Rechargable Batteries and PDAs… “Care and Feeding”
7/25/2006

After using a couple Palm Pilot models for over a year now, I’ve learned a few lessons about taking care of PDAs that I thought I’d pass on…

Lithium Ion Rechargeable Batteries

The Lithium Ion (or Li-ion) rechargeable batteries that many
electronic items are switching over to, have a big advantage: no “memory effect”,
like their Nickel Metal Hydride or Nickel-Cadmium counterparts have.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> However, they do not do well with being allowed to
discharge completely. In fact the Palm manuals
that came with my PDAs recommend plugging in the units daily to keep the batteries topped
off.

Be extra careful about leaving a PDA lying around gathering dust for
an extended period of time. Li-ion batteries
typically have a discharge rate of 5% a month and if you allow it to fully discharge (“deep
discharge”) you greatly decreasing the life of the battery.

Unfortunately no matter what you do, a Li-ion battery has a pretty
short life span. Even a Li-ion kept at 100%
charge, permanently loses about 20% of it’s capacity per year… and
unfortunately the clock starts ticking the day the battery was manufactured.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> At the other end of the spectrum is the fact that
if you allow a “deep discharge” on the battery 100 times, the battery will lose
about 75% to 85% of its capacity. For more information check it out at: <a
href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery”>Wikipedia.org.

In my case, I’ve had my Tungsten E2 for about a year and I’ve
tended to let in run down to about 40% or 50% of a charge… my bad.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> The battery is now starting to have troubles
holding more than about a 60% charge for more than about 15 minutes and it goes from about
a 40% charge to 5% charge with only about a 5 minute warning.

Replacing a Rechargable Battery in your
PDA

Well let’s say your Li-ion battery has seen better days.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> Typically these are specialty batteries and
manufactures (such as Palm) indicate they are not meant to be replaced by the consumer.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> In the case of Palm for example, you can send in
your PDA for “repair” and have a new battery installed.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> But assuming the PDA is out of warrantee, that
route will cost you about $130 for the service, plus $40 for the battery; on the Palm
website they even state “Sometimes the cost to repair a device is almost as much as a
new one.”

This doesn’t sound like the greatest of news.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> However, you can purchase replacement batteries
from third party suppliers and replace them yourself.
But be aware, this is not for the weak of heart… you typically are
removing special/tiny screws, prying open the case of the PDA and need to snap apart
connectors on the battery (if your lucky) or solder a new battery in place (if your not
lucky).

A popular source for replacement batteries is <a
href=”http://www.pdaparts.com/”>www.PdaParts.com, their site also includes online
step-by-step instructions for most PDA models and even online videos for some.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> However, in my case I’m replacing the battery
for my Palm Tungsten E2 and PDA Parts doesn’t currently stock that battery, but I did
find it on www.Ipods99.com for $35 and it includes the
special Torx screwdriver required to open the case of my PDA.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> A list of the “Top Ten” sources for PDA
batteries/parts is available from <a
href=”http://palmtops.about.com/od/pdarepair/tp/toprepair.htm”>Palmtops.About.com.

For those that might not be comfortable cracking open their PDA, or
worse yet attempting to solder a couple wires; you might want to consider a third party
repair service. Owners on the Palm website
forums speak very highly of a PDA repair guy by the name of Chris Short.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> He sells his service via eBay, here’s a link
to his wares: <a
href=”http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZitsnothereQQhtZ-1″>eBay.com seller
“isnothere”. Here’s a link to an interesting article about Chris and
his typical pricing: <a
href=”http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=28522″>TheInquirer.net.

Other bits of wisdom

Another handy item that any geocacher taking their PDA in the woods
might want to consider, is an “Emergency Charger”… a little $10 unit that
you attach to a 9v battery, with a business end that matches your specific PDA model.<span
style=”mso-spacerun:yes”> The <a
href=”http://www.gethightech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=EC”>www.PdaParts.com
website has these too.

While surfing the Palm User Forums I also stumbled upon a problem
that users are having with some Palm models… they’re Palm is turning itself on
and running down the battery. It turns out
that there is a bug in the “Birthday Reminder” function, if you program a
birthday reminder in the first week of a year. Remove
that reminder and all is well. This problem
has been seen with Tungsten E2 and T5 models, but might be the case with others too.

Something else I’ve learned the hard way… don’t try
using cheaper third party screen protectors on Palm Pilots.
Many of them are too thick and when applied “trick” the Palm into
thinking that you’re pressing on the screen all the time.
This basically makes the Palm unusable (and wears down the battery), until
you removing the offending screen protector. I’ve
switched back to the Palm brand and I’m using up the cheap screen protectors to
protect my GPSr from the hazards of the woods.

For some miscellaneous tips and tricks for your specific PDA brand,
check out this link: <a
href=”http://palmtops.about.com/od/pdatipsandtricks/”>Palmtops.About.com.