Sharp Mobilon battery

I believe (but don't recall for sure at this moment) that the battery packs for the 4500/4600 might be backwards-compatible with the 4100. I recall (from personal observation and testing with my 4100 and 4600 units) that the AA battery holder for the 4100 does not have the exact same electrical contacts configuration as the power contacts on the 4500/4600 handhelds. Maybe because the 4100 did not have (need) the battery charge monitoring and controlling capabilities that the 4500/4600 did. (For a similar example: The Sharp Mobilon PV500 (CE 2.11) has a small square circuit board that plugs into the main board, which controls internal battery recharging and power management. That board often burns out. Last I checked, the Sharp replacement board was several hundred US Dollars. The internal batteries will not charge without the board. Thus so many PV5000's on eBay that have "bad batteries". The batteries are often not at fault). So having said all that, I think the 4100 holder does not work on the 4500/4600 units. The cover for the battery charging bay on the 4500/4600 docking station is simply a blank piece of plastic with no provision for electrical contacts. You could fit some AA cells in the cover, but you would need to somehow modify the cover to add the contacts. There may also be a small plastic protrusion on the 4500/4600 battery case, that mates with an internal contact on the 4500/4600, that switches to the backup battery when the battery pack is removed. I think that protrusion is not on the 4100 battery case or on the docking station cover. No matter how you mate new NiMH rechargeable AA's to the 4500/4600, the fairly substantial risk of NiMH cells exploding due to thermal overload during an uncontrolled charge (caused by charging without a thermal fuse in the battery pack) would make charging the AA batteries outside of the case/handheld the best choice. Non-NiMH cells would not be nearly so prone to heat-induced explosion. Because of risk and liability issues, some sources (the more established, responsible companies with good reputations and sizeable resources to protect) will not sell NiMH cells to unknown customers that might use the cells without a thermal fuse or other charge control.
Just found this forum and must say it's great! I will register to post in the future.

interesting info.. and thanks for it.
maybe that's why the rebuilt battery doesn't work in the pv5000 of a friend
sharp always sucked at battery handling anyway ...
one thing though, i'm glad i've not met any "responsible" companies that wouldn't sell me nimh cells. if there are any such "responsible" companies then i'm very sorry to hear that. they are not "responsible", they are plain stupid.

Edited by cmonex 2007-04-11 3:45 PM

I have a 4100 and often root around in ebay for the elusive 2.11 ROM upgrade (to no avail ), and there is one wag of a seller there who sells "SHARP MOBILON PDA CONNECTIVITY" packs for the "4100/4500/4600" that includes a battery. It's ridiculously priced, but he seems to think that one size fits all. Just because his price is wrong doesn't necessarily mean he is, but who knows?

More food for thought,
Jake

I don't

cmonex, you are most welcome, and please understand I am being sarcastic about the batteries. The key words are "sizeable resources to protect" - they are being "responsible" only to themselves, because they are so afraid of someone filing a lawsuit against them if a battery explodes. I think they are just being silly, not "responsible".

Jake, I was lucky enough to get CE 2.11 ROM upgrades directly from Sharp for my two HC4600 units, but haven't seen any ROM's in eBay for a long, long time. Good luck. And now you've made me curious. I will take a fresh look at my 4100 and 4600 and the batteries, see what fits what, and post an update. By the way, might you be "Jake" from the ancient Compuserve "Handheld PC" forum?

DanC: hehe ok i get it now sorry i'm not natively english.

Hey, Dan,

Yes, it's the same Jake. And you must be the same Dan, the maven of the Sharp Classic Zaurus. Welcome--I hope the HPC Forum can give you back some of the great help you gave others. Prem, Kits, Skyler, they offered huge assistance as well. I haven't heard from Skyler (Scott) in a while, but remember well that he had Mobilon Tripad. But his heart was always his ZR-5800.

Good to have you here, Dan,
Jake

Hi Jake! It's a small world! Thanks for the kind words. I was surely a minor contributor compared to you and the other great people you name.
I recall you were posting from the other side of the globe back then. I hope you are now enjoying the warmer climate!
I last ran into Skyler in the pdastreets.com forums. They folded the Classic Zaurus users into the "Other PDAs" category, along with the users of Psion and other "ancient, primitive" devices...
I still keep my ZR5800 at hand daily. That Zaurus is a tough old soldier that refuses to die, and I love the OS and applications.

Back to the topic, I do intend to check the battery compatibilities of the HC4100 & 4600 units, but it will be a few more days before I will be where they are.
I will post again with results.

Thanks again for the friendly welcome. I've already been well-rewarded by visiting this forum:
I am posting this using the WorldTalk browser, which I found via this forum and installed on my Sharp PV-5000.
very cool!
Dan

Are there any upgrades still available for any of the Mobilon's 4100, 4500 or 4600?? You can beat the keyboard layout compare with the newer PDA / Handheld PC!

Thread closed

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