AAA battery holder and a clip?

[Danne71]

Hello. Im planning to buy a 3xAAA battery holder to use with my Clip+ instead if the internal battery. I have one question.

At what volt does the clip turn off due to low battery?

The reason is that a rechargable AAA battery take damage if they are discharged lower then 1.0v. So the limit for my 3xAAA serial connected pack would be 3volt.

Does the clip discharge the battery lover than 3volt before it turn off due to low battery??

I do alot of kayaking in the summer so this would be the perfect sollution for me. I have a lot of rechargable AAA´s at home so this way would be better then recharging the internal battery with a emergency charger or something.

This is my first post and im sorry for my bad english, im from Sweden.

[CrowdAds]

[Hirsch2k]

Originally Posted by Danne71

At what volt does the clip turn off due to low battery?

This is what I found. So according to battery bench the Clip+ turn of at about 3,3V (at least with rockbox). As far as I know, the Clip+ has a 290mAh battery. But I think you wouldn't be able to load the clip+ with just 3 rechargeable AAA batteries, the USB port in the Clip+ is 5V.

[Danne71]

Thanx a lot! Then its safe to use my AAA rechargables.......perfect. Im going to connect the batterypack to the batterycables on the clips motherboard. Original battery is 290mah and 3.7volt will be replaced with my batterypack witch is 3.6 volt and 800mah.
Im not going to connect the pack via the usb port.

[dave61430]

You would be much better off to invest in something like FiiO device. They are quite inexpensive, take 2 AA batteries, built in charger. You supply the usb cable (which you already have). I paid around $13 online.

[Hirsch2k]

Originally Posted by Danne71

Thanx a lot! Then its safe to use my AAA rechargables.......perfect. Im going to connect the batterypack to the batterycables on the clips motherboard. Original battery is 290mah and 3.7volt will be replaced with my batterypack witch is 3.6 volt and 800mah.
Im not going to connect the pack via the usb port.

I don't think this works because NiMH (your AAA batteries) and Li-Ion (in Clip+) are charged completely different. It may even ruin your clip or it may catch fire.

[Mikerman]

Lenmar also has a small capacity rechargeable (USB) battery "pack" out, its Powerport Mini, about the size of the Clip itself, for $15 or so or less. A nice companion piece for the Clip.

[Danne71]

Originally Posted by Hirsch2k

I don't think this works because NiMH (your AAA batteries) and Li-Ion (in Clip+) are charged completely different. It may even ruin your clip or it may catch fire.

No offcourse, im going to charge them on my AA/AAA charger.

[paulr]

If it's a 1gb or 2gb clip you could get an m240/m250 v4 which has similar internal electronics but runs directly on an AAA. Unfortunately they don't make any m200's with more than 2gb any more. I wish they'd make a 32gb version and I'd buy one if they did. I sometimes think of buying an 8gb clip and unsoldering its flash chips to solder them into an m240.

[dave61430]

I have the m240. It takes a single AAA and a NiMH doesn't do much better that 10 hours. The clip is a much nicer unit.

[Stripes]

Anybody ever consider using a battery from an old cell phone with the Clip? I've got several old cell phones and the battery is the same size as the Clip. With 900Mah or more they should power it quite a while before recharging with the built in circuits.

I've been keeping my eyes open for a while now for a box or holder.

[dave61430]

If battery life is a major factor due to inability to charge when needed, it would seem to me an alternate choice of player would make more sense. You will need to sacrifice on size of course. Personally, I think given the dimensions of a clip it does quite well. Does somebody know the typical run time of the little ipod shuffle, which is even smaller.

[paulr]

There aren't any really good alternatives to the Clip. The Fuze uses a proprietary cable and has an internal proprietary battery just like the Clip (it does last longer). The m200 is limited in memory. But the m200's 10 hour runtime on an AAA cell isn't really a problem since you can just swap in another cell. I used one at work for a long time and had a 4-pack of NiMH cells that I swapped in as needed. I charged the empty ones when I got around to it, simultaneously on a 4-cell charger. It makes the player a little bigger but it's a much better system than an internal battery.

[Mikerman]

I had the M200 and liked the AAA battery aspect of it. But I found the shape awkward, and didn't like the controls--it seemed kind of flimsy to me. I traded it in for a Clip.

[JK98]

The m200 is listed as having 19 hour battery life. Did your 10 hour battery life result from using a lower capacity nimh battery? The Sanyo 1,000 mah nimh AAA battery should run as long(or perhaps even longer?) than a good alkaline.

[JK98]

Using 3 AAA nimh batteries to power a Clip+ might be a problem. Initially nimh batteries give off 1.45 volts, but then the voltage drops to around 1.2-1.25 volts. The 4.34 initial voltage might be a problem. Instead of messing up your player, why not just get an external USB battery pack, such as the Tekkeon mp1550. The mp1550 has a voltage regulator. It can also charge nimh batteries in it via USB. Using AA or AAA batteries without a voltage regulator to power an mp3 player might be problem.

[paulr]

lithium ion is about 4.2v when fully charged, so 3aaa is probably fine if you let the nimh cells rest for a while after charging them. Their voltage is only 1.45 or whatever when they are just off the charger.

[ted209]

Originally Posted by JK98

The m200 is listed as having 19 hour battery life. Did your 10 hour battery life result from using a lower capacity nimh battery? The Sanyo 1,000 mah nimh AAA battery should run as long(or perhaps even longer?) than a good alkaline.

I also have an m200 (m260 v2). I reckon I get 10-14 hours from an eneloop playing back 128kbps mp3s. I'd be surprised if 19 hours could be reached... perhaps with one of those 1.7v lithium batteries.

By the way, the m200 is a great player for anyone wanting to use normal replaceable batteries. I carry a few spares in my bag and I never ever run out of juice! The firmware is basic, but if you just want to listen to albums (like me) then that's not a problem.

[JK98]

The Eneloop AAA is 800 mah. With the 1,000 mah Sanyo AAA nimh batteries, you would get 25% more run time than with the Eneloop. So instead of 10-14 hours, you would get 12.5-17.5 hours.

[paulr]

I'd also consider the size of three aaa's compared with the Clip. You might as well just get a Fuze instead, a fancier player with much longer runtime and similar SQ to the Clip, bigger than the Clip but smaller than the Clip/3AAA combo. Its main drawback is the proprietary USB cable but that allows it to have some docking features, line out etc.

For the Clip, I've mentioned elsewhere that I think of gluing a cell phone battery to the back of the player. That would add about 1000 mAH and fit nicely, keeping the player size basically the same as before (the battery would replace the pocket clip, so no overall thickness increase).

[Hirsch2k]

Originally Posted by paulr

(the battery would replace the pocket clip, so no overall thickness increase).

I also thought of that modification, it would be nice if you keep us up to date