Using a regular battery in Tecsun PL-330

Tecsun PL-330 radio uses a Nokia BL-5C battery, which is no longer produced by Nokia. I modified my PL-330 to use a 523450 battery which is almost the same size as a BL-5C. The only tool needed is a screwdriver. No soldering is required. Here are the steps.

1) Remove the four screws and the front and back covers.

2) Remove the screws on the back PCB and pull it off slowly. You will disconnect the 14 pin connectors between the two PCBs. But be careful not to damage the wires connecting the two PCB or antennas.

3) You will see two connectors. Detach the KP1 connector (circled in red below).

4) Remove the tiny battery daughter board from the middle plastic frame. It has no screws, just use some force.

 

5) Put the new battery in the bay and pull its connector through the opening.

6) Connect the new battery to the KP1 connector on the back PCB. Thank Tecsun for using a standard JST-PH connector.

7) Reinstall the back PCB and the screws.

8) Replace the front and back covers and the four long screws. 

This is how it looks like when done. Enjoy!

Kobo Libra H2O Review

I bought a Kobo Libra H2O e-reader last week. Here is a short review.

The good,

• The 7 inch 300 ppi screen is very sharp.
  
• It has front light with adjustable color temp. The illumination is even.
  
• It has physical page turn buttons.
  
• The system is hackable. I installed KOReader on it.
• It supports OverDrive, allowing me to borrow books from libraries.
• It supports Pocket. I can save web pages and read them on the e-reader.
  
• The US Kobo book store has many Chinese books.
  

The bad,

• Micro USB connector should be replaced with USB-C.
  
• No Chinese dictionary.
• It does not synchronize with DropBox like Kobo Forma. But there is a open source solution.
  
• No built-in Chinese fonts. I installed some myself.
  
• Sometimes I cannot highlight a sentence. The highlight always stops half way.
  
• It does not have an ambient light sensor. But I can adjust the brightness by swiping the left screen edge.
• It sends data to Google Analytics automatically. We can change the /etc/hosts file to block Google Analytics.
  

I think the Kobo Libra H2O beats the Kindle paperwhite. They are in the same 130 USD price range. But the Kobo has a larger screen, physical buttons, and much better front light.

Remarkable 2 Tablet Review

I acquired a Remarkable 2 tablet in Oct 2020. However I sold it last week. Here is my view on the tablet.

Things I like,

• It is sturdy while thin and light.
• It has a long battery life (> 1 week).
• It supports many wacom EMR pens.
• The note taker interface is intuitive and responsive.
• The stylus lag is minimal (~20 ms). 
• It is very hackable. SSH is on by default with a random strong password.

Things I do not like,

• It has no front light. So the screen contrast is low. This is my biggest complaint.
  
• It relies too much on the cloud. The USB web UI is almost useless.
• It does not have built-in CJK fonts. 
• While it supports PDF and ePub, the features are very limited. However, KOReader is available on it.
• I had the book folio. But the tablet won't sleep when I close the cover. 
• The marker's tip is a bit thick, which is okay for writing in English, but not in Chinese.
• It does not rotate the display automatically.