Newton MessagePad Charging Station tip.

If you are like me then you are constantly using a couple of Newtons throughout the day. For me it could be my 2100 and 130, or 2000 (2100 upgrade) and 2100, or whatever... you get the idea. Rarely I am plugged into the power adapter because I like to move around, I mean these damn things are mobile, right?! Anyways my point is that I can burn through batteries pretty quick, and it is very annoying. 

I'm sure many of us have these laying around:



In their glory days they were gold, but now they are merely a bundle of nickel. (with some Cadmium)


Well it's time to make a substitution for these dead battery packs. First and foremost you will need the following: MessagePad charging station, NiCad rechargeable batteries, and a Newton power adapter. Let's take a look at the MessagePad charging station:



Apple built a little push button that only their battery packs can trigger, and it prevents you from charging non-apple rechargeable battery packs. Close up:



Fortunately that's the only thing stopping you. Here is the tool I use to trick my charging station into charging non-apple rechargeable batteries:



Nothing fancy but these are super useful (especially if you are replacing the digitizer on an iPad 2,3,4), and they are thin enough to allow the batteries to fully seat within the charging dock:



So now that the guitar pick is under the two batteries towards the right of the charging station you should be able to charge any rechargeable batteries:




Next let's look at doing the same thing inside a Message Pad 1xx:



Now that we have the guitar pick installed we can put the back cover on and place the MessagePad on the charging station. It is ok to place the MessagePad on top of the batteries that are charging in the battery slot:



The charging station allows for charging from the battery slot as well as your MessagePad (with rechargeable a installed). Basically you can charge 8 batteries per charging station.



Conclusion: I'm sure that many of you have a rechargeable battery charger, but if you don't this is a great way to save a little $$ in batteries and make great use of a Newton accessory that may be collecting dust. If you do not have a charging station, or power adapter, then check out our Accessories Store. eBay is also a great place for charging stations. If you find something better to use than a guitar pick please share it with the Newton community by posting it in the comments of this blog.