voltage over the batteries during charging. There are certainly some electronics controlling the charging of the batteries. If it's a common system for both or a separate system for each I do not know. But if you measure the charging voltage and the voltage is slowly and smoothly rising on both batteries this is a good sign.

If you are able to rather quickly notice that the voltage during charging starts to differ substantially (in the order of ~0.5 Volts or so), then you can be sure that the performance characteristics of the separate batteries are not the same. At least one of them is bad. With a little basic common sense you may be able to pinpoint which is bad.

If you only can get hold of one "better used" battery, then you can exchange the bad ones to this and your reader will at least work better. The prefered way is though to exchange both batteries to a matched pair (whenever they happen to be brand new or used but to the same extent both of them and having the same characteristics/performance).

So in short: If you can find the faulty battery and only get hold of one other - exchange it. If you can get a matched set of (used or new) batteries - exchange both.

Then comes the tricky part: Assume that you did not notice any eye-lifting difference between the voltages of either battery during charging. Then you can charge the batteries to known-full status and load them with for example a resistor or a small incadescent lamp. The capacity of the battery is perhaps printed on the battery packs, but if not you can calculate by yourself if having the estimated known-good running time of the reader.

The unit for battery capacity is mAh or Ah (milli Ampere Hours or Ampere Hours). You can then easily calculate what current is drawn from each of the batteries. So then charge them fully and load them with a resistor or an incadecent bulb (a regular small glow lamp that you can find in old-fashioned torches (flashligths).

Load the batteries one at a time with a current which is ~5 times the normal current for some time (perhaps 5, maybe 20 or 40 mins). The time as such is not important as long as you load each battery individually and with the same load and during the same time. Measure the voltage over the batteries during loading (you should have disconnected the charging before all this is done).

If you monitor the voltage drop with time for the two batteries it will be evident for you which is the bad one. If you load them individually and can't notice any striking differences then it may be the case that both your batteries are bad, and not only bad but that they still are matched while loosing most of their capacity. In that case there only exist one solution: exchange both of the batteries to a matched (used or new) set.

There may also exist the possibility of that the charging electronics of one of the batteries is malfunctioning (if the case is that each battery has its own charging regulator). If suspecting this, then just exchange your old batteries against each other and it will be evident if it is the charging circuit or the battery itself which is the culprit.

Often the charging electronics is built-in within the battery pack and then you have to think of the battery + charge regulator as one unit. The voltage figures given in the refered posting are in a rather wide span. My experience is that in reality these spans are not that large. Only if the battery is very bad or about fully non-functional.

So to start with: open your reader. Check the voltages and write all down. Charge the batteries and discharge them and note your observations. If it will not be obvious to you wherein the error is you can always write your findings in a posting on this site and there sure are people around here who knows a lot more about LiIon batteries than me who can give you even better advises regarding what is considered normal or not regarding this type of batteries.

By the way: if you can't get a suitable resistor or a bulb as loading for each battery, then connect only one of the batteries and if they are parallell connected you can startup the reader using only one battery pack. You can then set up your reader so that it consumes power in a controlled way and just notice how long it works on each of the batteries. In case the battery packs are serially connected this "poor mans method" of testing will not work though.

/Pimmis

nhimclc · 01-15-2012, 02:31 PM

Hi,
I opened the Irex today. One of the battery is swollen, so I guess, as you said, it's damaged. It is a newer model with batteries connected to the board with red and black cables. Could you please tell me how I can get new batteries? Thank you guys for all the help.

eBookLuke · 01-15-2012, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhimclc

Hi,
I opened the Irex today. One of the battery is swollen, so I guess, as you said, it's damaged. It is a newer model with batteries connected to the board with red and black cables. Could you please tell me how I can get new batteries? Thank you guys for all the help.

Ok, so you can exchange the batteries only.
Unfortunately, you must change both batteries, because if the voltages of the batteries are different, the charge doesn't start.

Well, now the problem is how to send them to you… I will look for shipment rules and laws.

How much you want to offer to the Museum for the batteries?

Luke

nhimclc · 01-15-2012, 06:49 PM

I honestly do not know how much these things cost, so why don't you just tell me a price and how to pay for them? I'm just glad that I don't have to buy a new reader. Many many thanks.

pimmis · 01-15-2012, 07:42 PM

It may be that the shipping in itself costs more than the batteries as such. A business acquitance bought a container of LiIon rechargeable batteries from China for his products, which mainly are high-power head-lamps using LEDs for people in the orientating sports or for commercial use by people working outside at night.

He received a test batch (a dozen or so) of these Chinese LiIon batteries, carefully evaluated them and found that they were good, worth their price and overall of good build and design quality. So he decided to buy a container-load of them since the price would be low enough to justify such a big purchase. The container with the thousands LiIon batteries that he received from China self-ignited while on dock in the harbour of Stockholm and it resulted in a giant fire with toxic fumes and everything.

The Chineses had seemingly sent him good examples as samples and low quality junk when in large amount. Since it was only ashes left no one could proove that they were of inferior quality and he received only pocket money as compensation from the Chinese manufacturer.

The manufacturing process of these LiIon rechargeable batteries is not very easy and straight-forward. It requires high manufacturing standards and high quality from the beginning to the end. The risk of LiIon batteries self igniting if handled rough (yes, even if just laying in peace) is a real risk and there are thus indeed well-founded reasons for the shipping restrictions regarding these types of rechargeable batteries. And as a result it is necessary to carefully check up on what shipping methods are available and most cost effective and fast enough for you.

Generally (to my best knowledge) they usually don't want these kind of stuff on air-planes, they are transported in the same fashion as New Years eve rockets and fire-crackers. That is, by boat and by rail-way. At least that's the way by which they use to ship such things here in Sweden.

/pimmis

nhimclc · 01-16-2012, 05:31 PM

Wow, I didn't know all these. I will poke around and try to order new batteries here in the States. I have found some websites here that may sell Polymer Li-Ion packs. Thanks for everything, guys.

eBookLuke · 01-17-2012, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhimclc

Wow, I didn't know all these. I will poke around and try to order new batteries here in the States. I have found some websites here that may sell Polymer Li-Ion packs. Thanks for everything, guys.

Please note! The iLiad doesn't allow to use battery different from that installed. If you try to adapt non original battery, in the best case the iLiad will not charge, but in the worst case the batteries will explode!

Until now I never find compatible batteries on the market, the original ones are no more produced.

Please be really careful with battery playing, and only if you are an experienced technician.

Luke

nhimclc · 01-17-2012, 09:08 PM

Luke, thank you for your concerns. I found this thread on mobileread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26505
I think it is doable with other batteries. I will just need to find those with the right dimension. If I cannot find battery replacement, I hope you can ship the batteries to me. Thank you.

eBookLuke · 01-17-2012, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nhimclc

Luke, thank you for your concerns. I found this thread on mobileread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26505
I think it is doable with other batteries. I will just need to find those with the right dimension. If I cannot find battery replacement, I hope you can ship the batteries to me. Thank you.

Hi,

the post date is 2008, and is related to the V1 battery charger, while you have the V2…

01-08-2012, 01:05 PM	#1
nhimclc Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	Looking for an Irex reader, US only Much to my sadness, my Irex Iliad is dying and does not hold charge any more. I am looking for another Irex reader to replace it. I am a grad student, and I can't afford something too expensive, maybe $250 top. Thanks.

01-15-2012, 12:49 AM	#7
pimmis Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 34228 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Device: none	[QUOTE=eBookLuke;1922127]Hi, ---8<--- 3) now you can check the batteries glued on the back. The battery kit is composed by two battery pack and one board. Thera ere two kind of these assemblies: the older has the batteries soldered directly to the board, the newest has the batteries connected to the board with a red/black detachable cable. 4) Check the battery integrity: both battery must look as flat, rectangular, silver pack. If one or both are swollen or broken, then the battery is gone. 5) test the battery efficiency: with a digital tester, check the voltage of both batteries. The voltage of each battery should be between 2.7 volts and 4.1 volts. Another very important thing is that the voltage MUST be equal in both batteries. The batteries are good IF the voltage is >= 3V AND both voltages are identical. A battery is damaged IF their voltage is < 2V. The batteries are damaged IF the voltage are not identical. Now: As I stated, in the Museum we have some batteries for you. Anyway, the battery must be replaced both, to ensure a correct balance in the voltage. --->8--- A few remarks: I didn't know that this particular model had two identical batteries, but don't doubt that this is the case. My main remarks are in the details - how to determine that the batteries indeed are the culprits and if it may be so that only one of them makes most of the trouble. To charge LiIon batteries properly is a real science in itself. There is statistically a slim chance that both batteries have aged in the exact same way, however from practice I would not bet my head on it. To proper compare two batteries of the same model I would first start to charge them. Measure the voltage over the batteries during charging. There are certainly some electronics controlling the charging of the batteries. If it's a common system for both or a separate system for each I do not know. But if you measure the charging voltage and the voltage is slowly and smoothly rising on both batteries this is a good sign. If you are able to rather quickly notice that the voltage during charging starts to differ substantially (in the order of ~0.5 Volts or so), then you can be sure that the performance characteristics of the separate batteries are not the same. At least one of them is bad. With a little basic common sense you may be able to pinpoint which is bad. If you only can get hold of one "better used" battery, then you can exchange the bad ones to this and your reader will at least work better. The prefered way is though to exchange both batteries to a matched pair (whenever they happen to be brand new or used but to the same extent both of them and having the same characteristics/performance). So in short: If you can find the faulty battery and only get hold of one other - exchange it. If you can get a matched set of (used or new) batteries - exchange both. Then comes the tricky part: Assume that you did not notice any eye-lifting difference between the voltages of either battery during charging. Then you can charge the batteries to known-full status and load them with for example a resistor or a small incadescent lamp. The capacity of the battery is perhaps printed on the battery packs, but if not you can calculate by yourself if having the estimated known-good running time of the reader. The unit for battery capacity is mAh or Ah (milli Ampere Hours or Ampere Hours). You can then easily calculate what current is drawn from each of the batteries. So then charge them fully and load them with a resistor or an incadecent bulb (a regular small glow lamp that you can find in old-fashioned torches (flashligths). Load the batteries one at a time with a current which is ~5 times the normal current for some time (perhaps 5, maybe 20 or 40 mins). The time as such is not important as long as you load each battery individually and with the same load and during the same time. Measure the voltage over the batteries during loading (you should have disconnected the charging before all this is done). If you monitor the voltage drop with time for the two batteries it will be evident for you which is the bad one. If you load them individually and can't notice any striking differences then it may be the case that both your batteries are bad, and not only bad but that they still are matched while loosing most of their capacity. In that case there only exist one solution: exchange both of the batteries to a matched (used or new) set. There may also exist the possibility of that the charging electronics of one of the batteries is malfunctioning (if the case is that each battery has its own charging regulator). If suspecting this, then just exchange your old batteries against each other and it will be evident if it is the charging circuit or the battery itself which is the culprit. Often the charging electronics is built-in within the battery pack and then you have to think of the battery + charge regulator as one unit. The voltage figures given in the refered posting are in a rather wide span. My experience is that in reality these spans are not that large. Only if the battery is very bad or about fully non-functional. So to start with: open your reader. Check the voltages and write all down. Charge the batteries and discharge them and note your observations. If it will not be obvious to you wherein the error is you can always write your findings in a posting on this site and there sure are people around here who knows a lot more about LiIon batteries than me who can give you even better advises regarding what is considered normal or not regarding this type of batteries. By the way: if you can't get a suitable resistor or a bulb as loading for each battery, then connect only one of the batteries and if they are parallell connected you can startup the reader using only one battery pack. You can then set up your reader so that it consumes power in a controlled way and just notice how long it works on each of the batteries. In case the battery packs are serially connected this "poor mans method" of testing will not work though. /Pimmis Last edited by pimmis; 01-15-2012 at 12:52 AM.

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01-08-2012, 01:53 PM	#2
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 45,442 Karma: 59592133 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: KINDLE: Oasis 3, Scribe (1st), Matcha; KOBO: Libra 2, Libra Colour	NOTE TO ALL MEMBERS: Please read the STICKY, which is directed toward ALL careful Members of MobileRead. Don (Moderator)

01-12-2012, 11:14 AM	#3
pimmis Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 34228 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Device: none	If your reader seems to function as before without any new strange or unexpected behaviour, then I would guess that the electronics hasn't got crazy draining your batteries quicker than normally. The rechargeable battery in your unit is of the Lithium Ione type (I am almost 100% sure of it), and those are said to loose ~20% of their capacity per year whatever you do with them. Even if they are just shelfed at the warehouse. The most straight-forward ought to be to just exchange your battery to a new one. This solution requires one to know how to disassembly the unit + where to get new batteries. But it may likely be cheapier than to buy another used reader with a battery in less than perfect condition (but maybe better than yours anyway). Just my view. Does anyone else have any opinions for or against my suggestion? /pimmis

01-12-2012, 03:46 PM	#4
nhimclc Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	Thanks for your thoughts, pimmis. I have decided to post a thread about my reader's problems here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=165038 Hopefully, someone will help me save my reader

01-13-2012, 01:20 AM	#5
eBookLuke Writer2ePub creator Posts: 354 Karma: 121129 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Genova, Italy Device: Cybook Bebook iLiad Kindle HanlinV2 Readius SonyPRS500 SonyPRS700 etc	Hi, if the problem is the battery, I have some replacement battery kit for your iLiad. The batteries are not new, but in very good condition. If you have a minimal technical knowledge, or you can ask for help to a friend, you can check the battery status in this way: 1) remove all the torx T6 screw in the back 2) carefully remove the back cover. There are two cables connecting the back to the main board. The first s the speaker, the second is the battery pack. First remove the speaker, then the battery. 3) now you can check the batteries glued on the back. The battery kit is composed by two battery pack and one board. Thera ere two kind of these assemblies: the older has the batteries soldered directly to the board, the newest has the batteries connected to the board with a red/black detachable cable. 4) Check the battery integrity: both battery must look as flat, rectangular, silver pack. If one or both are swollen or broken, then the battery is gone. 5) test the battery efficiency: with a digital tester, check the voltage of both batteries. The voltage of each battery should be between 2.7 volts and 4.1 volts. Another very important thing is that the voltage MUST be equal in both batteries. The batteries are good IF the voltage is >= 3V AND both voltages are identical. A battery is damaged IF their voltage is < 2V. The batteries are damaged IF the voltage are not identical. Now: As I stated, in the Museum we have some batteries for you. Anyway, the battery must be replaced both, to ensure a correct balance in the voltage. But the bigger problem is how to send to you. The Li-Ion batteries are dangerous goods, must be declared in shipment and cannot fly (for a strange law, only if the battery travels alone, not inserted in an instrument… Bah!) I will check for available shipment method. Please let me know what kind of battery are installed in your iLiad (soldered or not) Thanks Luke

01-14-2012, 07:54 PM	#6
nhimclc Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	Excellent! Thank you so much. I don't have the torx T6 screw at home right now; will go to Home Depot to get a set tomorrow cause the regular screwdriver I have does not work. I will get back to you once I can open this thing. Once again, thank you.

01-15-2012, 02:31 PM	#8
nhimclc Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	Hi, I opened the Irex today. One of the battery is swollen, so I guess, as you said, it's damaged. It is a newer model with batteries connected to the board with red and black cables. Could you please tell me how I can get new batteries? Thank you guys for all the help.

01-15-2012, 06:49 PM	#10
nhimclc Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	I honestly do not know how much these things cost, so why don't you just tell me a price and how to pay for them? I'm just glad that I don't have to buy a new reader. Many many thanks.

01-15-2012, 07:42 PM	#11
pimmis Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 34228 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Device: none	It may be that the shipping in itself costs more than the batteries as such. A business acquitance bought a container of LiIon rechargeable batteries from China for his products, which mainly are high-power head-lamps using LEDs for people in the orientating sports or for commercial use by people working outside at night. He received a test batch (a dozen or so) of these Chinese LiIon batteries, carefully evaluated them and found that they were good, worth their price and overall of good build and design quality. So he decided to buy a container-load of them since the price would be low enough to justify such a big purchase. The container with the thousands LiIon batteries that he received from China self-ignited while on dock in the harbour of Stockholm and it resulted in a giant fire with toxic fumes and everything. The Chineses had seemingly sent him good examples as samples and low quality junk when in large amount. Since it was only ashes left no one could proove that they were of inferior quality and he received only pocket money as compensation from the Chinese manufacturer. The manufacturing process of these LiIon rechargeable batteries is not very easy and straight-forward. It requires high manufacturing standards and high quality from the beginning to the end. The risk of LiIon batteries self igniting if handled rough (yes, even if just laying in peace) is a real risk and there are thus indeed well-founded reasons for the shipping restrictions regarding these types of rechargeable batteries. And as a result it is necessary to carefully check up on what shipping methods are available and most cost effective and fast enough for you. Generally (to my best knowledge) they usually don't want these kind of stuff on air-planes, they are transported in the same fashion as New Years eve rockets and fire-crackers. That is, by boat and by rail-way. At least that's the way by which they use to ship such things here in Sweden. /pimmis

01-16-2012, 05:31 PM	#12
nhimclc Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	Wow, I didn't know all these. I will poke around and try to order new batteries here in the States. I have found some websites here that may sell Polymer Li-Ion packs. Thanks for everything, guys.

01-17-2012, 09:08 PM	#14
nhimclc Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: none	Luke, thank you for your concerns. I found this thread on mobileread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26505 I think it is doable with other batteries. I will just need to find those with the right dimension. If I cannot find battery replacement, I hope you can ship the batteries to me. Thank you.

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