[Question] Powerboost 1000 Basic and 4x AA

[MattTheHuman]

So I bought the Powerboost 1000 Basic not the C, which means I cannot load-share the battery, so my question is this...
Can I use the Powerboost 1000 Basic, connect up 4 AA batteries and use it in the same way without having a rechargeable battery?
Or would it be better to use 3 AA batteries and leave some space for the screen controls?

It'll keep some nice retro functionality as I'm not destroying the battery bay anyway.

[Quatrerwin]

You would have to modify the battery bay if you use the powerboost either way. The contacts put all the batteries in series, which would create a 6V power source at whatever current the batteries are. That's too much for the powerboost, which expects 3-4V. I imagine you could take the top middle contact out and then drill a couple of holes into the the plastic that the contact was covering. You would then have to separate the middle contact. You could then connect the contacts along the top only (positive to positive with a wire leading out and negative to negative with a wire leading out). The wires leading out of the contacts could then go straight into the powerboost. You can do this with 2 (2 on the left or 2 on the right) or 4 batteries. That would give you a battery pack of 3V. The batteries may not last as long as the rechargeable options and you would have to modify the battery contacts in the battery bay to do this.

You could go the other route and make a battery pack out of 3 or 4 14500 batteries (3.7V each) and connect each positive terminal together and each negative terminal together, giving you a 3.7V battery with pretty good capacity. I went with these http://m.ebay.com/itm/Tenergy-Li-Ion-14 ... 0919846311 along with a battery protection circuit http://www.ebay.com/itm/221512994763. Used a JST connector and wrapped it with 66mm PVC heat shrink. Fits in the battery compartment with the battery contacts taken out.

(anyone correct me if I'm wrong; my electronics knowledge is from E+M physics classes and an introductory level hardware class in computer science!}

[Quatrerwin]

The battery mod as I pictured it would be something like

AlkalineBatteryMod.png (79.39 KiB) Viewed 11269 times

[MattTheHuman]

That all makes sense and I think I'll do that split so it'll be 2 sets of AAs running at 3v.
I like the idea of keeping it retro too.
Thanks

[Mad_Duke]

Anybody have any experience with these?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/nickel-zinc-a ... pack-n37ka
or
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ansmann-503509 ... B000WDSFPM

I was thinking about the
4x2850 quite a lot. Because that would look exactly like it's "supposed to"

[Quatrerwin]

Personally, I think it's easier to do the rechargeable batteries. I based my own Gameboy battery on [mention]razor[/mention]'s design at http://www.sudomod.com/forum/viewtopic. ... t=20#p3324

[scbailey94]

Does anyone have a link to a jst connector that fits the powerboost 1000c? I'm in the uk and a lot of the links people have posted are for US sites which either have really high shipping costs or don't ship at all Cheers

[chiz]

Have you checked this one already?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/371609604503?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

[Kilren]

Does anyone have a link to a jst connector that fits the powerboost 1000c? I'm in the uk and a lot of the links people have posted are for US sites which either have really high shipping costs or don't ship at all Cheers

@Fleder
@Popcorn

Both these gents bought some in UK. Might have the source, might even have extras

[Quatrerwin]

Anybody have any experience with these?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/nickel-zinc-a ... pack-n37ka
or
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ansmann-503509 ... B000WDSFPM

I was thinking about the
4x2850 quite a lot. Because that would look exactly like it's "supposed to"

The NiZn batteries would need to be wired the way I have pictured earlier in this topic. It would give you effectively 3.2V at 3000 mAh.

The others are 1/3 the voltage of the lipo battery used in the guide. In order to use it with the powerboost, you would need to put 3 in series (you could not use all 4 with the powerboost) and you would only get 2850 mAh in all at 3.6V input to the powerboost. That would get you a battery life slightly better than the 2000 mAh battery in the guide (assuming all else equal, though it's probably not since they're different battery technologies)