Corsair 2100 Battery replacement, with 18650, and Boom mic fix!

[Slistack]

Let me start by saying I love the H2100 headset. I got it for 50 bucks on corsair refurb. Recently I wanted a new headset because of my battery life and the boom mic being all loose. So I took it apart and I will show you what I have done. This tutorial is for semi advanced users, just take your time and be careful. These little batteries if not handled carefully can be dangerous. This is my first post, I hope I can help someone out there.

 

First to deal with the boom mic problem...... I have had my headset so long that it has actually worn out the little nubs on the detentes. So i took an exact-o knife and cleaned up the nubs and then took a pointy soldering iron and made deeper grooves. Then cleaned up the grooves. As you can see in the first two photos. Then I tightened up that Phillips screw that holds that arm and now its nice and tight and the boom mic doesn't flop around.

 

 

 

 

 

Now to the battery upgrade. There is a silly little 680mAh lipo in there. So I said to myself I bet i could fit a nice 18650 battery with a 2800mAh lipo.

 

Turn on soldering iron again, and take out the battery and unplug.

 

Step one: take the right ear cup apart.

Step two: Turn on soldering iron again, and take out the battery and unplug and take battery completely out.

Step three: You need to take the platform that holds the battery, it should look something like this, after your done. 

Step four: Test fit battery

 

 

 

 

Make sure the battery is lying flat, check this by putting the ear cup back on top and make sure it sits flush.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step five: disassemble the old battery, we need the battery management system and the connector from the little battery. This little board is the charge controller.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step six: cut the battery off of the little pcb board. Be superrrrr careful this little battery packs a lot of punch! Do not touch any wires together. Anyway after you cut the battery off solder some wires onto the pads, as you can see i have sharpied the right hand side there with black indicating negative. Also you can tell from the wire colors and where they go.

 

 

 

 

Step seven: get some little short wires and solder them to the battery and to the BMS board. I would highly recommend buying one single legit 1860 with tabs on it, mine happens to be a LG.

 

 

 

Step eight: Put the battery in there and tuck the bms board in there and plug it back in. Also the BMS board had some kapton tape on it, put that back on or tape up the board so it doesnt do fun things. I realise now that you should also put a piece of from in there so the battery doesn't rattle around. Before you close everything up make sure you check all the wires and stuff, these batteries are very torquey! 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my mod to my 2100's I thought i should post because I haven't seen anyone post anything like this before. Now I have one of the best and affordable longest lasting wireless headsets.

 

 

I have not done any testing yet because I just did this but I can post with an update with new battery life times!

 

 

 

 

[SerpentDrago]

This is perfect , I use e-cigs so i have 18650's laying around ..  

 

Did you  use protected or non protected 18650's , and also what kinda battery life are you getting ? .. think there is a way to improve the mic ? 

[Slistack]

Unprotected im pretty sure. Also I am on day 5 of not charging and using it for 5+ hours a day. I will be looking someday soon about the mic situation. I also will post one or two pictures I forgot to take. I just did the mod on my buddies 2100 with great success! 

 

[theupsidedown]

Slistack

 

Nice write up. I have had my H2100 yellow for a good 2 years now and really like it. My mic has gone to garbage so I started shopping around for wireless headsets and honestly couldn't find one that fit as nice and tight as this one, so my goal is to revive it since I am only getting about 4 hours of battery life on it now. 

 

One thing to note is that if you are experiencing a hiss sound, you could consider uninstalling the corsair software and then use Razer Surround Pro. They sell it for $20; however they periodically give it for free, which is how I had gotten it. I found that the sound quality greatly improved and the hiss was gone after I moved over. The funny thing is that the H2100 sounds far better than the new Razer Man O War wireless with the same software. YMMV but I believe it was greatly due to how tight my ears fit and seal within the H2100. The Man O War has large circular cups that don't really seal.

 

Thus far the only mod I have done was replacing the ear pads with a set of memory foam with pleather cover: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MFDT894 I noticed that with these ear pads the headset seals better around the ear and it gives it more depth. They also can easily be cleaned unlike the originals.

 

For a mic I decided to pick up a Blue Snowball Ice for $45 since during my tests of different wireless headsets, I really didn't find one with a mic that I cared for. I'm considering removing the internal mic entirely when I open it up for the battery replacement.

 

Before I rip apart my headset I wanted to check with you on an update of how yours is doing with the battery mod. Here is the battery that I ordered a few weeks ago: http://www.banggood.com/Samsung-ICR18650-28A-18650-3_7V-2800mAh-Li-ion-Rechargeable-Battery-p-942043.html

 

Any updates on your battery situation? I attempted to find you with the same username on Steam in case you no longer frequent this board.

 

Thanks

[Slistack]

The battery mod is working amazingly well. I am really surprised on how it turned out. I also have given up on the mic. I bought a snowball as well. I too as well cannot find a better wireless solution, and while these arent anything amazing they really work well and are super reliable. I am getting over 30 hours of use with my 2600mah battery, but you can buy 3200mah batteries now. I bet you could get 40 hours on a new Samsung battery. Well if you shoot me a message on reddit ill even send you a cell. I have about 200 cells so nbd. 

 

Also if you are less fond of ripping apart the headset I had another idea. Hot swap 18650. There are 18650 holders out there and all you have to do is take apart the headset and take the old battery out and then poke a tiny hole through the earcup and glue on a holder on the outside, and now infinite power. If anyone wants a tutorial on that I can probably do it easy peasy, ill even make a video.

 

I also really like the felt ear cups, not a fan of the faux leather ones. 

 

Anyone who wants to do this mod add me on steam with the same username or message me on reddit, I will be happy to help out. Reddit is prob the easiest way to get a hold of me without getting spam emails and a bunch of people on my steam.

 

Cheers!

[lembnau]

Just finished the mod. Took me a while to get to it but better late than never.

 

worked out just fine. thanks for the guide!

[terminal3k]

Just done the Mod.  Has anyone had any problems with charging?  its been on charged for a long time and the fully charged green light hasnt come on

[bergmanxxx]

I would like to get some help please!! I did same as on pics and now charging is working but my head set wont turn on!! Help pls

[Forcerino]

On 23/09/2018 at 11:23 AM, bergmanxxx said:

I would like to get some help please!! I did same as on pics and now charging is working but my head set wont turn on!! Help pls

hey the headset turn on when you plug the charge? if not try seeing if all the cables didn't disconnected somehow.

when i did the mod on my h2100 i made a mistake and pulled the wire that connect direct to the soundboard, but i soldered it again and worked fine.

another thing, after i did the mod, i try to turn on and the battery wasn't charged at all, so i first thought that i fucked up the mod but i put the headset to charge for about 1-2hours and the battery started to hold the charge normal again, so try leaving charging for a bit.

its a great mod, i'm getting about 30+ hours of using, insanely good...

(sorry for my english btw, i'm still learning xd)

[degwees]

There is an alternative way to upgrade your H2100 battery! Bumping an old thread because I decided to change the battery on my old H2100 headset.

 

One can buy a HZSL103450A or BS140550 1700mah battery to replace the original 680/700mah unit. This unit has similar dimensions, although thicker at 10mm. It seems to have the right connector and shouldn't require any soldering work. 

 

The HZSL103450A has half the charge of a high-end Nitecore 18650 3400mah at the same price, but should be easier to install.

[Fain]

On 7/5/2019 at 5:34 AM, degwees said:

There is an alternative way to upgrade your H2100 battery! Bumping an old thread because I decided to change the battery on my old H2100 headset.

 

One can buy a HZSL103450A or BS140550 1700mah battery to replace the original 680/700mah unit. This unit has similar dimensions, although thicker at 10mm. It seems to have the right connector and shouldn't require any soldering work. 

 

The HZSL103450A has half the charge of a high-end Nitecore 18650 3400mah at the same price, but should be easier to install.

How did you get this to work? While the connector is the same the red and black wires are reversed.

I was able to reverse the wires by taking them out of the connector with tweezers. It looks like its charging currently will update after a bit of usage.

[Fain]

While reversing the wires worked, the headsets charging light stayed on Amber (did not blink like usual). It never turned green but I was worried about it so I unplugged it. The charge would not hold either. I came home to a dead headset two days in a row. So I took the original battery's IC board and soldered the HZSL103450A red and black wires to it. The Amber light is now blinking again. I left the yellow wire dangling hoping the original battery boards yellow wire handles the temp/voltage. Will update again after some usage.

[DavidS.]

On 10/3/2019 at 12:22 AM, Fain said:

While reversing the wires worked, the headsets charging light stayed on Amber (did not blink like usual). It never turned green but I was worried about it so I unplugged it. The charge would not hold either. I came home to a dead headset two days in a row. So I took the original battery's IC board and soldered the HZSL103450A red and black wires to it. The Amber light is now blinking again. I left the yellow wire dangling hoping the original battery boards yellow wire handles the temp/voltage. Will update again after some usage.

I did exactly same thing like you , soldered the board from original battery to the new one but the headset did not turn on. So I removed the board and connected a new battery without it like before, but something went wrong I think because headset is not working any more. Aghrrrrrr , I should leave  it without the bord like at the first time, I couldn't get a green light even after 10 hours of charging ,but headset was working for me for about 5 days without charging ( about 3-4 hours of use everyday). 

I also check all the wires and they look OK. So really do not know what went wrong. I think it's a time for a new headset, this time I will look for one with battery that can be replaced easy. I am so f..... 

 

OK, so I just find out that the battery was flat   after charging I soldered the board back to it , put it inside the headset and it is working fine. Uffffff , I am so happy 

[Fain]

So after about a full week of usage (same as David above about 3-4 hrs a day started on friday ended ran out on thursday) the battery died. I ran it out completely. I plugged it into the charge and thought nothing of it. Woke up this morning with the amber light on consistent. I had to turn on the headset and turn it off to get the amber light to flash. Its still flashing so I don't think it charged all night  Maybe the HZSL103450A on IC board (not the HL2100 board) had something to do with it?

 

After all is said and done degwees alternative solution was not worth it. If you are going to replace the battery please save your self some time and do the OP's mod.

 

Only reason I would recommend the HZSL103450A is if you don't want to melt/cut the plastic to make room for the larger battery. The HZSL103450A had just enough thickness to get the speaker back on. Its actually a tad too thick but you can still screw it on just don't over tighten the screws.

 

There maybe another third party battery that works but i'm pretty sure the IC board is a critical part to this headset so you'll probably end up soldering it on anyways.

[DavidS.]

How about that? 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-7V-2000mAh-Lipo-polymer-Battery-103450-JST-1-0-1-25-1-5-2-0-2-54-connector/123706242868?var=424301887760

[sleeveless]

I followed your steps and everything goes well.

here's several little things ,i bought the 18650 holder ,but it a bit too long to fit in if you're not going to tear the outer shield ,so I end up solder the wire straight on the battery .brainwavz foam is tighter than original one ,still good thanks for the information. my headband pad is also dead , but it hard for me to know witch is an ok replacement ,so i just made one myself , not looking good but ok. It really smells bad when cleaning plastic with solder iron,i suggest you do it out side or something ,and be careful with solder iron ,i accidentally made a little hole through outer shield. i just use tape to hold the battery hope it won't go around. 

 

thanks a lot for providing this method or any information,my headset is still charging ,but I've tested it ,it goes well.

 

English is not my native language. grammar might be weird sometimes ,please kindly understand.

 

[TULOA]

I have the corsair void pro so it would look like I cant do the inital guide. I was thinking however about using a LiPo battery like a DS battery to replace the stock one. It is within the specs.

 

The question is can I leave the DS Battery Charging board attached to it and then connect the two boards for the proper connectors or should/can I remove the DS board and use the one for the headset?

 

Edit: I am aware this is old but I would think this might benefit others and I dont want to mess up the headset since its similar.