[Tfug] Source for notebook batteries?

Jim March 1.jim.march at gmail.com
Tue Sep 22 21:32:41 MST 2009


>>I saw all the posts about doing it yourself and I still fall back to my main rule of thumb... that is... with volatile things like batteries, I would never take a chance. I say that because it dawned on me at some point in my life that with the more dangerous things like batteries, there could be just one "professional insider" piece of info, or one law of physics, or something that's just not obvious that that I may miss that may lead to a dangerous situation.<<

Rocco, the thing is we're not talking about opening up any ONE
battery.  That would be nuts.  What's going on here is that the
factory is packaging an array of individual batteries wired together.
We're calling them "cells" but really, it's the same as sticking six
D-cells in a boombox or something.

In the factory layout, the wires are soldered to the batteries.  The
replacement batteries can be ordered for twenty cents a piece extra
with little tabs.  So you clip out the original batteries after
writing down how it's wired, you buy little crimp-on ends to go on the
new tabs from radio shack, you make sure you're dealing with the same
voltage (usually 3.7v but do check) and the same type (generally
Li-Ion) and size (easy enough to measure) and you're good to go.

Here's the thing: while this sounds scary, at least you know what
batteries you're buying as opposed to "crap 'o the week" whatever the
company had available who sold you a complete, packaged battery.

Knowing what you're really buying in terms of the cell source makes
this, to me, SAFER than buying "something on EBay" that's a completely
package.

Plus, you know that you're using the original issue charge controller
circuit board, and that's yet another critical piece...




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