Hip Street mp3 mp4 player battery replacment from a cell phone

I've had this Hip Street mp4 player for a while now. It, Like a lot of mp3/mp4 players has a built in li-ion (lithium ion) battery. The play time has never been great. but lately I've pretty much stopped using it because it's deteriorated so much, its down to about 1/2 an hour per charge....no good.
so i decided to do something about it

Step 1: The guts

Was a very simple disassembly 2 tiny screws, and the lid popped off, revealing the guts.

Step 2: Taking out the battery

the battery was just stuck in there with some 2 sided tape, Carefully pulled it out

Step 3: Ripping out Some of the Guts

de-soldered the 2 wires, tossed the old battery (in an acceptable li-ion battery recycling bin)

Now to find a replacement

Step 4: New battery Disassembly

the Samsung A660 battery I had laying around was surprisingly easy to Carefully pop apart, revealing the li-ion cell with its protection circuit., a simple check with a multi-meter slowed me which of the 3 pins were positive/negative. I decided to leave the protection circuits alone, I was going to swap them, but decided the battery makers Probably designed the circuit to match the battery

Step 5: Jam it in there

I had to move the built in speaker a little bit, and its a touch to thick...but its capacity is worth it. Now before I could finish I had to wrap something around the battery to protect the circuitry. I used a ESD bag i had kicking around. Then I soldered it in there and

Step 6: Wrap up

Well the results seem good so far. I had fully charged the battery before I did this project, and since I re-assembled (4h+) I have been playing full volume, back light on, and the battery bar still shows full...so, so far so good., only side effects, side of the case is swelled out a speck... I'm not worried about that, and the SD Card reader jammed a little bit the first card i put in it, which also does not bother me...i don't really use the SD slot...and if i need to it still works...just harder to get the card out
All in all I LIKE IT

Comments

[Sandisk1duo]

not so easy to do with mp3 players that have batteries similar to cellphones (no wires)

[zack247]

yeah, but then you could just buy a new battery, right?

[zack247]

did the same idea for my palm zire 31 with a ds lite battery, unfortunately, the battery was old and has died, i'll look to find a 2000mah dsl battery to replace it with.

[namzer0]

haha! nice! I am doing the same mod as I am typing now... the battery is a Sony Ericsson BST-36 750mAh but it doesn't fit very well... I smashed it a little to flatten it a bit... later, I might smash it some more...

[Mikkun]

Great instructible! I have a few questions though:

Would you think this kind of replacement will work with a Nokia Battery(i.e. BL-5C or other BL-Series and other variants of it) or any other cellphone battery?

The Nokia Battery has no protection circuits(obviously the nokia cellphone has the circuits), will this guide still help?

Thanks for the great instructible, I may use this guide as I have an mp4 which is quickly degrading on playtime.

[eight]

Many thanks for your indestructible ! Maybe I missed it, but how long does it last now?

[LiporXT]

(excuse for English but I am Italian) but as you have made to close it? however compliments, it's really cool..

[Pyro667]

i didn't have to mod the case to close it, the side just swelled/bent out a little, i may order a different battery for it, I was looking at an old phone i have, Motorola c332, the battery in it is Really thin, 4mm, and its 750mah..so i may replace it with one of those off Ebay for cheap

[NathanWilliams]

Nice job! How much time do you get now from a full charge?

[Pyro667]

it was going for aprox 13h, then i wanted to put a new song on and plugged it in and forgot about it...so it recharged....but 13h hours is about 9h longer than i got from it brand new

[NathanWilliams]

That is awesome, congratulations!