[August 2021] I found a Compaq iPAQ H3970 PDA selling for what seemed like a good price. It was deemed to be virtually brand new and complete in its original box that was just a bit worn.

However, as I should perhaps have expected, the battery was not functioning. Seemingly it was too old and had been left for too long with no charge. The seller agreed to partially refund me when I pointed this out and I hoped I might be able to find a replacement battery for it...

Sadly, nowhere seemed to have the right battery. It's a Li-Polymer 3.7V but has a proprietary piece of circuitry attached, likely for power/charging/battery regulation.

My Options:

 - perhaps I can coax some charge into the battery (this is quite risky and should be done with care)
 - find a similar battery pack and transfer the necessary circuitry

I also picked up a keyboard dock that is pretty neat as the keypad retracts [later found to be faulty].

[Some time later...]

I sourced a Li-Polimer 3.7V battery of a size that would fit the space occupied by the original battery (which needed some heat to remove). However, rather than remove the charging circuit from the original battery (sorry I can't find a picture of this), I piggy-backed the new one in its place, and surprisingly this worked. I now had a fully functioning iPAQ.

During the course of some months I intended to use the iPAQ for daily scheduling and other tasks, I was keen to dabble in the OS, but really I simply found myself playing endless rounds of Solitaire to the point the screen was getting marked by the stylus from this act alone (the top left corner where you tap the stack of cards, and 'swipe' marks were now noticeable on the display), so I elected to list the device on ebay.

[April 2024] "Sadly" my iPAQ got sold. I'm sad that I never really used it as I had intended, but I was seeing how prolonged use was going to add to the wear of the screen which was pristine when I received it.