GTA02 Battery Capacity (Was: Re: More about the GTA02)

[Shawn Rutledge]

On Feb 8, 2008 5:00 PM, Michael Shiloh <michael at openmoko.org> wrote:
> > I guess many people would like to have a second battery - is there any
> > chance that you make them available? Openmoko on the Neo is now good
> > enough for daily use, yet it is running out of battery quickly.
> >
> > Maybe one of the distributors would be happy to take a batch of them
> > into stock?
> >
> > Can you check on this for us?
>
>
> Hi Marcus,
>
> Excellent question. Yes, I'll look into this.

I would hope they would continue to be available years later, too.
For example my Zaurus SL-6000L's battery just died in a somewhat
spectacular way (got to be inflated and bulging while I wasn't paying
attention for a few weeks) and there apparently aren't any new
replacements being made; nor would I want to spend over $100 like they
cost when they were still being made.  So I put on some gloves,
gingerly cut open the sealed plastic battery housing, disposed of the
LiIon cell, and my plan is to try to make an adapter, so I can use a
more common battery in it.  I'm thinking the Nokia 770 battery ought
to work.

At least the 1973-compatible Nokia batteries will probably be
available for a long time (as I'm hoping the Nokia 770 batteries will
be), but there is still the problem with charging them (the phone
cannot do it).  The rule of thumb is that no LiIon battery will last
longer than 3 years or so.  Hopefully this will improve when mobile
devices start using some next-generation batteries, like the A123
style or nanophosphate or whatever.  OpenMoko has a chance to be a
leader in this area too, maybe for the next model.  I'm not sure what
would be best.

Will the GTA02 use exactly the same battery as the GTA01?  Then at
least we can plan on those batteries being available a while longer.