K3 Is there anyway to boot kindle without battery or get a cheap battery

Bentley100 · 05-12-2023, 09:02 AM

i have this old kindle, but no battery, i was wondering if there is anyway i can boot it without having a battery installed, i do have a 3.7 volt battery that does supply enough energy for it but the kindle wont boot as it doesn't think its a amazon original battery, i dont want to spend the money on a battery as those can cost up to $20+. thanks (if u got anymore questions about it i would be happy to answer)

eddie.t.h · 05-12-2023, 01:55 PM

In this model, it will be very difficult because the battery has a chip that monitors its status and feeds this data to the cpu via the i2c bus. It will be much easier to buy a broken reader with a battery. If it turns out to be in a terrible condition, the cell itself can be replaced in it, leaving the electronics.

Quoth · 05-12-2023, 02:27 PM

The KK3 & DXG don't boot without a compatible Lithium cell (battery). I'v replaced both. Don't remember it being expensive.
But I'd not bother fixing a K1, K2, DX or DXG now. Too limited as only mobi format and no embedded font support. Just about worth while with a K3 / KK3 or later.

superpomme · 05-15-2023, 02:48 PM

Heya, yea I have done this myself with my picture frames.

I started with taking apart the battery itself, and wiring to the contacts. Sometimes this would work, sometimes not

I tried wiring 3.7v directly in. This would boot as far as booting the kindle framework then reset (monitoring over serial).

I figured the current draw was what was doing it and added capacitors. It was flakey. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't and it was too bulky to fit inside the case.

After a loooooad of testing, it seems the easiest way is to just hook 5v usb directly on to the contacts. Please see the first image which is with capacitors and diodes to drop the voltage down from 5v.

The second and third rows are the setup I went with. It could do with a top on the pin channel things to hold them down, but it works well.

Is 5v going to damage it? I don't know. Possibly. It hasn't broken any of the ones that I am playing with so far. YMMV. Don't sue me if your house burns down (tho tbh I figure it's safer than dodgy 10 year old lithiums)

Click image for larger version

Name: kbatt.jpg
Views: 334
Size: 231.5 KB
ID: 201690

Happy to share the models for the latest clip and for the old setups (there were many) if of interest.

Oh, one thing to note, you first need to boot it with a battery to be able to add the battery fail override

/etc/init.d/battcheck

# Don't check battery if we're on prototype/reference hardware
_SKIP_CHECK=1

Kind regards

superpomme · 05-15-2023, 02:57 PM

http://23.94.143.123/kindle/kindle_header.stl

As for buying batteries it was around £15 I think, which is more than you can buy a faulty k3 for (7-12 quid).

I was running one with a drone battery in for a little while, which did work but was flakey again. Wouldn't choose that for a kindle I wanted to take places with me, but if you're after using it for a weather clock or picture frame etc, then a usb powered setup will work

This is my use case: https://youtu.be/1u91N8Ai91s
The two larger frames here are to mask the keyboards from k3s, and both are using this external usb cable for power

Bentley100 · 05-26-2023, 09:07 AM

I'm writing this in a final attempt to see if anyone has any suggestions on how I can bring my Kindle 3 back to life.

It all started a while back when I went to read and the screen stated 'Empty Battery'. So I tried the often suggested, let it charge for 24+ hours. Tried that and same result. I then noticed the back was bulging a little where the battery is located...opened the device up and the battery was indeed bulging.

So off to Ebay, where I purchased an after market replacement battery...waited a few days and installed the new battery. After installation, I let it charge for 24 hours plus and got the 'Empty Battery' screen.

Things I have tried:
Replaced the battery
I bought a replacement battery off of ebay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-OEM-Bat...A/153903747668)

Charge the device
I've tried charging: via USB power (computer), via stock charger & stock cable, via stock charger & alt cable, via alt charger & stock cable

I tried charging before and after installing the replacement battery.

I'm not sure if this is relevant but I've noticed (I've been trying to resurrect this thing for a couple of weeks now) that even when charging on the 'Empty Battery' screen, eventually the orange charging light will go off.

'Soft reset'
Press and hold on the power switch for 15 seconds.

This just takes me back to the 'Empty Battery' screen.

'Hard reset'
Press and hold on the power switch for 15 seconds.

Wait for the green light, then press and hold 'HOME'.

On the device reset screen, type in "RESET"

On the recovery mode screen, press R.

Here the screen says, please wait while your Kindle starts up...I eventually get a progress bar and it gets about 30% complete and back to the 'Empty Battery' screen

Contacting Amazon Support
I was told no dice, but they gave me a decent offer on a discount.

Measured voltage on the new batter
Just yesterday, I borrowed a voltage meter and confirmed the battery did have voltage (3.88 IIRC)...so it does seem like the new batter is actually getting charged.

superpomme · 06-01-2023, 08:06 PM

Heya, sorry, I didn't see your response.

I can't promise that these are the best things, but this is what I would try:

1. if it can change the image on the screen, and it can go into recovery then it would be worth giving Kubrick a try. I had one that crashed on boot each time which kubrick was able to recover. It runs as a boot cd/usb and has a walkthrough to downgrade it. One thing to note, I run it on a usb and it says that it failed to boot. If i type "exit" into the prompt then it runs. I have no idea why, but I found a post buried somewhere where they had found the same.

2. if you have one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154990999480 , have a use for one, or you're not already sick of buying parts to try and resurrect the kindle then you can directly connect to the serial on the back of the kindle to read what it is doing There is a detachable little doodad that I soldered to and can connect to whichever kindle I am working on. You can then use putty to connect to it. Watch the voltage tho, it needs to be at 1.8V (this one has a toggle for it - you may be able to find better/ cheaper ones, that's just the one I used).

The battery thing sounds to me like the thing the kindle does when it doesn't have that flag to ignore the battery. If that's the case then it will show that it is shutting down when you're on serial.

The other thing to consider is how long you want to spend trying to fix it. If you don't have the TTL thing and wouldn't have a use for it outside of this then it's an added expense when it still might not work. All my tests with the battery stuff took so much of my time, but I had a bunch of them that I wanted to get working so It didn't matter as much. The ones on ebay are almost always broken in one of two ways - the screen is broken or the battery it broken. If you already have the replacement battery then you could potentially just buy one that has a dead battery (tho you run the risk it has another issue.). Or, as you say, go with the amazon version.

edit: sorry, I re-read that and it comes across overly negative. Personally I would keep trying with it. If it is that flag then hopefully via serial you can get that changed. If it stays on while in the recovery mode then it does sound like battery itself is supplying power. In my attempts when the power was too low it would trip each time it went to change the screen, but yours seems to be able to get further than that.

Hope that can be of help

Bentley100 · 06-06-2023, 06:41 AM

Hey, i got kubrick working, now im stuck on getting the kindle into usb downloader mode, i can get into recovery mode and reset it, now i just need to get into that, pls help

Bentley100 · 06-07-2023, 08:48 AM

Hey guys, i got a k3 keyboard and it was stuck on this cycle before. you can see the cycle on this yt vid that i made -->https://youtu.be/SZ1mUUXTerw

I tried kubrick on it, now it is just stuck on the empty battery screen. But when i held the power button and pressed the home key simultaneously i got into a mode where i could reset it. now that i have reset it i went through recovery mode and now its just stuck on "please wait a moment while your kindle starts up". Any ideas? i did get a new battery too but that has seemed to change nothing.
Cheers mate

05-12-2023, 09:02 AM	#1
Bentley100 Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2023 Device: Kindle 3 (D00901)	Is there anyway to boot kindle without battery or get a cheap battery i have this old kindle, but no battery, i was wondering if there is anyway i can boot it without having a battery installed, i do have a 3.7 volt battery that does supply enough energy for it but the kindle wont boot as it doesn't think its a amazon original battery, i dont want to spend the money on a battery as those can cost up to $20+. thanks (if u got anymore questions about it i would be happy to answer)

05-15-2023, 02:48 PM	#4
superpomme Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 100218 Join Date: May 2021 Device: kobo touch, k3, k4, Nook Simple touch	Heya, yea I have done this myself with my picture frames. I started with taking apart the battery itself, and wiring to the contacts. Sometimes this would work, sometimes not I tried wiring 3.7v directly in. This would boot as far as booting the kindle framework then reset (monitoring over serial). I figured the current draw was what was doing it and added capacitors. It was flakey. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't and it was too bulky to fit inside the case. After a loooooad of testing, it seems the easiest way is to just hook 5v usb directly on to the contacts. Please see the first image which is with capacitors and diodes to drop the voltage down from 5v. The second and third rows are the setup I went with. It could do with a top on the pin channel things to hold them down, but it works well. Is 5v going to damage it? I don't know. Possibly. It hasn't broken any of the ones that I am playing with so far. YMMV. Don't sue me if your house burns down (tho tbh I figure it's safer than dodgy 10 year old lithiums) Happy to share the models for the latest clip and for the old setups (there were many) if of interest. Oh, one thing to note, you first need to boot it with a battery to be able to add the battery fail override /etc/init.d/battcheck # Don't check battery if we're on prototype/reference hardware _SKIP_CHECK=1 Kind regards Last edited by issybird; 05-26-2023 at 01:44 PM.

05-26-2023, 09:07 AM	#6
Bentley100 Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2023 Device: Kindle 3 (D00901)	Help I'm writing this in a final attempt to see if anyone has any suggestions on how I can bring my Kindle 3 back to life. It all started a while back when I went to read and the screen stated 'Empty Battery'. So I tried the often suggested, let it charge for 24+ hours. Tried that and same result. I then noticed the back was bulging a little where the battery is located...opened the device up and the battery was indeed bulging. So off to Ebay, where I purchased an after market replacement battery...waited a few days and installed the new battery. After installation, I let it charge for 24 hours plus and got the 'Empty Battery' screen. Things I have tried: Replaced the battery I bought a replacement battery off of ebay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-OEM-Bat...A/153903747668) Charge the device I've tried charging: via USB power (computer), via stock charger & stock cable, via stock charger & alt cable, via alt charger & stock cable I tried charging before and after installing the replacement battery. I'm not sure if this is relevant but I've noticed (I've been trying to resurrect this thing for a couple of weeks now) that even when charging on the 'Empty Battery' screen, eventually the orange charging light will go off. 'Soft reset' Press and hold on the power switch for 15 seconds. This just takes me back to the 'Empty Battery' screen. 'Hard reset' Press and hold on the power switch for 15 seconds. Wait for the green light, then press and hold 'HOME'. On the device reset screen, type in "RESET" On the recovery mode screen, press R. Here the screen says, please wait while your Kindle starts up...I eventually get a progress bar and it gets about 30% complete and back to the 'Empty Battery' screen Contacting Amazon Support I was told no dice, but they gave me a decent offer on a discount. Measured voltage on the new batter Just yesterday, I borrowed a voltage meter and confirmed the battery did have voltage (3.88 IIRC)...so it does seem like the new batter is actually getting charged.

06-01-2023, 08:06 PM	#7
superpomme Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 100218 Join Date: May 2021 Device: kobo touch, k3, k4, Nook Simple touch	Heya, sorry, I didn't see your response. I can't promise that these are the best things, but this is what I would try: 1. if it can change the image on the screen, and it can go into recovery then it would be worth giving Kubrick a try. I had one that crashed on boot each time which kubrick was able to recover. It runs as a boot cd/usb and has a walkthrough to downgrade it. One thing to note, I run it on a usb and it says that it failed to boot. If i type "exit" into the prompt then it runs. I have no idea why, but I found a post buried somewhere where they had found the same. 2. if you have one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154990999480 , have a use for one, or you're not already sick of buying parts to try and resurrect the kindle then you can directly connect to the serial on the back of the kindle to read what it is doing There is a detachable little doodad that I soldered to and can connect to whichever kindle I am working on. You can then use putty to connect to it. Watch the voltage tho, it needs to be at 1.8V (this one has a toggle for it - you may be able to find better/ cheaper ones, that's just the one I used). The battery thing sounds to me like the thing the kindle does when it doesn't have that flag to ignore the battery. If that's the case then it will show that it is shutting down when you're on serial. The other thing to consider is how long you want to spend trying to fix it. If you don't have the TTL thing and wouldn't have a use for it outside of this then it's an added expense when it still might not work. All my tests with the battery stuff took so much of my time, but I had a bunch of them that I wanted to get working so It didn't matter as much. The ones on ebay are almost always broken in one of two ways - the screen is broken or the battery it broken. If you already have the replacement battery then you could potentially just buy one that has a dead battery (tho you run the risk it has another issue.). Or, as you say, go with the amazon version. edit: sorry, I re-read that and it comes across overly negative. Personally I would keep trying with it. If it is that flag then hopefully via serial you can get that changed. If it stays on while in the recovery mode then it does sound like battery itself is supplying power. In my attempts when the power was too low it would trip each time it went to change the screen, but yours seems to be able to get further than that. Hope that can be of help Last edited by superpomme; 06-01-2023 at 08:25 PM.

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05-12-2023, 01:55 PM	#2
eddie.t.h Groupie Posts: 199 Karma: 123456 Join Date: Jan 2018 Device: Too Much Kindle :-)	In this model, it will be very difficult because the battery has a chip that monitors its status and feeds this data to the cpu via the i2c bus. It will be much easier to buy a broken reader with a battery. If it turns out to be in a terrible condition, the cell itself can be replaced in it, leaving the electronics.

05-12-2023, 02:27 PM	#3
Quoth the rook, bossing Never. Posts: 12,368 Karma: 92073397 Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Ireland Device: All 4 Kinds: epub eink, Kindle, android eink, NxtPaper11	The KK3 & DXG don't boot without a compatible Lithium cell (battery). I'v replaced both. Don't remember it being expensive. But I'd not bother fixing a K1, K2, DX or DXG now. Too limited as only mobi format and no embedded font support. Just about worth while with a K3 / KK3 or later.

05-15-2023, 02:57 PM	#5
superpomme Enthusiast Posts: 42 Karma: 100218 Join Date: May 2021 Device: kobo touch, k3, k4, Nook Simple touch	http://23.94.143.123/kindle/kindle_header.stl As for buying batteries it was around £15 I think, which is more than you can buy a faulty k3 for (7-12 quid). I was running one with a drone battery in for a little while, which did work but was flakey again. Wouldn't choose that for a kindle I wanted to take places with me, but if you're after using it for a weather clock or picture frame etc, then a usb powered setup will work This is my use case: https://youtu.be/1u91N8Ai91s The two larger frames here are to mask the keyboards from k3s, and both are using this external usb cable for power

06-06-2023, 06:41 AM	#8
Bentley100 Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2023 Device: Kindle 3 (D00901)	Hey, i got kubrick working, now im stuck on getting the kindle into usb downloader mode, i can get into recovery mode and reset it, now i just need to get into that, pls help

06-07-2023, 08:48 AM	#9
Bentley100 Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2023 Device: Kindle 3 (D00901)	Hey guys, i got a k3 keyboard and it was stuck on this cycle before. you can see the cycle on this yt vid that i made -->https://youtu.be/SZ1mUUXTerw I tried kubrick on it, now it is just stuck on the empty battery screen. But when i held the power button and pressed the home key simultaneously i got into a mode where i could reset it. now that i have reset it i went through recovery mode and now its just stuck on "please wait a moment while your kindle starts up". Any ideas? i did get a new battery too but that has seemed to change nothing. Cheers mate