How much voltage can an e740 take??

[Blargman2001]

I just built myself a battery extender for my trusty e740. In my enthusiasm to try it out I forgot that it's only designed to take 5 volts and stuck 4x 1.5v alkalines in it (which put out about 6.4v total upon testing with my multimeter) instead of the 4 x 1.2v NiMH rechargeables I had sitting around still charging which were meant for it. The screen started throbbing and there was a bit of interference on it but I didn't notice until about a minute later when I hastily unplugged the battery extender. Now I'm afraid I might have done some damage to the voltage regulator of my PDA and if not, at least shaved a year or two off of it's life.... will it? Any electronics guru's around here?

[stevey500]

I used a 8v battery pack with no problem :D

[Blargman2001]

It's a relief to hear, but for how long have you been using it?? Do you get the interference with the screen as well when the extender is plugged in?

[cooldw57]

I got a newbie question: I bought a battery extender too for like six bucks or so, and with those 4X 1.2 NiMn batteries I get 4.8Volts, but the Toshiba PDA has a 5.0 V requirement isn't it?

[Blargman2001]

4.8v is fine since the e740 actually only sucks down 3.7v. The volatage regulator inside does the conversion from 5v (or anything below) to 3.7v. As long as you're below the rated input of 5v you can be pretty much sure you're PDA will be safe from frying. You'll probably also find that if you measure your battery extenders voltage with fresh NiMH's it'll probably put out a bit above 4.8v and will drop as you discharge it. It's only when you stick 4 x 1.5v alkalines that the input voltage is a worry, but as Stevey says, he uses 8v with no prob so I guess Toshiba built quite a bit of tolerance into it. I'd stay below 5v though just to be absolutely sure.