20 replies to this topic

[nphominoid]

hello everyone,

i'm new to this board, and to Hi-MD -- just recently bought a nz-mh900 after my old sharp one was stolen recently. i've been spending a couple of hours searching through here for battery topics, so i know from reading people's comments that the supplied battery is of a lower mah ( 900mah? ) and should be upgraded for optimal battery performance. but i couldn't find actual figures of other people's battery performance, and i was wondering if anyone could confirm if this is normal performance or not? i'm using the supplied battery.

the performance so far: after purchasing this, i set up the charger and cradle, and left it to recharge overnight. this morning, while still connected to the charger, i transferred a couple of CDs using simple burner in Hi-SP format. i left the house with the battery on full. 2 hours of constant play later, my battery level is down to one bar. an hour later, i get a low battery message, and a little while afterwards the player shuts down... giving me about 3 1/2 hours in total, which seems incredibly low to me. if this is the normal performance, i'm sort of reluctant to get the 1400mah battery, which (doing simple math) should only give 5 hours total.

how long do other people get from their batteries? does the Hi-SP vs Hi-LP rates affect the battery life?

thanks!

nick

[bug80]

hello everyone,

i'm new to this board, and to Hi-MD -- just recently bought a nz-mh900 after my old sharp one was stolen recently. i've been spending a couple of hours searching through here for battery topics, so i know from reading people's comments that the supplied battery is of a lower mah ( 900mah? ) and should be upgraded for optimal battery performance. but i couldn't find actual figures of other people's battery performance, and i was wondering if anyone could confirm if this is normal performance or not? i'm using the supplied battery.

the performance so far: after purchasing this, i set up the charger and cradle, and left it to recharge overnight. this morning, while still connected to the charger, i transferred a couple of CDs using simple burner in Hi-SP format. i left the house with the battery on full. 2 hours of constant play later, my battery level is down to one bar. an hour later, i get a low battery message, and a little while afterwards the player shuts down... giving me about 3 1/2 hours in total, which seems incredibly low to me. if this is the normal performance, i'm sort of reluctant to get the 1400mah battery, which (doing simple math) should only give 5 hours total.

how long do other people get from their batteries? does the Hi-SP vs Hi-LP rates affect the battery life?

thanks!

nick

I think for new, rechargable batteries this is no exception. Just fully empty/recharge the battery a couple of times and the time will get longer (I think you need to do this 3-4 times).

[JavaGeek]

I have the NHF800, which doesn't have the digital amp as the 900 (thus consuming more power, according to some post I read). I use the energizer rechargable batteries (2500 mAh), and they last for a couple of days, with around to 6 hrs/day playtime. That means that a battery usually lasts me around 20 Hrs of playtime.

Maybe bug80 is right and you need to recharge it a couple of times. Note, however, that my battery has more mAh (whatever that means ) so maybe that's why mine last longer.

[Justin42]

Yeah, a few charge cycles should help, although it does seem kind of short. I don't know if I'd be wondering so much about the battery as possibly some defect in the unit itself causing the battery to discharge overly fast. Any of the newer MD units last pretty long.

But try running it down (all the way) and recharging a few times and see what happens.

Also, HiLP (if you can handle 64kbps music will make your batteries last longer since it gives the player less to do -- less data to read, fewer spin-ups to refill the buffer, etc. I don't think it's a tremendous additional amount but probably like 20% longer life or so?

[nphominoid]

hmmm -- well, funnily enough i accidentally started the minidisc player just now and it's come back to life! battery is still on one bar, but it's been playing for about twenty minutes now. i wonder if the internal calibration might just be off because this is the first charge?

[ROMBUSTERS]

any recharchable battery that comes with a unit will need to be discharged/recharged a couple of times in order to loose its memory before it can achive its maximum potential

[datafreq]

I was going to call Sony today about this very issue.

I bought a nz-mh900 in December and have charged the battery 4 times.
I am getting about 4 hours maximum play with audiobook quality (45 hrs on HIMD)

I let the battery drain completely each time and am still getting poor performance.

I'll report back once I hear back from Sony.

Cheers,

D.

hello everyone,

i'm new to this board, and to Hi-MD -- just recently bought a nz-mh900 after my old sharp one was stolen recently. i've been spending a couple of hours searching through here for battery topics, so i know from reading people's comments that the supplied battery is of a lower mah ( 900mah? ) and should be upgraded for optimal battery performance. but i couldn't find actual figures of other people's battery performance, and i was wondering if anyone could confirm if this is normal performance or not? i'm using the supplied battery.

the performance so far: after purchasing this, i set up the charger and cradle, and left it to recharge overnight. this morning, while still connected to the charger, i transferred a couple of CDs using simple burner in Hi-SP format. i left the house with the battery on full. 2 hours of constant play later, my battery level is down to one bar. an hour later, i get a low battery message, and a little while afterwards the player shuts down... giving me about 3 1/2 hours in total, which seems incredibly low to me. if this is the normal performance, i'm sort of reluctant to get the 1400mah battery, which (doing simple math) should only give 5 hours total.

how long do other people get from their batteries? does the Hi-SP vs Hi-LP rates affect the battery life?

thanks!

nick

[datafreq]

Ok...I called Sony Canada
(first sign of a bad omen was that the number on the web is wrong)

The rep listened very patiently while I explained the situation.

He naturally wasn't aware of any issues with the battery, and after I explained that this is my second issue with the unit (horrible sonicstage issues) he showed a bit more sympathy

Turns out that luckily head office is about 15 minutes from work,
so he said to bring in the unit and they will replace the battery.

I asked to make sure that they actaully had one in stock,
so I'm waiting for the call back to confirm so I don't waste my time...

More to follow...

I was going to call Sony today about this very issue.

I bought a nz-mh900 in December and have charged the battery 4 times.
I am getting about 4 hours maximum play with audiobook quality (45 hrs on HIMD)

I let the battery drain completely each time and am still getting poor performance.

I'll report back once I hear back from Sony.

Cheers,

D.

[ROMBUSTERS]

are you referring to the AA battery pack or the internal battery?

I believe (please correct me if im wrong) that the internal rechargable batter is a LiIon and in which case does not like to be completely discharged. Try charging it a couple of times when its about 20-40% battery full and see if it makes a difference. On a NiMH battery however this will lead to eventual battery memory and reduced lifespan.

Check out www.batteryuniversity.com

[Qwakrz]

NH900 is Ni-MH, NOT Li-ion.

This battery does need to be used for a few cycles before it shows full capacity (same as most batteries)

Also Li-ion should not be fully discharged, HOWEVER most electronic equipment using Li-ion takes this into account and will shutdown before that point is reached with the battery so it is safe to run it till the unit swithes off, just dont try and force it to go any further & re-charge it asap.

Edited by Qwakrz, 26 January 2005 - 01:21 PM.

[Remington]

Another thing to check on would be making sure Quick Mode is off. Good luck!

[Christopher]

datafreq/nphominoid, your experiences do NOT represent what the normal Hi-MD battery life should be. If you are having issues with this battery, try a 1400mAh gumstick instead, or read up at batteryuniversity.com [as ROM suggested] for more information on proper gumstick charging tips. I can get way way way more than 5 hours on a 1400mAh gumstick and a NH900 with discs full of Hi-SP tracks.

[datafreq]

My follow up with my battery issue...

After getting the run around at Sony Canada (wrong # published on web,
buggy voice activated phone system, rep giving me a wrong number);
I simply emailed a VP of something or other from the contact page,
and emailed him a full page letter stating all my issues beginning with the
buggy sonic stage right up to this battery issue...
I received an email 5 minutes later stating that he was glad I brought these matters to his attention and "Customer Service Management" would be notified.

Voila, less that an hour later, the phone rep calles me back and says that he will be sending me out a battery that same day.

It's amazing what you can accomplish when go to the top....

Cheers,

Dave

datafreq/nphominoid, your experiences do NOT represent what the normal Hi-MD battery life should be. If you are having issues with this battery, try a 1400mAh gumstick instead, or read up at batteryuniversity.com [as ROM suggested] for more information on proper gumstick charging tips. I can get way way way more than 5 hours on a 1400mAh gumstick and a NH900 with discs full of Hi-SP tracks.

[ROMBUSTERS]

heh awesome, now tell them we want mp3, and drag and drop, and....

[Christopher]

So, did they send you a 900mAh battery, or a 1400?

[Blu-Wav]

Hi! Fidelity
... note that the playback sound quality of the 900 is much better when using a 1.25V 2350mAH external AA Ni-MH battery in conjunction with the internal gumstick (whether 900, 1350 or 1400 mAH).

Vital Statistics
For the 900, with 2350 + 1400 mAH I'm getting over 50@64kbps, 36@256kbps and 26@1411kbps (hours of playback).

For the Record
Now that the batteries are run in, I'm getting over 2 hours with 3750mAH recording in pcm (1411kbps) mode, but if Hi-MD supported lossless compression like Apple and others (down to around 700kbps with true CD quality) I would expect over 3 hours recording from a single charge and 3 hours capacity on a single 1GB disc - great for a concert or nice compilation.

Nothing to Lose
Lossless would also support nearly an hour on a standard "80 minute" minidisc formatted for Hi-MD - i.e. easily enough to copy most CDs exactly for portable use on a "60, 74 or 80 minute" minidisc - and I've seen Sony/Maxell/TDK minidiscs going for less than 50 pence.

Charge of the Heavy Brigade
... but if you want to get the maximum playback/recording duration out of your high capacity Ni-MHs it's important to use an "intelligent" charger which fully charges them, rather than one which charges for a set number of hours and then switches to trickle charging. I use one with a built-in fan to keep the batteries cool, and which can charge 2350mAH Ni-MHs from flat in less than four hours (I know you can get chargers that can do it in an hour, or even 15 minutes with specially designed batteries, but I find four hours fast enough for my needs at the moment)

Edited by Blu-Wav, 29 January 2005 - 08:27 AM.

[Tiesto]

hello everyone,

i'm new to this board, and to Hi-MD -- just recently bought a nz-mh900 after my old sharp one was stolen recently. i've been spending a couple of hours searching through here for battery topics, so i know from reading people's comments that the supplied battery is of a lower mah ( 900mah? ) and should be upgraded for optimal battery performance. but i couldn't find actual figures of other people's battery performance, and i was wondering if anyone could confirm if this is normal performance or not? i'm using the supplied battery.

the performance so far: after purchasing this, i set up the charger and cradle, and left it to recharge overnight. this morning, while still connected to the charger, i transferred a couple of CDs using simple burner in Hi-SP format. i left the house with the battery on full. 2 hours of constant play later, my battery level is down to one bar. an hour later, i get a low battery message, and a little while afterwards the player shuts down... giving me about 3 1/2 hours in total, which seems incredibly low to me. if this is the normal performance, i'm sort of reluctant to get the 1400mah battery, which (doing simple math) should only give 5 hours total.

how long do other people get from their batteries? does the Hi-SP vs Hi-LP rates affect the battery life?

thanks!

nick

Well My NH900 goes throught almost 9 hours at 132kbps Atrac3plus with a 1400mAh prismatic, I've never tested the supplied battery. When I attach the external battery case with an AA Alkaline I get about 30 hours.

I didnt know that one can mix a prismatic NiMH rechargeable with an AA NiMH rechargeable of different amperage in the same electronic device, but according to Blu-Wav that is possible, safe and it gives a excelllent battery life.

Another thing is: Did you turn off the Quick Mode? When I tested my NH900 for the first time I got the same battery performance as you, fortunately it was matter of reading some pages of the manual and presto!

However the battery perfomance of the NH900 is bad if it is compared, for example, with the MZ-N910 for the same bitrate. Anyway Im very happy with mine

[khughes]

I've had similar problems with the battery life of my 900 seeming very short. So today I set it running and am keeping track. After 4.5 hours it's already down to two battery bars, so it doesn't look like it's going to get anywhere near the 11 hours promised by the manual. I will try the complete discharge a few times, but I'm wondering if I should upgrade the battery. Does anyone know if the Goldpeak 1400 NiMH Battery for NH-14WM will work in the NH900? As you can tell, I'm a complete novice with batteries.

Thanks for the info. and advice!

[Tiesto]

I've had similar problems with the battery life of my 900 seeming very short. So today I set it running and am keeping track. After 4.5 hours it's already down to two battery bars, so it doesn't look like it's going to get anywhere near the 11 hours promised by the manual. I will try the complete discharge a few times, but I'm wondering if I should upgrade the battery. Does anyone know if the Goldpeak 1400 NiMH Battery for NH-14WM will work in the NH900? As you can tell, I'm a complete novice with batteries.

Thanks for the info. and advice!

Actually, any 1400NiMH prismatic battery is a must for the NH900

http://espanol.pg.ph...7&.dnm=221c.jpg

[Blu-Wav]

Actually, any 1400NiMH prismatic battery is a must for the NH900

http://espanol.pg.ph...7&.dnm=221c.jpg

Note that GP now make suitable 1450mAH Ni-MH prismatic batteries - see:
http://www.tantronic..._Batteries.html

Also, mAH is not a measure of current (amperage) but of capacity. Just as an alkaline AA may be used in conjunction with the internal battery, a rechargeable Ni-MH AA may also be used, and capacities up to 2500mAH are currently available. If recording on to a 1GB disc in PCM mode a fully charged 2500mAH AA battery combined with even the standard 900mAH internal battery should allow over two hours of continuous recording.

The standard 900mAH battery offers about 5/8ths of the maximum capacity currently available (1450mAH), but then again 5/8ths of a 2500mAH Ni-MH AA is around 1600mAHs, and 1300, 1800 and 2000mAH Ni-MH AAs are still common (at lower prices than 2500mAH batteries, not surprisingly).

At least we're not stuck with the early 350mAH Ni-Cd AAs...