Htc one mini dead battery. "hack" battery from mini 2 possible?

[CrispyK]

Hello everyone, i'm new here, first post'ishh

So i have a HTC one mini where the battery died. Been looking online and they are pretty cheap.

But, i have a HTC one mini 2 that has a broken screen and dead speakers etc... But battery is fine. And when it's free i can afford it :silly:

Both of them seem to have same sized battery (physically) but the one on the Mini 2 has a 2100mAh battery compared to the 1800mAh on the Mini (1)

The connectors aren't the same, i have soldering iron, not scared of breaking both batteries. So i was thinking about swapping the connectors so the mini 2 battery could bet put into the mini 1.

My question is, can the mAh difference cause issues? like not being able to fully charge because there's a chip or software that makes it stop at 1800mAh? Or will it just charge till the battery tells it "i'm done" ?

Hope you can help thanks in advance

 

[chaos7]

I would be interested in this as well . Would you mind taking a side by side picture of the two batteries and try if the one mini 2 battery physically fits in the one mini? Best regards

 

[CrispyK]

I would be interested in this as well . Would you mind taking a side by side picture of the two batteries and try if the one mini 2 battery physically fits in the one mini? Best regards

Hi Chaos

Well i've had a lot of work these past months so i didn't get time to check the forum here before now.
I don't have the phones with me right now but when i took them both out and put them on top of each other, they are the exact same size. (batteries)
I've looked on a website that sells batteries and the dimensions on their site are:
Htc one mini: 79 x 54 x 4 (mm)
Htc one mini 2: 78 x 54 x 3 (mm)
Those are not original batteries though but that probably makes no difference (in size). So the one from the mini 2 is smaller and thus should fit without a problem inside the mini 1.

The leads that come out of the batteries are exactly the same and same size, only thing is the connector itself, it's larger on the mini 2. The contacts in the connector itself are further away from each other compared to the mini 1.

So i'm 99% sure that it can be done. I will just give it a try when i get home this weekend. And i will take pictures and post here

Hope it works

 

[CrispyK]

Ok soo i got them both apart annnddd... It's not possible.

So both phone connectors have 6 pins. Different spacing though.

It looks like there are 2 grounds on the htc one mini 1 battery. And they go to each side.
On the htc one mini 2, the ground is just one or maybe 2 pins in the middle.
On mini 1, pin 1 and 3 seem to be ground.
On mini 2, pin 2 and 5 seem to be ground.
1 23
456
Hope it makes sense 123456 above is pin arrangement

I don't have anything to test what is + and - But that doesn't matter anyways because the ribbon cable itself doesn't have the negative in the same place on both batteries, so it would be some pretty crazy soldering work to get it work and get it to fit afterwards.

So i'm just going to order 2 new batteries. Or maybe just a new phone... I just really like the camera features and the size of the One mini and mini 2. Then just buy a battery or 2 as backup since it will most likely die.

Sorry it took so long for me to post, lots of things to do. Hope it helps

 

[CrispyK]

Couldn't let it go

Scaled down the pictures so they would fit in the post. I have the HQ if any one wants me to post links for them.

So i just couldn't get it out of my head, and still don't want to buy a new one

Either way, i removed the "branding plastic tape" with specs etc to see the "charging?" boards on the batteries.

Here you can see the connectors next to each other so you get an idea of what i was talking about earlier.

So the batteries themselves obviously both only have + and - . And they are at equal distance from each other on both of them. So i was thinking about cutting off or unsoldering the board from Mini 1, and solder it to Mini 2 battery. Only problem is... i'm no expert, so i don't know if there would be any issues when charging the phone since the board for the mini 1 is probably made to charge a 1800 mAh battery. What happens if i put that on a 2100 mAh battery? Will it fully charge? Will it even charge or just think "mehh can't recognize this battery, not charging it".

The connector ribbon is on opposite side on the batteries, but if swapping boards, you would just have to turn the battery around when you place it in the phone, hope that makes sense.

But then i got another idea, since i don't know if the board from the mini 1 will work on the mini 2 battery. And that is to unsolder the connector itself from the board of the mini 1. And the solder it on the appropriate pinouts on the mini 2 board.
Going to be hard since they are in the opposite order so i would have to use wires to cross over in order to still have the connector on the right side and not upside down. But that should be possible and not cause any problem, comparing to swapping the boards completely i guess. Again because of the 1800mah and 2100mah, no idea if that's a problem.

Hope it all makes sense I'm trying to write to a few people to get more info about the boards if i can just swap them or if the only way to do it would be to unsolder the connector itself from mini 1, and then solder it onto the board of the mini 2.

I'll keep this post updated when i get some info or when i just go "full retard" and give it go and hope for the best hahaha XD So far if i get no info, i think i'm just going to swap the connectors and not the boards, since i have a feeling that it's because of the charging board that the mini 1 has problems over time (killing the battery) The reason for me to think that way is because on the mini 1 board it is written V01 and the mini 2 board has V02 written on it. That's why i have the "maybe the mini one board is bad and kills batteries" idea. V02, updated, doesn't kill the batteries? i don't know.

Either way hope it helps so far and makes sense, catch you later

 

[CrispyK]

Small update... My soldering iron died. Soo i might just buy a new phone and then fix this one when i buy a new soldering iron.

Any help is still appreciated. If any one can explain more in detail why one thing or the other would or wouldn't work it would be nice

I'll post an update when i get to work on it again in case any one else can use this info

Edit: from what i understand so far the best option is to swap the connectors and not the whole board on the battery. Which is really annoying since the soldering spots are small and covered in some sort of epoxy glue. Not hot glue like most electronics, epoxy. I guess you can just swap the boards but the battery will probably not get fully charged since the board is made for a 1800mah battery and not 2100mah.