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I now have... 16 Mobilons.

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pixelator Page Icon Posted 2008-05-02 5:31 AM
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Factorite (Elite)

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I just picked up 16 untested Mobilons and wound up with, from what I can tell thus far, 16 Mobilon 4600's that mostly seem to work. They don't seem to like to fire up with the adapter I'm using unless the main battery is removed. The power light flashes rapidly and then will go out if I press the power button a few times. After that, it goes out and the unit fires right up. Odd. The system must not want to run if there's a depleted battery on board, or something.

I don't have the exact correct amperage adapter (trying to find some on the cheap) but what I do have seems to fire most of them up. Amazingly, most seem to be in rather good to excellent condition! They all have their styli and even have the original 'HC-4600' sticker that lists the main features (optional PC card and digital camera, color). Little bit of external wear but not bad. Screens are almost all free of any significant wear or scratching at all.

So -- I need adapters and probably some fresh batteries to replace the dead NiMH cells (that are A or whatever that slightly thicker-than-AA size is). They also have some sort of diode or maybe capacitor between the pos and neg of the two cells. I found a couple of threads about this but nothing too in-depth. I assume you just desolder the old cells and slap in some new 2700mAh or some such NiMH in there and pad it out to acommodate the smaller AA's.

Nice little units. Not bad keyboard and the screens seem pretty evenly lit for a CE 2.0 unit. So far, the only problems I've seen are slightly dim displays, one has a PCMCIA hatch that needs adjusting and one unit has a slightly loose hinge.
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2008-05-02 6:15 AM
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Sounds like you have a plan. I'd venture to guess you are correct, you a/c adapter isn't supplying enough current to recharge the cells and run the unit simultaneously. The diode is the auto shutoff feature of the battery...when internal resistance reaches threshold, no further charging can occur...thus no overcharging the cell. That value would vary depending on the spec of the NiMH cells.

4600 is a nice machine, I had one, and the 4500 once, but never liked the little square keys on them....

Rich
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2008-05-02 10:41 AM
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pixelator - 2008-05-02 11:31 AM

I just picked up 16 untested Mobilons and wound up with, from what I can tell thus far, 16 Mobilon 4600's that mostly seem to work. They don't seem to like to fire up with the adapter I'm using unless the main battery is removed. The power light flashes rapidly and then will go out if I press the power button a few times. After that, it goes out and the unit fires right up. Odd. The system must not want to run if there's a depleted battery on board, or something.




if the AC adapter is otherwise alright, you have to leave the things on charger for a while (turned off, of course), then they'll be OK - at least my 4500 with a near dead battery

the keyboard is nice on them (but I see this is subjective)

Edited by cmonex 2008-05-02 10:41 AM
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Yoldering Page Icon Posted 2008-05-02 10:55 AM
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Will you be offering some of these for sale?
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pixelator Page Icon Posted 2008-05-02 11:37 AM
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Factorite (Elite)

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Cmonex, I'm leaving one on for a few hours to check. That trick worked with an E-125 I got a few months ago, so we'll see!

Other than reconditioning the packs (if I do) they do need some kind of sync cable. Without CF they're a bit limited in terms of connectivity. IR seems to be absent from many newer laptops (like my XPS).

I do plan on making some of these available, but I'd like to make sure the ones I do sell are free of issues.

Edited by pixelator 2008-05-02 11:37 AM
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2008-05-02 5:37 PM
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The Mobilon is one of the coolest CE 2.0 devices. My HC-4600 is still going strong. Battery life is definitely an Achilles' heel, though. However, the pack is pretty easy to re-cell, and you can use rechargeable AA cells for re-celling.
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2008-05-02 10:31 PM
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pixelator - 2008-05-02 5:37 PM

Without CF they're a bit limited in terms of connectivity.


they have PCMCIA... so put the cf in a pcmcia adapter and off you go
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pixelator Page Icon Posted 2008-05-03 12:01 PM
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Factorite (Elite)

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If anyone knows where I can buy cheap batteries or AC adapters for these, let me know. There's a guy on ebay but his shipping prices are insane ($15+ for each AC adapter with very little discount for combined shipping).
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cmonex Page Icon Posted 2008-05-03 1:42 PM
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generic ac adapter with the correct voltage and similar amperage specs & right connector no good?
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pixelator Page Icon Posted 2008-05-03 4:22 PM
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Can't find any - Everything at Radio Shack now is this garbage modular junk where you have to buy tips separately -- And nothing has 2A output... Always .4 or .3 amp.

I think MAYBE a Sony PSP adapter should work. The adapters I have at home will power them but not charge the batteries. Also, after they've been off a while, you have to press the on button like 20-30 times before it finally wakes up. Strange.

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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2008-05-03 4:30 PM
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You can use an adapter for a Casio PA series mini-tablet H/PC, or Casio E-series or Compaq Aero Palm-size PC/Pocket PC. Those all require the same voltage and amperage.
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pixelator Page Icon Posted 2008-05-03 5:28 PM
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Factorite (Elite)

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I have an E-series Cassiopeia charger. It seems to work to fire them up but I wonder about the battery charging.

I have a wholesale account with batteryspace (I manage a hobby store) so I may get some NiMHs from them.
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pixelator Page Icon Posted 2008-05-07 10:55 PM
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Factorite (Elite)

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Woot! I left the Casio charger connected to one of the Mobilons and now I have a 'fully' (who knows how long it really will last) charged battery! I've been testing the other units and so far ALL of them fire up and work perfectly. There's some minor variance between the screens in terms of brightness and contrast, but otherwise they're in really great shape and obviously perfect working order.

I've stuck one up on ebay to gauge the demand/value of a basic 4600. I'll make a post in the FS forum with a special deal for HPC Factor members.
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Paianni Page Icon Posted 2008-09-29 3:20 AM
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The adapter you may be using is running on the wrong voltage output. So a wrong adapter may be affecting your mobilons ... its the same with the other. While the batteries are in and the adapter is plugged in, the batteries may be receiving to much volts to work.
I recommend you stick to single use batteries if the adapter your using isn't the original charger, or if the voltage level is adjustable, investigate the correct voltage.
Good Luck!
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DanC
DanC Page Icon Posted 2008-10-13 6:31 PM
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You probably noticed the detailed power requirements for charger and batteries is on the label on the bottom of the Mobilon. You don't want to stray from those...

If you are powering up a Mobilon for the first time after a HARD reset (caused by the loss of ALL power including both batteries and external AC), the Mobilon will often take many seconds to start. You shouldn't need to push the On button more than once. It only looks like nothing is happening for several seconds, but the Mobilon should eventually start if it has battery and/or AC power.

The yellow charging light will turn off when the battery is fully charged. If you turn on the unit using AC power but with no battery installed, the yellow light will flash rapidly. If you turn on the Mobilon while you are charging the battery, the yellow light will turn off - the battery WILL NOT charge while the Mobilon is turned on.

When/if you replace the cells in the Sharp battery pack, you should use the same size as in the pack (A-size). AA's won't supply enough power. If you don't have another source, try www.batteriesamerica.com. Order the SANYO 1.2V 2700mAHr AU NiMH battery cells (with solder tabs). If your pack has a bad thermal fuse/10k diode resistor that you are not going to replace, you are better off buying a recelled pack or having yours recelled.

There is a charging control circuit inside the Mobilon that sometimes fails. If that happens the Mobilon cannot recharge a good battery pack no matter how long it is on external power. A flashing yellow light on the Mobilon means a bad (or missing) battery pack and/or a bad charging circuit. The circuit is on a separate replaceable board in the Mobilon PV-5000, but it's on the main circuit board of the HC-4600 (so not replaceable). Failure of the thermal/polarity circuit in the battery pack also causes the yellow light to flash rapidly.

You can find a manual for the Mobilon at http://csdsupport.sharpsec.com/public/validated/dnld.cfm/Hc-4500?id...
That's not exactly for the HC-4600 but the HC-4500 is almost the same.

If you read the above manual, you will notice the battery case for the HC-4100, which uses 2 removeable AA's. It will not work on the HC-4600 (even though it fits on the HC-4600 nicely). The power connections are different, and there is a very small internal power switch hidden in the HC-4600 case that is not turned on if the HC-4100 case is attached.

The Sharp memory module to upgrade the HC-4600 units from CE 2.0 to CE 2.11 is a desirable rarity. I would check the system on each of your units to make sure you know what you have and value it accordingly. A fully functional HC-4600 with the ROM upgrade to CE 2.11 installed would be in much more demand than the original CE 2.0 units.

Hope that's helpful.
Dan
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