Battery upgraded to 3600mAh

calviny · 07-17-2008, 02:25 PM

I have the Iliad V1 but was very disappointed with the battery life. Also, I happened to buy it during the period where there was promise of free upgrade but after signing up I found out several months later my purchase date was a month outside their arbitrary qualification window. So finally my warranty has expired and I decided to go ahead and put in some new batteries.

Previously I was getting 5-6 hours with active use and digitizer once in a while. After the latest software update 2.12 I did notice that the battery life improved considerably as well as being more peppy. However, it was still not enough for my 12-18 hour workdays especially since I needed it on all the time for quick access due to the absence of suspend/hibernate.

In any case, I installed two 1800 mAh batteries:
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=2619

All it took was some shaving of the plastic that held in the original batteries to allow for a larger battery. These batteries are actually thinner but push the limit on height and width. Double-stick taped the backs to the cover for stability. I then soldered it to the power management board. Flipped the board down in place. Insulated the exposed leads with some clear tape and put the cover back on. And voila, it works! For much less than the price of upgrading the battery through irex, I now have 3600 mAh. I think the original iliad had 1100 mAh?? Or is this the new version. The new batteries are not significantly heavier. Total weight is 80 g vs 55 for the original v1 batteries.

First test after a full charge with ~200 page turns, 5 on/off cycles and digitizer active the whole time was 21 hours. I am now trying to see how long the iliad will stay on without the digitizer and some minimal use as I would normally have it.

Either way, this is now much better and totally fits my daily needs. Just thought I would share. Upgrade your batteries at your own risk though.

Thanks!

ericshliao · 07-17-2008, 02:37 PM

It's so fantastic. Could you please share more info and image about the circuit and ironing?

-Thomas- · 07-17-2008, 06:48 PM

Hey, this is way cool. Do you experience any problems with the battery status icon?

orcinus · 07-17-2008, 06:58 PM

Why would he?
The voltages didn't change...

xyzy2 · 07-17-2008, 08:48 PM

great work! Could you please post more pictures of how you set it up?

calviny · 07-17-2008, 09:08 PM

I'll try to post some more pics when I have a chance but it is really simple. The old battery connectors were desoldered. A good soldering iron is needed so you don't overheat. Or you can just cut off the old tabs with a fine scissor. I used a scalpel to score along the edges of the retaining wall of the old batteries (just the raised plastic bits) and broke them off nice and smooth. The new batteries fit into place nicely with some shaving of protruding plastic bits. The new connectors are soldered in place with good fine solder that has flux in it. If the solder is poor it will not solder properly. You need to be quick as to not overheat the battery. Overall a very simple mod for someone with soldering experience.

At first I thought my icon was dead. Just white all the time. Then I realized I had a sd card in my mmc slot that I had been using for storage. I took this out and problem solved. Completely unrelated. The icon works fine now. All looks to be well. I will see how long this next charge lasts.

xyzy2 · 07-17-2008, 09:17 PM

really creative and interesting mod, can't wait to see more pictures, awesome job.

iAmBeer · 07-18-2008, 01:14 AM

wow.. really awesome
my question is does this mod work well with v2 because
as I know the back plate of v1 is different from v2

calviny · 07-18-2008, 01:18 AM

It should work even better with the v2 backplate since it was basically designed to allow for larger batteries though I don't know for sure. From the looks of it, they just reduced a lot of the wasted space between the battery and along the top to improve stability. Someone would have to take theirs apart and see. It might allow for some of the larger capacity batteries like the 2 of the 2300 mAh.

Karel · 07-18-2008, 04:44 AM

Nice work Calviny, however a word of advice from our engineers. Lithium ion batteries can expand in size a little bit when charged and de-charged, to facilitate for this you will need to reserve some space around the battery. Looking at the pictures it seems that there is no space along the battery to expand, and this could have some nasty consequences. So we strongly recommend to remedy this.

tribble · 07-18-2008, 07:50 AM

Sounds great. I guess i will have to try that.

nekokami · 07-18-2008, 10:14 AM

Given Karel's comments about lithium batteries expanding, I think I'll wait and see what happens... maybe a month or so. But this looks like a great mod. Hopefully new versions of the iLiad (if any) will offer this level of battery power... and/or user replaceable batteries. (And a resume function, of course.)

calviny · 07-18-2008, 03:09 PM

Thanks everyone and thanks Karel for your comments. I think the expansion of the battery during charge-discharge should be okay. The battery is ~1.5 mm thinner than the original. There is room to expand lengthwise at least 5% towards the top and widthwise ~5% except at the point shown by the arrow where I had to shave a little off the screw spacer. The fit is not extremely tight due to the packaging with the folded excess edges and should allow for a few mm expansion even between this point and the opposite edge. But it could be of concern and after many hundred charge-discharge cycles could weaken the battery here. I will let you know if I ever have any problems.

Immediately after a charge cycle, I did not notice any significant expansion of the battery pack. If the battery were shorted however or the battery protection circuit failed for whatever reason, the temperature change could cause significant expansion more than what is allowed here and be dangerous. It is important to make sure the leads are correctly connected and insulated to prevent this possibility. The battery I ordered is UL listed so it should be okay. The circuit is the original circuit and I hope it has overtemp protection.
A less wide or less tall battery may have been a better fit but there are not too many commercially available batteries that I could find online with the parameters I was looking for.

As far as the mod goes. The case can be removed with a T-6 torx driver. A credit card slid a long the edges releases the tabs as in any small device. There is a speaker cable connected and a battery cable so do not pry the whole back cover off to quickly without disconnecting these first. See pictures for the plastic bits I removed. Additional pictures show placement of original battery and feint white lines around it where the removed walls used to be. Also the screw holes where a bracket was attached to hold the old batteries in place was removed. The last picture shows the batteries and circuit in place. I have cellophane tape covering all the exposed leads and anything that may short and also to hold the pieces down. I also used some electrical tape not shown to cover the same areas for extra protection.

So far I am getting about 20-21 hrs per charge with or without stylus removed. I think the orig is 2x 1100 mAh batteries so it should be 63% more use per charge. I think it seems to be about right although I was hoping for more.

Hope this helps and beware of chance of exploding battery.

-Thomas- · 07-18-2008, 06:39 PM

Again, this is very cool...

Maybe you could drop us a weekly note so we know that you didn't explode?

ericshliao · 07-18-2008, 09:50 PM

Thanks for calviny's detail info. It's the most useful mod for iLiad that I've ever seen. I will give it a try after the warranty expired.

07-17-2008, 02:25 PM	#1
calviny Member Posts: 10 Karma: 188 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: iliad	Battery upgraded to 3600mAh I have the Iliad V1 but was very disappointed with the battery life. Also, I happened to buy it during the period where there was promise of free upgrade but after signing up I found out several months later my purchase date was a month outside their arbitrary qualification window. So finally my warranty has expired and I decided to go ahead and put in some new batteries. Previously I was getting 5-6 hours with active use and digitizer once in a while. After the latest software update 2.12 I did notice that the battery life improved considerably as well as being more peppy. However, it was still not enough for my 12-18 hour workdays especially since I needed it on all the time for quick access due to the absence of suspend/hibernate. In any case, I installed two 1800 mAh batteries: http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=2619 All it took was some shaving of the plastic that held in the original batteries to allow for a larger battery. These batteries are actually thinner but push the limit on height and width. Double-stick taped the backs to the cover for stability. I then soldered it to the power management board. Flipped the board down in place. Insulated the exposed leads with some clear tape and put the cover back on. And voila, it works! For much less than the price of upgrading the battery through irex, I now have 3600 mAh. I think the original iliad had 1100 mAh?? Or is this the new version. The new batteries are not significantly heavier. Total weight is 80 g vs 55 for the original v1 batteries. First test after a full charge with ~200 page turns, 5 on/off cycles and digitizer active the whole time was 21 hours. I am now trying to see how long the iliad will stay on without the digitizer and some minimal use as I would normally have it. Either way, this is now much better and totally fits my daily needs. Just thought I would share. Upgrade your batteries at your own risk though. Thanks! Attached Thumbnails

07-18-2008, 03:09 PM	#13
calviny Member Posts: 10 Karma: 188 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: iliad	Thanks everyone and thanks Karel for your comments. I think the expansion of the battery during charge-discharge should be okay. The battery is ~1.5 mm thinner than the original. There is room to expand lengthwise at least 5% towards the top and widthwise ~5% except at the point shown by the arrow where I had to shave a little off the screw spacer. The fit is not extremely tight due to the packaging with the folded excess edges and should allow for a few mm expansion even between this point and the opposite edge. But it could be of concern and after many hundred charge-discharge cycles could weaken the battery here. I will let you know if I ever have any problems. Immediately after a charge cycle, I did not notice any significant expansion of the battery pack. If the battery were shorted however or the battery protection circuit failed for whatever reason, the temperature change could cause significant expansion more than what is allowed here and be dangerous. It is important to make sure the leads are correctly connected and insulated to prevent this possibility. The battery I ordered is UL listed so it should be okay. The circuit is the original circuit and I hope it has overtemp protection. A less wide or less tall battery may have been a better fit but there are not too many commercially available batteries that I could find online with the parameters I was looking for. As far as the mod goes. The case can be removed with a T-6 torx driver. A credit card slid a long the edges releases the tabs as in any small device. There is a speaker cable connected and a battery cable so do not pry the whole back cover off to quickly without disconnecting these first. See pictures for the plastic bits I removed. Additional pictures show placement of original battery and feint white lines around it where the removed walls used to be. Also the screw holes where a bracket was attached to hold the old batteries in place was removed. The last picture shows the batteries and circuit in place. I have cellophane tape covering all the exposed leads and anything that may short and also to hold the pieces down. I also used some electrical tape not shown to cover the same areas for extra protection. So far I am getting about 20-21 hrs per charge with or without stylus removed. I think the orig is 2x 1100 mAh batteries so it should be 63% more use per charge. I think it seems to be about right although I was hoping for more. Hope this helps and beware of chance of exploding battery. Attached Thumbnails

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
upgraded to calibre 0.7.14 and cant get metadata	Steve Ramponi	Calibre	10	08-17-2010 12:40 PM
Sell PRS-500..excellent..not yet upgraded	mapabl	Flea Market	2	06-13-2010 02:20 PM
How many books on the the upgraded 500?	ginalola	Sony Reader	3	02-05-2010 08:29 PM
Sell EEE PC 900A Upgraded!	KindleKid	Flea Market	0	07-17-2009 09:13 AM
Ended irex iliad 1st version with upgraded battery	tvg	Flea Market	0	01-10-2009 08:47 AM

07-17-2008, 02:37 PM	#2
ericshliao Guru Posts: 976 Karma: 687 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Dell X51v; iLiad v2	It's so fantastic. Could you please share more info and image about the circuit and ironing?

07-17-2008, 06:48 PM	#3
-Thomas- Addict Posts: 325 Karma: 1725 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Münster, Germany Device: iRex iLiad v2	Hey, this is way cool. Do you experience any problems with the battery status icon?

07-17-2008, 06:58 PM	#4
orcinus Gadgeteer Posts: 222 Karma: 540 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Croatia Device: iRex iLiad, Sony PRS-500, Nokia 770, BB 7200, Samsung i600, iPhone	Why would he? The voltages didn't change...

07-17-2008, 08:48 PM	#5
xyzy2 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: irex iliad	great work! Could you please post more pictures of how you set it up?

07-17-2008, 09:08 PM	#6
calviny Member Posts: 10 Karma: 188 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: iliad	I'll try to post some more pics when I have a chance but it is really simple. The old battery connectors were desoldered. A good soldering iron is needed so you don't overheat. Or you can just cut off the old tabs with a fine scissor. I used a scalpel to score along the edges of the retaining wall of the old batteries (just the raised plastic bits) and broke them off nice and smooth. The new batteries fit into place nicely with some shaving of protruding plastic bits. The new connectors are soldered in place with good fine solder that has flux in it. If the solder is poor it will not solder properly. You need to be quick as to not overheat the battery. Overall a very simple mod for someone with soldering experience. At first I thought my icon was dead. Just white all the time. Then I realized I had a sd card in my mmc slot that I had been using for storage. I took this out and problem solved. Completely unrelated. The icon works fine now. All looks to be well. I will see how long this next charge lasts.

07-17-2008, 09:17 PM	#7
xyzy2 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: irex iliad	really creative and interesting mod, can't wait to see more pictures, awesome job.

07-18-2008, 01:14 AM	#8
iAmBeer Member Posts: 24 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: NY Device: Kindle DX	wow.. really awesome my question is does this mod work well with v2 because as I know the back plate of v1 is different from v2

07-18-2008, 01:18 AM	#9
calviny Member Posts: 10 Karma: 188 Join Date: Jul 2008 Device: iliad	It should work even better with the v2 backplate since it was basically designed to allow for larger batteries though I don't know for sure. From the looks of it, they just reduced a lot of the wasted space between the battery and along the top to improve stability. Someone would have to take theirs apart and see. It might allow for some of the larger capacity batteries like the 2 of the 2300 mAh.

07-18-2008, 04:44 AM	#10
Karel iRex Community Manager Posts: 30 Karma: 223 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Eindhoven Device: iRex iLiad	Nice work Calviny, however a word of advice from our engineers. Lithium ion batteries can expand in size a little bit when charged and de-charged, to facilitate for this you will need to reserve some space around the battery. Looking at the pictures it seems that there is no space along the battery to expand, and this could have some nasty consequences. So we strongly recommend to remedy this.

07-18-2008, 07:50 AM	#11
tribble iLiad Maniac Posts: 1,382 Karma: 2369 Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Germany Device: Bookeen Opus (i love that thing) and iPad (what an irony)	Sounds great. I guess i will have to try that.

Advert

Advert

07-18-2008, 10:14 AM	#12
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	Given Karel's comments about lithium batteries expanding, I think I'll wait and see what happens... maybe a month or so. But this looks like a great mod. Hopefully new versions of the iLiad (if any) will offer this level of battery power... and/or user replaceable batteries. (And a resume function, of course.)

07-18-2008, 06:39 PM	#14
-Thomas- Addict Posts: 325 Karma: 1725 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Münster, Germany Device: iRex iLiad v2	Again, this is very cool... Maybe you could drop us a weekly note so we know that you didn't explode?

07-18-2008, 09:50 PM	#15
ericshliao Guru Posts: 976 Karma: 687 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Dell X51v; iLiad v2	Thanks for calviny's detail info. It's the most useful mod for iLiad that I've ever seen. I will give it a try after the warranty expired.