RE:Video players & battery life;

[mcha]

Hi all - I'm off long-hauling it shortly, & am having a look at battery
life & options for keeping my FSPL720 alive.

My thoughts re options on the battery were :
1.Battery extenders; 2.Buying another battery; 3.'Airplane chargers'.

Re #1, I bought an extender that says it works with my PDA, but it
doesn't actually seem to charge the battery. It sometimes appears to
do so, but, unlike when charging from the mains, the PDA switches itself
off during the charge process, & then there's no further charging. Also,
the charging screen, doesn't actually display 'charging' at any time [it
obviously does via the mains]. The cable I'm using works fine with the
mains. Is this a duff extender??

#2:Approx £30, so a possibility.

#3:Anyone spotted any of these? Do bigger airlines allow this these days?

Finally, I'm also trying to work out exactly how much video playback time I should get. I've played a 15 min video [in WMP (50+mb .wmv)] several times now, & this takes on average, approx 10% of the battery, leading me to believe, I should be able to get approx 150 min from a full charge. I've seen '6 hours 8 minutes' quoted on PPCT for the Loox's battery life
[main battery = 1640 mAh]. Any ideas why the difference?

Thanks in anticipation! Mark.

[Menneisyys]

Hi all - I'm off long-hauling it shortly, & am having a look at battery
life & options for keeping my FSPL720 alive.

My thoughts re options on the battery were :
1.Battery extenders; 2.Buying another battery; 3.'Airplane chargers'.

Re #1, I bought an extender that says it works with my PDA, but it
doesn't actually seem to charge the battery. It sometimes appears to
do so, but, unlike when charging from the mains, the PDA switches itself
off during the charge process, & then there's no further charging. Also,
the charging screen, doesn't actually display 'charging' at any time [it
obviously does via the mains]. The cable I'm using works fine with the
mains. Is this a duff extender??

#2:Approx £30, so a possibility.

#3:Anyone spotted any of these? Do bigger airlines allow this these days?

Finally, I'm also trying to work out exactly how much video playback time I should get. I've played a 15 min video [in WMP (50+mb .wmv)] several times now, & this takes on average, approx 10% of the battery, leading me to believe, I should be able to get approx 150 min from a full charge. I've seen '6 hours 8 minutes' quoted on PPCT for the Loox's battery life
[main battery = 1640 mAh]. Any ideas why the difference?

Thanks in anticipation! Mark.

1. what is the specified and the REAL Voltage of the extender you use? (Remember that the PL720 can easily require 1.5 or even 2 Ampers while recharging & doing CPU-intensive stuff). With high Amperages like that, no wonder your xtender doesn't charge the PDA if its Voltage drops under 4.6-4.8 Volts.

2. 6 hours 8 minutes isn't meant for video playing. Video playing indeed consumes battery really fast. That is, the 150 minutes you've mentioned is the right value upon playing videos (that's also my experience with TCPMP, full PAL-sized video and maximal backlight) - definitely less than the time cited.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

I'll second Menny on this - the Loox's current requirements means most battery extenders just won't work on it. I've tried a couple (internal LIon, not AA batteries) that work with virtually anything else with the same voltage requirements, but not the Loox - under load the voltage dropped to 4.3V, which the Loox will not accept.

If you want to go this route, get something that's known to work - like this one (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=44494&highlight=socket). That's 7200 mAH, or about 4 times the capacity of the Loox battery. The downside is the price - but that's your call.

I'm not in love with carrying extra batteries, I'd rather explore option 1, mainly because you can think about powering more than one of your gadgets at the same time.

Option 3 is good for me as well - even with an external battery pack, you might want to recharge that at some point.

[mcha]

Hi - Thanks for the update & advice.

I've no idea re the spec of the battery extender - it came as part of
a travel bundle, & I just expected that it would work! Wrong!

Ok, sounds like approx a 2 hour movie per Loox battery charge..

I've been talked out of the battery extender route because of
the Loox's 'special' charge requirements, but am very interested
in the Eastgear product mentioned on hishamh's reference. That should
get me through the flight with 2/3 movies!

Thanks for all your input - very helpful, as ever! Best regards.

[mcha]

Unbelievably - I've just received the following from [email protected] -

"We are very sorry to inform you that we are unable to sell you the Ultimate
Battery Pack as my technical support do not have the Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Loox
720 to test it out, so to play safe we will not sell you the product, and I will
advice my finance dept. to refund you the payment via PayPal"

Hishamh or anybody else out there - can you confirm that the EastGear battery pack does work with the FSPL720?

Thanks again for your help!

[Menneisyys]

Unbelievably - I've just received the following from [email protected] -

"We are very sorry to inform you that we are unable to sell you the Ultimate
Battery Pack as my technical support do not have the Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Loox
720 to test it out, so to play safe we will not sell you the product, and I will
advice my finance dept. to refund you the payment via PayPal"

Hishamh or anybody else out there - can you confirm that the EastGear battery pack does work with the FSPL720?

Thanks again for your help!

If it's working with all non-Axim devices (that is, all Pocket PC's that require 5V/2A - note that Axims are an exception because they require 5.4V/2A), then, I'm absolutely sure it'll work with the PL720 too.

[mcha]

FYI [or otherwise], here's my latest reply to EastGear, suggesting that I'll probably now go the replacement Loox battery route. Thanks for all your input.

>>
Dear Eastgear - I've just had a chat with a colleague about amps/ volts/ mah etc, & am realising it's not as simple as I'd hoped. What originally attracted me to your product was the top line 8800mah that to my limited knowledge suggested 5x more battery life than my Loox [1640 mAh].

The following I don't really understand, but it's been suggested to me that operating at 6V [2x3v, in parallel] will only deliver a max 4400mah, &, because of the Loox's requirements, might yield even less than that. So, I would basically be down to only c.2/2.5x Loox battery life with the added disincentive of not being 100% certain that it would work with the Loox [+ having to lug an extra charger around!].

This is leading me back in the direction of a replacement Loox battery.

Thank-you for your time, & for 'putting the customer first' by not being willing to sell me a product that we're not sure would work.

Best regards, Mark.
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