DR1000 DIY: How to Change Your Battery

[marcins]

Step 1.
Buy a new battery. I bought UP503759-NR70, you can find it here: http://www.amazon.de/Qualit%C3%A4tsa...0250201&sr=8-9
(once again, thanks rvs)

The battery you buy should be of Lithium-ion polymer type and its size should not exceed 37mm x 5mm x 65mm.

Step 2.
Gather the tools. You'll need:
1. 3.5mm flathead screwdriver
2. T6 torx screwdriver
3. A soldering iron, a bit of flux and solder.
4. An insulating tape

Step 3.
Open your DR1000

Put your DR1000 face-down on your table and insert the flathead screwdriver into the gap, as shown on the picture below:
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Then screw it a bit until you hear a "click":
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Do the same with all remaining "corner pieces":



Now its time to open the back cover. First, remove the rubber foot in the centre of the back cover:
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Then unscrew the torx screw hidden in the hole.

Next, insert the flathead screwdriver into the holes shown on the picture:
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And gently pull the screwdriver back until you hear a click. There are 3 slots under each of removed "corner pieces". Move from outside to insidde (from the corners to the side capacitive buttons), that means first unlock the top left lock, next second from the top and so on.

Finally, use the screwdriver to spread the gaps on the top and the bottom of your DR:
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And voila! Your DR1000 has been opened:
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Step 4.
Change the battery.

The battery is the thing:
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Remove it. Unstick the tape then unplug the battery (gently move the cables up and down while pulling them):
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Remove the plug from the new battery. There are small plastic locks on the plug. You should lift them up with the screwdriver, as it is shown on the picture:
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And cut off the plug from the old one, leaving 3-4 cm of the cable:
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Solder it together:
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And insulate:
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Next, plug the new battery:
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And stick it with insulating tape so the inslulation tape on the cables can't move:
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A few seconds after you plug in your new battery, you'll hear a "beep". It's your DR booting up.



Step 5.
Close your DR1000

Put the back cover on the right place and press it to lock all the locks:
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Screw the torx screw in the centre and cover the hole with the rubber foot.

Put the corner parts on their places and slide them to the centre:
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Step 6.
Enjoy your DR1000 for the whole next year.

[Billi]

Great! Many thanks and karma to you!

[rvs]

Many thanks for your detailed step-by-step guide. I'll bookmark this thread for future reference.

Perhaps another helpful tip for others looking for a battery: The dimensions of the battery are usually incorporated in the type number. In this case its 503759, meaning 5.0 mm x 37 mm x 59 mm. These are the same dimensions as the original battery.

[Iñigo]

good work. Thanks for sharing.

Iñigo

[myprecious]

Thank you very much

[MrWarper]

Hello everyone, I just got my first DR1000S and thinking of buying another one -- since iRex demise, these are all 2nd hand products so I expect to have to replace the batteries at some point. This guide comes in extremely handy (thank you!). One more question regarding this, though:

The battery seems ordinary (simply connected to the device with two wires) therefore I assume there's no complicated control circuitry and all the device knows about the battery status is directly based on its charge/discharge curve. It would also be easy to eliminate some of the plastic internal walls and make room for at least a second identical battery that could be connected in parallel to the original one. It would even make the device a bit more 'solid'. Has anyone tried this?

This could be done very neatly with a couple of JST connectors for a few bucks, so each battery could be replaced independently without cutting and soldering cables every time:



Any thoughts?

[Gwaihir]

There is a thread on this board where someone has done that and more or less got it to work (some searching should find it). It will probably work out reasonably well with two identical batteries (i.e. two new ones).

I would recommend against adding a secondary battery with a different usage history as the one already present or replacing an individual battery of the pair; there is control circuitry involved to handle the Lithium Ion battery properly over its lifetime. As you simply tie them together, I don't think that will work out if the batteries don't respond the same at all times; you could wear at least one out quickly and even risk setting it on fire.

[MrWarper]

Originally Posted by Gwaihir

There is a thread on this board where someone has done that and more or less got it to work (some searching should find it). It will probably work out reasonably well with two identical batteries (i.e. two new ones).

I gather you mean this, don't you?

I would recommend against adding a secondary battery with a different usage history as the one already present or replacing an individual battery of the pair; there is control circuitry involved to handle the Lithium Ion battery properly over its lifetime. As you simply tie them together, I don't think that will work out if the batteries don't respond the same at all times; you could wear at least one out quickly and even risk setting it on fire.

Yes, on closer examination I saw the control circuitry on the battery itself, which can complicate things a lot. I've been thinking of other possible setups like a 3-way switch to turn the device off, or alternate between batteries 1 and 2, but after all, what's the point in trying to juggle with soldering stuff to increase the battery capacity if you can just buy a double capacity battery that fits in (almost)? See this very neat 3.7V, 2400mAh Li-Po battery in eBay for under 15 bucks. It's 110mm(L)*40mm(W)*5.2mm(H) in size, so it should fit snugly except for length; it even has a 2000mAh cousin that is 3.9mm thick if 5.2mm is a bit too much, and I'm sure intermediate options will be available if necessary.

The extra length should be easy to accommodate with some plastic ribbing dremeling in a worst case scenario, so I'm definitely buying this battery and I'll do some experiments (turning sleep mode off and see how long these batteries last/take to charge compared to the original) on another DR1000 I got supercheap for parts (the screen is a mess but works perfectly otherwise), and I'll report back next month.

[Gwaihir]

Yeah, that thread.

A larger battery is an interesting thought. I've been putting off replacing mine, as the ones of same size have less capacity than the original Varta one. There seems to be a good deal of space left for a longer battery.

The three-way switch is likely to be a dead end. As far as I can tell, most of the control circuitry is in the reader, not the battery. Hence my advice to only attach something that will effectively act as a single battery.

[tjdean256]

I successfully changed my battery today! Thanks for such clear instructions.

td

[Vasiok]

Thanks guys.
Nice guide.

[Gwaihir]

Originally Posted by MrWarper

It's 110mm(L)*40mm(W)*5.2mm(H) in size, so it should fit snugly except for length; it even has a 2000mAh cousin that is 3.9mm thick if 5.2mm is a bit too much

MrWarper, did you buy and fit either one? How did it work out?

[MrWarper]

Yes, I bought the one with the 5240110 form factor, but while trying to carve my parts unit frame I found I need better tools. Meanwhile the battery from the parts unit seems to be in excellent condition so I'll use that for a while. Anyway, I've found 1.25 JST connectors work but they're a tad too small, I'll try 1.5 instead -- they just look perfect. You can get a 50x package of either for $5 so no big deal.

Anyway, since I replaced the destroyed reset control of my working unit with an extremely simple wire connection and it works like a charm (I need to post a picture in that thread), I think a better multiple battery solution is a three way switch that connects either one of two batteries or shorts the reset. You'd have to restart the device while switching from one battery to the other and take two charge periods, but you'll get 2x batteries while keeping them independent to avoid other issues. I've bought one 43HH1U1 switch; it's a bit bulky but otherwise perfect according to its data sheet. Also it would require only extremely simple wiring, no soldering and just a bit of dremeling.

I'll post my results when I get the appropriate tools and some spare time.

[rvs]

The higher capacity battery sounds appealing and doable (if it turns out to be compatible with the hardware/firmware).

A switch could be interesting too. I think I would mainly use it to have a physical button with which to turn off the device (so it doesn't drain as much as it normally would).

I'll be following this thread with interest.

[MrWarper]

OK, reporting. My battle DR1000 battery finally started its slow agony: setting a DR1000 to do no power saving, it will normally go from 100% to 'low battery' condition in about 12 hours; mine did in about 4 now, so it was time for a change.

Now, dremeling out the inner ribbing of the DR1000 is dangerous and changing the battery isn't guaranteed to work...

As some of you may know, I now use a custom made cover of which I never take out the DR1000. This gave me the idea of sticking 'large' batteries to the back of the DR with duct tape (the 5mm thick lump is barely noticeable with the cover on) and passing the cable through a single hole in the back cover. This allows for more flexible testing with different batteries without risking too much the unit integrity.

So, I set my DR1000 to not shutting down automatically and connected it to the 5240110 2200mAh battery to see how long it took to discharge. It kept responding to touch for longer than 18 hours before it froze (I set up everything before going to sleep and it was still alive the morning after). However, it gave a constant battery reading of 100%. After that it has gone through four or five cycles of very fast charge and discharge (as reported by the gauge), slowly extending the cycle period, but still not up to par with the original battery.

Since the first time this battery gave energy for a good 50+% longer than an original one in good condition I conclude the whole change stuff works but we still need to learn how the DR battery gauge adapts to a new battery. Our friend Mackx apparently wrote code for that, so we'll be testing that in this other thread.