If you’re like me, you’ve never done the right thing and purcashed the Xbox 360 Play & Charge Kit.
Now, no more. Thanks to this video from Lifehacker, I feel less dumb:
How to get 32 AA batteries from a single 6 Volt Battery:
6 Volt Battery Hack! You’ll Be Amazed! – video powered by Metacafe
freakin sweet!
Thanks for the tip
The right thing? Have you seen the strip-down of the Play-n-Charge kit? The “special” battery they give you is just two AA rechargeable NiMH batteries wrapped in a plastic shell. You’re paying $20 for two rechargeable batteries and a USB cable! For that same price you could get FOUR batteries to use in any device you want and a stand-alone charger. You could probably do even better than that, actually.
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-BCG-34HE4-Super-Quick-Worldwide-Batteries/dp/B0002IWC9C/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/103-5030319-0799849?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1190392652&sr=8-3
I have these SWEET rayovac 15 minute rechargeable batteries, so I don’t really need play and charge kit. and I don’t have a 360. yet.
@Mike – So you’re saying I could jest get any two rechargeable AA batteries and they’ll work in there just the same? I already have the kit, but this would be great for my other controllers. Oh, crap. I am dumb too. Geesh. Microsoft saw me coming on that one…
@Tony – Good to know I’m not the only gamer that reads Lifehacker.
Yo… turns out the vid is a bit misleading.
I bought a 6v, took it apart, and inside were four large custom cells wired in series. After googling around, it looks like there is a WIDE variety of innards for 6v batteries, from 32 AAs to triple As in parallel to custom cells, etc. Click here to see what I found in mine.
Also, no matter what the type, they are bound to be “heavy duty” batteries, i.e., not alkaline anyway. One can buy a four pack of “heavy duty” AAs for a buck… so the typical five/six dollar lantern battery won’t save you any money, even if by chance it does contain AAs.
Still, if you’re interested in hacking one open for kicks, look at the bottom of the 6v before you buy it. Most of the time, the grid pattern from the innards can be seen imprinted on the plastic casing on the bottom of the battery (if you see four squares, you have a four cell battery, if you see lots of little squares, you may have some AAs in there).
To sum up, an interesting experiment for academic purposes, but not worth the $$ even if you get the batteries out of it.
@monkey – Bummer! I had no idea they were just heavy duty batteries. That deflates things a little. I guess this is definitely geared towards the tinkerer more than the cheapskate.
Thanks for the update.