A battery for my Nokia N810
Some weeks ago I showed Franco Quispe my Nokia N810. It’s always amusing mentioning how Nokia marketed these as «Internet Tablets» back when the devices we call «tablets» today didn’t exist. Franco loved the aesthetic and design of it. And the sliding keyboard didn’t fail to impress. Really, it’s a pretty cool device.
For years I wanted to buy a replacement battery, and while certainly prices are cheap in AliExpress, it’s the shipping that raises it beyond the budget I’d allow for such a project. Also, I wasn’t sure it’ll boot. Last time I bought a new old battery, I installed some application which took over the charging process and the N810 kept doing an endless reboot. It initiated charging, then rebooted over and over. I bought an external battery charger but concluded the battery was dead.
This happened in 2013. After all these years, perhaps spending some money on a battery could be seen as if I was buying a new (old) device. In 2019 and then 2020 I wrote in my N810’s logbook my desire to resurrect it and ideas on what to do with it. Perhaps I can give myself permission now, 12 years later?
It never occurred to me to search for the battery in Mercado Libre. To my delight, I found a seller for S/27 (around USD $7)! Surely it’s an old stock, but the price is right! There was the possibility the battery would be a dud, that the N810 itself is faulty and wouldn’t boot, but I felt overly optimistic. So I purchased it.
Of course, I immediately started to write yet another list in my logbook of things I could use it for!
- Like an external «monitor.» If I find a VNC client I could setup an additional small screen in Tomcat (my desktop PC). Or do some sort of «poor man’s external display» and use the web browser to refresh a page served by Tomcat.
- SSH duties. Would WiFi work? Checked, it should, it’s B/G.
- Music player, podcasts, etc. for listening while doing the dishes.
- Drawing… not sure, because the screen is resistive. But, anyway, the possibility is there. What drawing apps were available? Can’t remember.
- Oh! I could do some fancy notifications using the color LED light!
- Look at that! There’s a Game Boy and Game Boy Color emulator!
I decided to stop daydreaming; if it didn’t work, it would hurt a lot. The seller answered promptly and shipped it the same day. It would arrive the day after. The waiting begun.