Topic: Microtracker battery options

[WiFiJeff]

The big concern with lions in laptops is HEAT.  Lions really really hate heat. It greatly shortens their life. 

The MT does not get hot.  Even compared to an M1 DAT, it stays room temperature, maybe a slight, barely perceptible, warmth over the LCD screen area.  When I carried it in a jacket pocket Saturday there was a tiny bit more heat but still nothing that I would suspect to lead to loss of battery life.  I am a bit concerned about the charge/discharge cycling now, will try to get more info from tech support.

Jeff

[jason]

Holy crap. That site has loads of good info.  Thanks for the link.

[Colin Liston]

It is here.  It is plugged in and charging. The charging indicator on the LCD is sweeping left to right and not blinking.. 

Mine did that too, then it changed to blinking really really fast.

[Todd R]

Ok, I put together a voltage regulator box to output 5v.  Made some cables to run it with my Walmart battery and then out to my JB3.  Worked great, ran the JB3 without a glitch with no batteries inside.  Then I made a mini-usb cable and ran it with my Zen Micro.  Like the MT, the Zen micro needs to have it's internal li-ion battery to run and it powers itself from the mini-usb port.  My Zen Micro worked perfectly when being powered from the Walmart+voltage regulator box and the Micro showed that is was plugged in and charging normally.

I'm getting my MT delivered tomorrow, but from these tests, I'm pretty confident the MT will work fine with the Walmart battery + voltage regulator box.

Some pictures of the set-up:

[jhirte]

FYI:
For those who may want to hack a cable for use with 6v SLA's :



 Pin Name Color Notes
1 VBUS Red Power
2 D- White Data - 
3 D+ Green Data +
4 ID - Type A - GND: Type B - NC
5 GND Black Ground
 

[silentmark]

Ok, I put together a voltage regulator box to output 5v.  Made some cables to run it with my Walmart battery and then out to my JB3.  Worked great, ran the JB3 without a glitch with no batteries inside.  Then I made a mini-usb cable and ran it with my Zen Micro.  Like the MT, the Zen micro needs to have it's internal li-ion battery to run and it powers itself from the mini-usb port.  My Zen Micro worked perfectly when being powered from the Walmart+voltage regulator box and the Micro showed that is was plugged in and charging normally.

I'm getting my MT delivered tomorrow, but from these tests, I'm pretty confident the MT will work fine with the Walmart battery + voltage regulator box.

Some pictures of the set-up:

Nice +T, how many hours of run time did you get ?

[leegeddy]

i will be offering the USB power cable to run with the Bumblebee VR JBox.

features:

-regulated 5v (up to 1.5A of current)
-4pin xlr connector
-ferrite core RF/EMI suppression

if you have one of my VR JBox with a 5v output, you can easily run the MT by using this cable. 

marc

[F.O.Bean]

+T marc, as always, looks GREAT!

if the MT pans out, which im sure it will, i'll def be buying one of these!

[cmoorevt]

I've been wondering how they get 6v down to 5...

Ditto.  I was thinking the zenar diode might be the trick, but this sounds like they have more parts in there.  Any chance you could post a picture of the insides?

I've got one on order but its much more fun to build em myself.

[leegeddy]

i will be offering the USB power cable to run with the Bumblebee VR JBox.

features:

-regulated 5v (up to 1.5A of current)
-4pin xlr connector
-ferrite core RF/EMI suppression

if you have one of my VR JBox with a 5v output, you can easily run the MT by using this cable. 

marc

Marc does this cable work with the mini Bumblebee boxes?
Mine is a dual output model (like the one pictured), I'm just curious..............

yes. just substitute the jb3 lead with the usb lead and you can run the MT/ua5 combo off of your battery of choice.

marc

[Todd R]

Ok, I got my MT and have been testing it using my "Juice Box" voltage regulator and a Walmart Li-ion battery:




I haven't yet done testing to see how long the MT runs with the Juice Box and the 5400ma-hr Walmart battery, but so far it has been working great.  I'll be selling the Juice Box for $35 shipped.  It should be a good solution for running several types of 5v equipment including the JB3, the new Microtrack, and the PMD660.  I will be making mini-USB cables to use it with the MT.  Additionally, I can also make a version with a pass-through output for running a UA5 or V3 along with a MT.

More info on it can be found on my post in the retail section.

[BLOODYJACK]

I was in Fred Myer yesterday and they have these 4000mah lithium-ion batterys for $29.99
Its just like the wally world battery but is smaller and has switchable voltage out. Yes it does 5-volts it comes with all the ends so powering the nj3 out of the box and a quick couple of mins with a soldering iron and you can make a 5v USB cable. You can even recharge from AC and from your car

[recordista]

Rather than using a 7805, you might want to consider a low dropout regulator like the LM2940.  For increased efficiency on higher voltage packs, you should consider a switching regulator like the PT78ST105 (1A) or the 78HT205 (2A.)

[udovdh]

http://www.bixnet.com/usbbatterybox.html

Anyone can help me get one of these? They look like they don't want to do business with Europeans. Please PM me if you can help.

[udovdh]

I was in Fred Myer yesterday and they have these 4000mah lithium-ion batterys for $29.99
Its just like the wally world battery but is smaller and has switchable voltage out. Yes it does 5-volts it comes with all the ends so powering the nj3 out of the box and a quick couple of mins with a soldering iron and you can make a 5v USB cable. You can even recharge from AC and from your car

How big is this thing? It looks like it is not much bigger than a 4 x AA battery box?
Might be interesting! (if someone could help me get one)