I recently purchased a TSU7000 from Ebay. As an owner of a 2000 for many many years I made the assumption (dumb me) that it could use normal batteries like the 2000 does as the auction did not include the charger. Thankfully I found this post and had a quick email conversation with Haoleb to mod mine as well.
I took quite a few pics of the entire process. I always hate to mod something that I can't revert, so although I generally followed Haoleb's steps, I set mine up such that the AAA battery compartment fits snugly inside the 7000 compartment. This way I didn't have to glue anything to the remote itself.
Procedure:
Step 1: Obtain a 4 "AAA" battery compartment from Radio Shack. Part # 270-411.
Step 2: Take the cover off by removing the screw on the back. To make the bottom fit in the Pronto you need to shave plastic off of the areas circled in green.
Step 3: The bottom end of the compartment need to be shaved off as it is too tall to fit in the Pronto. For all the 'shaving' parts I just used my shop grinder. Pic shows what it looks like after shaving.
Step 4: The Pronto cavity indents at the bottom so remove material from the sides as shown below.Grind it down as thin as you can while still leaving some of the plastic wall in place.
Step 5: Next, grind down the entire end of the box to make it as thin as possible. Compare below with previous pic to get the idea.
Step 6: The final piece of work on this end is to cut a slice out of the middle so the box will clear the structural support in the Pronto> I used a dremel with a cutoff disk here and then a small flathead screwdriver to knock out the melted leftover plastic. You basically want to cut straght down the center support of the battery box.
This end should now fit smoothly.
Step 7: The top side of the box contains a switch and the wiring. You need toremove the top cover over the switch. I used a set of modelling sprue cutters to cut the lower post that holds the top on. After removing the top you should see the switch.
Step 8: Remove the switch by cutting the plastic around it and cutting the metal tab that joins the switch to the negative terminal of the box. Also cut the plastic around the wire exit to free them from the box.
Step 9: Remve the posiive contact and wire. Now grind the entire top down to the plastic that backs the contacts. Just like the bottom, get the plastic walls as thin as possible for a good fit.
Cut thered wire off the positive terminal as it won't have enough clearance on the back. Put the positive contact back in the box and the box should fit nicely into the Pronto.
Step 10: I chose to take the battery pack apart and use the entire wire-set from it to get the power connector. If you ever wondered what the battery pack looks like inside, here it is:
I believe Haoleb just wired 2 wires to the negative terminal and spliced that to the black & yellow on the connector. Since I like to be able to readily 'undo' things I do, I desoldered the battery pack wiring from the pack and then soldered it to my battery box, including the diode. This way if I ever do get a charger I can rebuild the battery pack easily. In any case, you need to solder red to the positive end of the box and two wires to the negative end, as shown. They need to be soldered to the top but with the wires going sideways as there is not much height wiggle room.
I originally wanted to find and buy a new connector and build my own harness leaving the battery pack alone. I did discover that the connector is made by JST and is part number PHR3 (or PHR-3) [for searching purposes the whole thing is JST PHR-3] However, I couldn't find anywhere to buy one quickly so I just cannibalized the battery pack.
Step 11: Plug the pack into the Pronto and load up some AAA 1.2V rechargeables and let'er rip!
The battery cover fits smoothly across the back with everything in place. Total cost: $1.99 + rechargeable AAA's.
