I have an RCA Lyra (to which I affectionately refer as my “liePod”) whose battery has totally clunked. I bought the player used, and initially, the battery would last around 6 hours when charged. Not great, but plenty to get me through a day. In the past few weeks, it suddenly quit lasting more than about 90 minutes. Curses!
I got the player for cheap a few months back, and it holds 40GB, so I don’t consider it a wash, but I need to do something about the battery situation. I’ve heard I can get a battery pack that plugs into the AC adapter outlet. But I have found no such thing despite various Google searches and poking around a few stores.
So can it be done? Ideally, I could plug in the battery pack, stick in a few rechargeable AAs, and have plenty of renewable power for my liePod for years to come (or as long as the thing lasts). Any way to do this?
Might be possible, although it would be clunky. Radio Shack sells battery holders and plugs to fit your AC adapter jack. Do you have some basic soldering skills?
What is the voltage for the AC adapter? Ideally it would be 3, 4.5, 6, or 9 volts. AA batteries produce 1.5 volts.
Assuming 4.5 volts, you would use 3 AA batteries in a 4-battery holder. Solder the wires from the battery holder onto on the plug, and you should be good to go.
Personally, I would determine whether the battery that came with your Lyra can be replaced. This ‘battery pack’ will be heavy and awkward in situations where you want a portable.
OTOH, this thing can be put together for under $10 if you already have the batteries.
As for plugging it in to outlet to recharge, forget it. Use a regular AA recharger.
I wouldn’t do that. The nominal voltage of an alkaline battery is 1.5V, but it changes as it is discharged. And rechargeable AA batteries start out at lower voltage - 1.2V, I believe. Electronic devices aren’t always designed to cope with such large variation of input voltage. At the very least, use a linear voltage regulator to obtain the correct voltage. Even then I’m not entirely sure what would happen when the battery dies and the voltage drops fast (but not instantly to zero).
It claims to be a “5.5V” adapter. I forgot to put that in my post.
And no, I’m not handy with soldering. Sigh. RCA has no information on their website about replacing the battery, and it’s not in the instruction booklet. Maybe I can call the company.
Have you checked to see if the battery has developed a “memory”? Many rechargeable batteries, as they age, tend to react to short times on the charger with “memories” of lower capacity.
There is an easy test to make, and could possibly fix your problem.
Run the player on its battery until it is fully dead.
Put it in its normal recharger for at least 8 hours (overnight).
See if that fixes the issue. This routine has worked for me about ony 25% of the time… but that is still better than nothing. Certainly worth the effort.