Where to buy and how to install eBookwise battery?

[morlaine]

Hi,
A friend of mine (maybe she is, maybe she isn't, hmmm) gave me five eBookwise readers. She buys ereaders like I buy regular books.

Anyway, two of them will not turn on at all.

One will turn on and appears to charge. Last night when I took it off the charger it showed 8 hours and 42 minutes on the battery. I read for 45 minutes before going to bed and it gave the message it was turning off because the battery was dead.

Another one is similar to the one above but when it says it has an 8 hour charge, I can usually read for about 90 minutes before it turns off.

The fifth one works better and I really like it. On an 8 hour charge I can usually read for about 5 hours. I would like to change the batteries in the two others that seem to have a definite battery problem and possibly the other two if I find that is the problem with them.

So, a couple of questions.
What kind of batteries do they take? I haven't opened the ereaders. What's the point if I can't get the batteries.

Where can I get the batteries? Approximately what do they cost?

Are the batteries in a slot like you would see in maybe a remote control? Or are they soldered in and would require maybe a technician to remove and replace them?

Right now, I live in Costa Rica and it would probably not be possible to find a repair center.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[mark844]

I'm assuming that you are referring to a REB1100/GEB1150/ETI2.

Bad news:
1. You won't be able to buy a "standard" replacement battery - no-one makes the device.
2. The batteries are not like a remote - you need to open the device to access the batteries.
3. The charging/protection board is attached to battery pack and needs to be saved for re-use.

Good News:
1. The device uses 2x 18650 Li-Ion rechargeable batteries (in series). These are very common and a cheap source is eBay. Any capacity e.g. 2400mAh or more will work - the larger the capacity the longer they will last before needing to be recharged. You will need ones with solder tags though. Another source is old laptop batteries as these are commonly used there as well.
2. You will need simple soldering skills or know someone who has.
3. you will need basic electrical knowledge (battery polarity etc).

The method:
1. If present, remove the memory card.
2. You need to remove the 5 screws on the back of the device.
3. Removed the back cover carefully - the battery is secured to the back cover with the battery cable going to the motherboard on the front cover.
4. Un-clip the battery connector from motherboard - pulls out.
5. Remove 4 screws (2 clips) holding battery.
6. Carefully remove black insulation around battery so that charging board can be accessed. This board will be re-used with new batteries.
7. Make notes of battery polarity, wire locations etc (take photos)
8. Cut/desolder the tabs from the batteries where they connect to the charging board.
9. Connect new batteries - refer to notes you made
10. Use insulation tape to wrap new battery pack
11. Connect new battery to motherboard and test that device turns on. Turn off after testing.
11. Re-assemble. Enjoy using a piece of history.

Note:
1. The batteries are connected to the charging board directly via the solder tabs. You will need to cut the tabs and then desolder the leftover pieces from the board. The new batteries (with tabs) are unlikely going to have tabs long enough so you will need to solder some pieces of wire to the tabs and then connect them to the charging board.
2. Insulate all joints (wires to tabs) with heat shrink or some other insulating material.
3. Overall this is a very simple task (20 min) if you have the skills required.

[morlaine]

Thanks for all the detailed instructions. I have no problem taking the eBookwise apart and will see if I can find someone who knows how to solder stuff, or I'll look it up on Youtube.

I know this will sound dumb but could you send me a URL that shows what kind of battery I'm looking for? I copied your description and did a search with it on Ebay and got no matches. So, obviously, I don't know what I'm looking for.

I'm assuming I have to buy the battery pack plus the charger for it. I doubt that I can use the original charger for the eBookwise. Is that correct? Now that I see that in writing, I'm doubting my assumptions. :-) So please correct me.

Thanks for your help. I'm sorry if I'm a bother.

[mark844]

First eBay example: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Panasonic-NCR-18650-PF-2900-mAh-3-6V-Li-Ion-Battery-with-TABS-/262076648181

And a page where someone takes apart a laptop battery pack http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?246699-Tutorial-Laptop-Battery-Pack-18650-Extraction"

As I said, you need the ones with the tabs. You can't solder wires directly to the battery. The standard ones like the following can't be used because they don't have tabs[/U][/U]. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/18650-GTL-Li-...-/161845188714

Some eBay sellers offer a service to weld tabs to the batteries when you buy them. Just look around for the best deal.

After you build a new battery pack and install it, you can use the device as before and charge it using the original charger.

[mark844]

I've attached some photos of what to expect when you open the reader. The original battery pack (in black) and a replacement pack with new cells and the original charging/protection board. In this example I didn't wrap the new battery pack with insulation yet. Just a quick hack job to show what is required.

Also, forgot to mention, you don't need to buy "protected" cells (i.e. cells with the charging/protection board attached) because you are re-using the original board.

Don't beat me up because I'm saying this but nice as what they are/were (and I still have many of these lying around), you should really consider getting a new reader that doesn't have the issues with conversion or reading time.

[morlaine]

Hi Mark844,
Thanks for all the detailed instructions. The internals of the EBookwise doesn't look much more complicated than a laptop. The soldering would be the difficult part. Maybe I will try changing the battery on one of the eReaders that is completely dead first and see how that goes. If it proves to be too difficult, then I haven't lost much.

I agree with you that I should probably just buy another eReader but I'm a simple girl and don't want/need all the bells and whistles that seem to come with the eReaders that I've seen for sale, and come at a price. I'm also on a limited budget. Aren't we all?

I would like to have an eReader that has an adjustable backlight as I like to read in the dark before going to sleep and I would like for it to read the epub format and hold a couple hundred books at a reasonable price. Not where I'm paying for all this other stuff that I would never use. That doesn't sound that difficult to me but good luck finding a Reader like that. But if you know one, please let me know.

This is the same problem I have with buying a phone. I want one that holds about 300 phone numbers, makes and receives calls, and has an alarm clock and picks up a signal in a rural area (that's the hard part). Good luck finding a phone like that.

Well, thank you again for all your help. I have learned a lot from reading all the references you sent.