I present to you the
FrankenZen, my heavily modified
Creative Zen USB2.0 mp3 player.
In the course of its six years of life it's had a hard drive swap (20 -> 40GB) and a previous battery modification, when its own cell had aged enough that runtime had become unacceptably short. Additionally, some fault developed that stopped it charging the battery and running from its DC adapter, so a mere cell swap wouldn't do - I needed something I could recharge separately.
I attempted to run it on
RCR123 cells, but they proved too weedy for the 1.2A spike of the hard disk spinning up, so I decided something with more grunt was in order.
A few hours with the Dremel, the soldering iron and the hot glue gun, a few parts salvaged here and there, and this is the result:
The (relatively) big cell is a
18650 LiIon, as used in laptop battery packs and serious flashlights. The particular one in the pictures is an old, tired one ripped out of a laptop pack, originally 1800mah, now with about half of its capacity left.
I also have a 1800mah and two (manufacturer-rated) 2400mah ones, all new, so I'm in no danger of shortages.
The battery holder is completely homemade (haven't managed to find ready-made 18650 holders yet), the wires are chunky to avoid resistance loss and there's a two-stage switch that allows me to run it from the 18650 cell or from the external leads (the ones with the bullet connectors on the ends; I'll fashion up some way to stop them dangling like that), but not from both at the same time to avoid short circuits.
The external connection is useful in case I want to run it from some other LiIon cell (I've got a few sitting around), NiMH AAs in a holder or a DC power supply (the latter mostly for uploading large amounts of music from the computer).
Also, the closing system of the holder (bendy wire for plastic bags twisted around a zip tie) is temporary. I'll think of something better eventually.
And yes, the metal covers are held in place with more melt glue. I seem to have lost the screws...
It's ugly as sin, but I don't care
I actually like the looks of hacked gadgets, and with this mod I can cart around a spare 18650 or two (or some NiMHs and a holder if need be) and enjoy monster run time.
Only problem is, it's a bit bulky... but my winter coats have big pockets, and I carry a spacious fanny pack in the hot days, so that's not a problem.
In case you're wondering, yes, I'm one of those who don't replace old technology until it's been used for all it's worth
Old players deserve good batteries too
