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Yeah I'd go with what Ashen says and just re-use the protection circuit. I do a lot of electronics stuff so I wanted to save the old battery intact.

Note that the 'big battery' (the 4250 mah one or whatever) really is a tight fit, even though it does fit. so be careful positioning it if you take this on.

Hello,

I opened my Yinlips yesterday.

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/6990/photommi.jpg

Do you see a physical weird thing (order of +/- wires, etc.) before I go to buy a new battery?

Thanks.

I didn't do that since 10 years but it should be fine

Thanks!

I did the battery mod last week.
I used this battery per Furan's suggestion: http://www.batteryspace.com/polymerli-ioncell37v3200mah605585-2c1184wh64arate.aspx

Installation was pretty straight forward.
I reused the circuit protection board from the original battery. Took about 30 minutes. Requires some minor soldering skills.

It charges just fine. No need for any sort of calibration. I would say it increased battery life from 2 hours(stock battery) to roughly 6 hours.
To get the most out of your battery I would recommend turning off Wi-fi while you're playing games. Saves battery and no annoying "chirps" from wifi circuit.

I am going to attempt the screen brightness mod sometime this week. I'm curious to see how this will affect battery life. I know a couple other people here have done it but I haven't heard any feedback on impact to battery life. I will report back when I have some data.

I just had to pop my 18a open to fix the power switch, so I thought I'd post a few technical updates to Ashen's original comments.

• That beautiful aluminum trim is actually just more plastic.
• A/B/X/OK buttons can be easily rearranged to match the letters they report to the system.  To wit: X on top, B bottom, OK left, A right. Arrows can be rearranged too, but it always looks the same.
• There is nothing behind the hole where the case says "MIC".  The MIC is actually behind the solid plastic next to the HDMI, so I drilled a hole for it before re-assembly.
• The battery was firmly taped to the motherboard; mine didn't flop around like it did for Ashen.
• I saw some solder on the HDMI support posts, though there wasn't much.
• This model does have stereo speakers.  It always sounds mono when I listen, but there are two speakers behind the left and right grilles on the back.  The ring of holes in the center of the back just vents the battery, for whatever that's worth.
• furan managed to upgrade the flash to 64GB, after some really impressive hacking.
• RAM is 4 chips of Hynix H5TQ1G83TFR-H9C, 128Mbit x 8, DDR3-1333 9-9-9.  That's 5.3 GB/sec for a handheld!

I bought the battery that Furan presented as a suitable substitute for the original one. Today I opened my G18A and even though it is larger, it still fits quite well inside (got to move it a little bit to find a good fit).
The replacement battery has two mettalic tabs (one of them fell off :S). The assembled battery has two wires, one red, one black. Can I just snip the wire close to the battery, and solder it to the new one? Which tab goes to which wire? Is it better to cut the excess lead from the battery, to prevent shorting? I know how to assemble and solder, but I need more information.
Can I use the original charger, or should I look for a new one?

Thanks, Ashen. I thought the protection circuit was on the mainboard. Will do it over the weekend.

Well, I switched the battery yesterday, and even though the tab was broken, there was enough of it to solder it to the protection board, and the longer one reached the proper place. After using all the battery (took a few hours running a graphic demo to empty it). After that I left it overnight recharging, and used up to 4-5 hours so far (mixed wifi and PS emulation, and both are battery hogs) and there still is 40% left. Sweet!