External battery pack £39.99

Maplin are selling their external batteries off for £39.99 with free shipping.

They are 4800mAh so coupled with the standard battery should power your AA1 for at least three times as long (6hrs++??).
Standard batt is 2200mAh so multiply by 3 = 6600mAh; the Maplin one is 4800mAh + installed 2200mAh is 7000mAh

Plus it has a USB output for an external HDD or something and it looks like you can charge it from your car as it is a 12v input for charge.

Might not be the nicest way to run the AA1, but at only 400g it will sit in the bag nicely and is cheaper than the invisible 6 cell.

Specs here:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?cri ... X&DOY=21m8

http://www.maplin.co.uk/images/full/n80fx.jpg

 

I have a similar one to this from Maplin, had it a fair while now, gives the One about 5 hours more juice, and can also charge your USB devices off the one I have.

 

I got this battery (N80FX)
It works OK and I got one full recharge and another 65% out of it, before it started beeping at me. It could probably keep going a bit longer, but the beeping is annoying.
It has four blue LEDs to show it current charge level. When 1 LED is lit up it has 10-35% left so I'm guessing that a flshing single LED is less than 10%.
The supply lead to the laptop is ~60cm long. I would have preferred a longer one so I could leave the battery in my bag at my feet while I'm 'working' on the laptop on board an aircraft.

So it looks like a couple of modifications are in order:
1) extend the power cable
2) kill the beep! :twisted:

[edit]
Just discovered it charges my Zune as well, which seems rather choosy as to what will charge it (none of my other standalone USB power sources will charge the Zune)

 

Killed the beep!

This guide applies only to Maplin item N80FX
'top' of battery pack


'bottom' of battery pack
The four grey 'feet' conceal four screws that must be removed

After removing the screws, you will need to push the dividing gap inwards. You will hear it crack and indeed some catches will break. After you've gone all round you will need to pull the two halves apart. The battery pack holds it all together with some double sided tape.

internal

The beeper is the round plastice device indicated by the red arrow.
To remove the PCB undo the three screws indicated by the green arrows (one of them is under the voltage selector). Do NOT pull out the PCB as it is connected to the battery pack. Pull out the battery pack (which is secured by double sided tape) and the PCB will come out with it. Locate the connections for the beeper on the underside and de-solder. Be careful not to damage the wires connecting the USB socket when removing the beeper.

Reassemble carefully ensuring the position of the voltage selector is correct. All the screws are self tapping so don't over tighten them.

extra. If the USB power socket is upside down (like on mine) it may be possible to flip it over - I've not done this.

 

Looks like there's a Samsung 3 cells replacement battery of 4800mAh (the 6 cells is 5200mAh, just 400mAh difference!)
The regular 3 cells is only 2200mAh, SourceIt quoted $75 for it, expansys list it as a pre-order item at $130!