Squeezebox Radio battery connector pinout

[timpert]

Hi all, first post here...

I am looking for the full pinout of the connector in the battery compartment of the Squeezebox Radio. A German guy was so helpful to report his findings on http://cms.diodenring.de/de/electron.../92-squeezebox however his pinout is still incomplete. Can someone (do SB developers lurk here?) fill in the blanks?

Thanks & kind regards.

[wrf]

Anybody Try This?

Thanks for the link. It provides enough details to build your own battery. Before I try it, has anyone here attempted this. I really don't want to be the first to blow up my SB Radio or set the house on fire.

[timpert]

Hi,

Yes, I managed to get some connectors that mate exactly with the on-board header (the JST PHDR-10VS) and made a battery with 10 NiMh cells. It works fine. The cells I used are Sanyo HR-3U, AA size cells with solder tabs, with a capacity of 2700 mAh. Just remember to tuck the NTC well away within the battery pack, because the battery pack's temperature is used for determining the end of charge.

The battery is not the problem, you can make it as stated, and if you do it right it will work. But I was being curious about the other pins, what do they do?

[bakkybfast]

Hi timpert,

can you post a sketch of the exact wireing and position of the NTC.
Some pics might be even helpfull.
Thanks

[wrf]

Tap Connections

Timpert,

Where did you connect the battery taps. The original reference shows two battery taps on connector pins 3 and 5. Further, it suggests connecting them between cells 3/4 and 7/8. Unfortuneately it doesn't say which pins go to which taps.

Any advise??

Wayne

[getprogs]

He may have updated the instructions

but when I followed them it clearly read "a lower tap (maybe cell 3) to pin 5, and a higher tap (cell 7) to pin 3".

My homemade battery works perfectly so far (knock on wood), with a better battery life than specified for the original battery pack; but in all I believe that the cost of the connector, NTC and (better) batteries with soldering tabs combined with the time it took me to dig out my soldering iron etc., I may not want to do this again... Too many years since I did any soldering last.

[joshuar]

But why the hell is there nobody who can unwrap his original batery-pack?
i would if get it in some years :-)
waiting since months and there are no news when the batt. is on stock...

[timpert]

I did exactly what was in the original article: pin three to the negative of cell 3 (counted from the positive terminal) and pin five to the negative of cell 7. Like this:

(1) -+C- +C- +C- (3) +C- +C- +C- +C- (5) +C- +C- +C- (9) NTC (7)

The NTC rests tucked away between the cells, as close to the center of the pack as possible.

Because the pack is now available, it may be easier to just buy the pack, unless you have a lot of unused cells lying around. Or, of course, if you want to use the other pins for hacking around. My connectors came from Dracon-Eltron in the Netherlands.

[Raymond Day]

The connector to SqueezeBox Radio pin out.

It has 10 pins

If number them like this:

1-3-5-7-9
2-4-6-8-10

1 Battery +
2 NC
3 Battery info. 1
4 NC
5 Battery info. 2
6 RS232 out
7 Temperature
8 RS232 in
9 Battery - or Ground
10 3.3V output.

Some one must of hooked up the RS232 all ready. It's neat they put that on the connector.

So looks like can make one your self if got 10Ni-Mh 2100 MAh Rechargeable AA batterys. With the end connector and a Temperature cencer. They look like a little ball capacitor.

I got some Precharged AA batteries for $1 each. They were on Clearance. I guess because the data on back is 7-8. I guess 7 of 2008. But seems like they still have a full charge any way after all this time.

-Raymond Day

[pkn]

I did exactly what was in the original article: pin three to the negative of cell 3 (counted from the positive terminal) and pin five to the negative of cell 7. Like this:

(1) -+C- +C- +C- (3) +C- +C- +C- +C- (5) +C- +C- +C- (9) NTC (7)

I have an aftermarket battery pack from VHBW, and there Pin 3 is connected to cell 4 counted from positive terminal. Can somebody comfirm this with his own battery pack, maybe even with an original one? Or is my battery pack wrong?
The no-load voltages measured with disconnected battery pack: 5.48 V (1 - 3), 4.12 V (3 - 5), 4.12 V (5 - 9). So the cells have 1,37 V each, all together 13,7 V. I have obviously 4 cells between 1 - 3, not 3, and each 3 cells between 3 - 5 und 5 - 9.
The Pins (temperature and all 3 voltages) can be read out under settings -> extended settings -> diagnosis -> power
The voltage readouts there are a bit higher than what I measured with my multimeter on the battery pack when disconnected.

My problem that led me here is, that the Radio doesn't work from battery pack anymore, all of a sudden. But if I try to boot the radio, the total voltage drops down below 10.6 V, which is supposed to be the end-of-discharge voltage. So, for the first, I'd consider the battery pack empty. The problem is: the device says "Battery is not charging." and that's true. So, is the charging functionality of my Radio defective?

Next step: I'll check the battery pack inside my computer charger.

Thanks for any hints to solve this not-charging-problem.

[pkn]

FYI: the original article can be seen here: https://web.archive.org/web/20161003.../92-squeezebox