u/MR_SMILESs

I've had my Razer Nari Ultimate Headset for a couple of years and have finally gotten to the point where the short battery life, constant beeping, and horrendous micro USB got to me. In this guide, I upgrade the battery to have 3-4x the life and also add a usbc charging port in parallel (compatible with USB-C to USB-C charging cables).

Credit to u/Crimson_Rav3n for his original guide; it is much more condensed and is well-written.

Here is my process below with lots of pictures in case anyone decides to mod theirs. I made a couple of mistakes and am an amateur at soldering, but it worked out well.

Do this at your own risk; I am not an electrician. Let me know your thoughts!

Time Spent: 6 hours (if you know how to solder, you could definitely do it faster)

Soldering Battery

1. Start with soldering the battery before doing anything else. If you make a mistake here you can stop and still use your headset while a new battery is on the way.
2. I ordered a Samsung 35E 18650 3500mAh 8A Battery from 18650 Battery Store online for around $6 USD before shipping. If you choose the same store, make sure you are using their real domain, as there are imitator sites.
3. Because this is a lithium 18650 battery, you will not want to leave your soldering iron on the battery for too long. While I used Electrical silver-bearing non-lead rosin-core solder, I've heard from literally everyone that it's better to buy separate rosin flux and use that to get a good stick to your battery. Tin your battery and wire (24 AWG or similar), scuff the surface of the battery with sandpaper, and then deeper with a flat-head screwdriver.
4. Get that damn thing on and repeat for the other terminal. Make sure you tape the ends of your wires to avoid a short while you move on. After you should wrap the entire battery in electrical tape, with a focus on the terminals. If you burned some of the white safety ring around the positive terminal, fold a small piece of electrical tape downward around the lip to help prevent shorting your battery. If you are concerned about having broken your battery during this process, use a multimeter. Your battery should be between approximately 3 and 4V of output (if not fully pre-charged). To my understanding, if it is near 0, you may have shorted or caused heat damage to your battery and triggered an internal safety mechanism.

​Separating the Right EarCup

1. Remove the 5(?) screws from the right ear cup (you might have to screw through the tape), gently pull apart the speaker plate from the rest of the headset, and set it close to the side; be careful with the thin wires.
2. You'll see a three-wire connector to the right of the ear cup; disconnect it. It connects the old battery and BMS board to the headset. After disconnecting, gently reposition the wire to the side.
3. Unscrew the old battery hosuing and carefully remove the battery the battery housing and battery from the headset.

​4. Use a toothpick dipped in isopropyl alcohol and push it in between the old battery and housing to bunch up and weaken the adhesive under the battery. Make sure you do it from the opposite end of the yellow tape, as we are extracting the BMS board. This step is really important to not damage that board when removing the battery from the housing.

5. Once weakened, pull off the battery and carefully unwrap the outer layers of tape around the BMS board. Then Using wire cutters, cute the negative na dpsositve tabs close to the bms board but dont worry to fully remove the factory-soldered tabs. Now that its free you should just have the BMS board as seen below.

​6. Now solder your positive wire from the 18650 to the positive side of the BMS board and then do the negative. If you have a less fine soldering iron, it can be helpful to use electrical tape as a barrier between tight contact points to avoid joining two contact points.

7. After you have done this, wrap it all in electrical tape. You can test to make sure your headset still turns on and functions; listen for low battery sounds from each ear cup. If it is okay, you can now attempt to zip-tie your battery to the original housing or just carefully hot glue it in, as there might not be enough space with the upgrade. Make sure you hot glue in a way that you are still able to reconnect the speaker plate; it has those long plastic pieces.

If you are just upgrading the battery, reconnect the connector and close it up, but leave it open and disconnected if you are aiming to add a usbc charging port.

​​Adding the Charging Port

1. For me, this was not easy and is where I spent the bulk of my time.
2. I bought a "USB type c Female Connectors Jack With Dual 5.1k resistors 16pin usb Eectric Terminals wleding DIY data cable Support PCB board"... That was the name on AliExpress. Nowhere else could beat the price of .98 USD for 5 pieces. Of course it came with $9 shipping costs, but this was exactly what I wanted. Some AliExpress and even "US-based brands" may advertise 5.1k resistors, but they won't be pre-installed or will only come with the slots to add them. Unless you have a super fine soldering iron and magnifying glass, it's not feasible... I'd recommend checking the reviews of whatever products you find specifically for whether the dual 5.1k resistors. If you order them without it, you may still be able to use the USB-C port, but it will only be capable of USB-A to USB-C charging cables.
3. Once you get the USB-C port, you will want to solder your red wire to the V terminal or equivalent. And your black wire to GND (ground) or equivalent. Avoid the other contacts and try again with a new port if your solder crosses over.

​4. Now take apart the left ear cup carefully; remember to remove the screws under the sticker if there is one. You can just poke your Phillips screwdriver right through if you need to.

5. Once separated, identify the board with the Micro USB charging port. Carefully disconnect the ribbon cable and unscrew this board. Once removed you should have something that looks like this:

​6. Now decide if you want to add your USB-C port in parallel (you will have to make a new hole) or replace the Micro USB (you will have to stack the PCB board and remove the Micro USB). Personally, I decided parallel would be much easier, but see the other guide if you decide otherwise.

7. Now, using your multimeter, ensure that Pin 1 on your Micro USB port is directly connected to the Z1 tab. Also ensure that none of your other contacts directly go to the pad. Pin 1 is the 5V charging pin, and because it is so small, you may find it easier to connect your wire to the Z1 tab instead of Pin 1. Avoid Z2 (if I remember correctly); this connects to your ground and will cause a short circuit.

8. Pre Tin Z1, it is much easier. Pre-tin your positive (V) wire as well and join the Z1 contact and wires carefully. This is the make-or-break part of your project, and soldering the wrong two contact pads together could destroy your work.

9. Now attach your negative ground wire to any anchoring point on the micro USB. There are 4. One to the left of pin 1 and right of pin 5 on the micro USB, and on the sides as well. Alternatively, you can solder to the casing of the micro USB, as we will be leaving it on the board. I opted for the right-side casing/anchoring point.

10. Plug in your battery and make sure the headset turns on and charges; if it does, unplug the battery from its board again. If it doesn't charge with USB-C to USB-C, try USB-A to USB-C, as you may not have 5.1k resistors on your PCB board. If neither works, unplug your battery and troubleshoot. Use a multimeter!

​​Dremeling or Drilling a new hole

1. Now, to the right of the micro USB charging hole, drill and then dremel a USB-C-shaped hole. This should be around 1/4 to a half inch to the right (but I guess you could opt for elsewhere in the headset if you choose). Now you could do the smart decision and trace a spare USBC port, drill, and then dremel. Or you could be like me, just use a drill and eyeball it. To be honest, it was not my best work, but it'll do. I'm not too worried about cosmetic damage.
2. Once this is done, sand any flared plastic pieces and blow out excess plastic. Reinstall your board with the micro USB and be careful to line it up with its hole. It's a little finicky; no worries if you are unable to screw it down. Actually, I'd recommend against it to avoid touching your solder with the screw. Place your new USBC into the new hole after wrapping the contacts and new solder joints with electrical tape.
3. Now glue the micro USB board from the sides and below. Glue the USBC board from the sides and below, being sparse on top. If you do it on top too much, as I did, you won't be able to fully close the speaker plate. I plan on fixing it eventually but was too tired in the moment to peel off the hot glue and try again. Opening the headset again and again will also put stress on the internals, and I wanted to avoid breaking this headset again.
4. Now seal your left speaker plate. Then plug your battery back into the board and seal the right speaker plate. Be careful doing this to make sure neither the added port nor the battery is in the way of the hanging plastic screw sleeves. If they are, just snip the plastic with wire cutters and don't fill in that screw
5. Once sealed, test your headset and plug it in. It should take longer to charge now with the added capacity, but your battery life will last much longer. The new USB-C PCB board should also allow us to play while plugged in (if you've tried that with a micro USB cable, you know how frustrating that is).

​TLDR: Cool headset mod to increase battery life and charging quality of life