I just bought a Aiwa RX848. It's a really nice little thing. It came only with a battery, no charger or other accessories. It cost me £4.50 including postage!

I tested the battery and measures 0.86v is there any hope for it?

Does this model suffer from leaking caps?

I'm thinking if I can get this working I may just forget about the JX505 I had my heart set on. This is a nice looking little thing and is very slim.

I'm going to buy a 2v DC charger to test this thing out.

The RX848 was a mid 90s model, so I would expect it to need a new belt and probably new capacitors too (if you are really unlucky).

The RX848, like all later 90s AIWA slimline walkman will need to have the PCB desoldered to get at the belt and capacitors.

Not got much to say about these really, as I am really more into the pre 'aiwa' logo AIWA black metal cased units of the late 80s early 90s. If it is a later model, it probably has NiMH/NiCD gumstick battery.

Ahh thats great news. The metal bar the stops the deck from opening too far is not working as is missing a screw. The quality of the build is great. It doesn't look used so I'm praying it works without any modification but I have no way to power the thing. Are the batterys available? I only see the cheap ones that could be dangerous. I read a thread here about them somewhere.

Whats the best way to power this thing cheaply?

Yeah, best not to open the door too wide otherwise you could weaken the flexible flat cable in the hinged area.

Batteries would depend on whether it is a lead acid 2V unit or a later NiCD/NiMH 1.25V one. The latter type are still available. Separate chargers are available for the latter too.

Best cheapest way? - if there is DC input jack on the unit, via an AC mains adapter. Otherwise invest in some good rechargeable NiMH AAA batteries if you have the external clip on battery box.

It's at work and I just came home but the DC jack says 2.0v so I'm guessing the early type batteries. The ACs are not cheap and I don't have a 2x AAA adapter

Well it's not actuall that expensive but only one I see is in the US at 9.99 but 19.99 postage, I don't have spare money at the moment thanks to this months vinyl purchases lol :-)

You need an AIWA AC207K for UK voltage. The one from USA is likely an AC207U.

Might want to contact this ebay seller to see if they still have these unsold items.

index.php?board_oid=193392314111653483&content_oid=284032791486304799

I have done that! Thank you, Is there any hope for my battery reading 0.86v? is there a chanced I can revive it?

What battery is it? NiMH or lead acid?

well the unit says 2v DC in so I think it's the early ones. Here is a picture of the one I bought. I don't have it here right now. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1110...id=p3984.m1439.l2649

From the photo, it is an AIWA PB-5S battery. A sealed lead acid battery. I have quite a few of these, and have not been able to revive a single one. I have had luck reviving a few of the PB-4 batteries, but they are slightly more thicker than the PB-5S.

At 0.86V, you might get lucky. You can try to put it "on charge" for several hours and see if the voltage starts to climb. If you can get it up to about 2.3V then it is pretty much charged. How long it lasts, will be determined by whatever condition internally it is in.

Thanks man. I'm hopeful, Any idea where to buy a battery charger or docking station? It has contacs for a dock I think

Considering the RX848 has the DC jack on the unit, then I would say that once you track down an AIWA AC207K (or AC200K) power supply, then you can try to charge the lead acid battery with that. The contacts are probably more likely for the clip on battery box than a docking station.

I messaged the guy about the AD adapter. Any idea where I can get the battery adapter to use normal AAA batteries?

Ebay is the most likely place, from another donor unit.

Thanks I'll keep a lookout I might just hand make something and connect it to the external power terminal just to see if the thing powers on first.

It's your lucky lucky day...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayI...me=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

Its even boxed

WOW! Thanks for looking out for me! I will get this one.

It's nothing, for a fellow enthusiast.

Hi everyone

Aiwa uses  LEAD ACID batteries like PB4s or 5s ...

these batteries cannot survive 15 years NONE OF THEM ARE HOPEFULLY WORKING NOWADAYS

it is useless to buy some on ebay

Also the charging dock is suitable for those batteries as it gives a charge current of 1.5 A !!!!!!

I am try to make these batteries internally replaced have a look at my blog :

http://jmespe.blogspot.com

regards

Thank you for your words of 'wisdom' but you are wrong. I have on my desk next to me two AIWA PB-4S and one AIWA PB-4 that can hold a charge for easily more than 1 hour's playback on an AIWA. These were resurrected, others were not. It is down to luck.

I do agree that the majority of the AIWA batteries on ebay are likely to be completely dead, but I got these batteries bundled with walkman when I bought them and they were not foolishly bought separately.

As to using the original lead acid battery charger to charge your NiMH, well all I can say is I hope you have plenty of time to supervise it and/or good home insurance in place. The charging profile for these two battery types is completely different. You run the risk of fire, explosion and collateral damage. Furthermore the voltage from two NiMH batteries combined is higher than that of one lead acid battery and the circuitry inside these AIWA such as the JX2000 on your blog do not have any voltage regulation, so you are in fact potentially slowly killing any voltage sensitive components inside without over-voltage protection in your battery mod.

hi !

well at least we agree on one point : do not buy lead acid batteries on ebay !

of course if mvickers03 has already one ,he can try to recharge it .

you mentionned on a previous post that you could revival "some" of them, but with wich percentage ?1 out of 4 ? or 10 ?

Also, there is a bit of misunderstanding regarding my previous post :

I said 1.5A " for those batts" means for the lead acid ones, NOT for mine !

the one I made is from a 9V ni-mh 200mAh, so the current must be much lower.

But I already draw the schematic of the dock and I modified it to lower the charge current to 28mA; also, I increased a bit the voltage protection to 3V

If anyone is interested in that, I can post

regards ...

I have three usable PB-4 type batteries out of a total of say seven. Does that mean just under half are good? No. It just means I was lucky to get some that worked that were included with walkmans I bought. I have roughly the same amount of AIWA PB-S5 and they are all dead, but that does not mean that every single AIWA PB-S5 battery presently is not working.

It would be safe to say that the percentage of success is extremely low but certainly not low enough to warrant such a statement as "these batteries cannot survive 15 years NONE OF THEM ARE HOPEFULLY WORKING NOWADAYS".

The OP has said in another thread that he has a PB-S5 that has the ability to hold a charge, there is a slim chance it could be revived. Given that the OP doesn't have an external battery clip for his RX848, it is worth a shot for him to at least try and charge the PB-S5 that he does have to see if it will charge especially since he now has an AIWA 2V power supply.

If you are going to suggest advice to casual readers to use improvised batteries from split 9V rechargeable batteries, then you need to either

a. Warn them of any dangers eg risk of fire, explosion, precautions when opening the PB-4 battery.

b. Explain your process clearly

c. Perhaps start a new thread on how you did it

Not still sure how you "increased a bit the voltage protection to 3V". Have you added resistors to lower the total voltage presented to the AIWA unit? Have you installed a voltage regulation circuit? Once again, valid points to be answered in a new thread rather than a one line sentence.

I am sorry I may be coming across as being somewhat blunt, but there are dangers when messing about with batteries, and if you don't explain yourself clearly then others may try, copy, fail and get hurt.

We are all interested in prolonging the life of these AIWA units with new ways of powering them, but not if the risks have not been mitigated properly.

Hi, don't know if anyone is still reading this thread but I have an Aiwa RX848 for sale.  I bought it brand new and hardly used it.  It has everything but the packaging and paperwork.  It's in great condition.. or if anyone knows where best to sell it, I'd be grateful