Great Laptop battery hack
The one thing I love about the web is the amazing things you stumble across and the many things you learn. I stumbled across this laptop battery hack when I was trying to figure out what to do about the dead battery on my old Toshiba laptop that my wife and kids use from time to time. Forget about forging over $100+ to get a replacement battery, this little video will show you hoe to do it for less that half of that. Not only will you look good by saving money, but it will make you a hero for doing it yourself.
kipkay is the master of how-to hack vids
Wheres the video? I cant see it.
I can see it just fine.
this is great hack, really saved some money,
thx
While I admire your ingenuity, I do have a few caveats:
Some of you may remember a spate of flaming laptops, caused by a short within aging battery packs.
Newer battery packs should have current limiting chips in series (or built in) with the cells to prevent this happening. Obviously, you need the same type of cells (NIMH, NiCad, Lithium/Thionyl Chloride, etc.), but you don’t want to pick up some old cells (that were made for, but not built into, the battery packs that caught fire) that might catch fire. Goggles are essential. A face shield as well , seems like a good idea. A momentary slip-up could leave you with boiling-hot corrosive chemicals on your face – or even the odd little bit of metal stuck in it. If you do have a problem, wash it off with lots of water.
Newer cells can store more energy in the same volume by: a/ packing things closer together,
b/ using improved materials, c/ or both. In the past, sometimes design parameters have been shaved a little too close, or materials have failed to meet expectations. (Remember the industry-wide problem with electrolytic capacitors caused by an unexpected problem with electrolyte from an alternate supplier? The alternate electrolyte met all known specifications at the time – but the capacitors made with it had a tendency to blow up after an all-too-short life.)
Big companies have the advantage that they can build 1,000 battery packs and test them to destruction, to prove that a design is “safe”. Even then, there is still a small chance of some nasty
surprise – see above examples.
That said, and recognizing the risks involved, congratulations on a job well done!
I think this was probably something that would work with laptops that were from a few years ago. I think your right, with todays modern batteries it would probably be dangerous.
Totally sweet – but like john says modern batteries from laptop makers like sony are more bespoke – I wouldn't be surprised if the cheaper laptop's have simple batteries' like that though