Wed 23 May 2007
I really enjoy using my gyration mouse and keyboard set, so much so that I have recharged the mouse battery pack enough times to reduce its operating capacity to about an hour. I decided that it was time to replace the NiMH battery pack. Having taken apart portable electronics before, I was sure that the battery pack was actually built up from standard battery sizes to conserve on costs instead of a custom battery pack that one would find in an iPod or PDA. After carefully opening the pack with a razor, this notion was confirmed. The battery pack was simply three AAA rechargeable batteries held together with plastic. I promptly went to the store and bought a pack of 1000mAh NiMH batteries and constructed a replacement battery pack using the original metal pieces and electrical tape. Being careful not to use too much or too little, the resulting pack fit snugly into the mold and onto the mouse. After letting the whole system charge fully, I was able to get several days of use out of the mouse without running out of energy. On a final note, in retrospective, it may have been easier to just buy the replacement battery pack, if it was available, as its cost is comparable to the cost of the four rechargeable batteries, but that would not be as much fun.
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