[PLUG] Rebuilding laptop battery packs

[Keith Lofstrom]

On 12/29/2014 05:58 PM, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> Anybody interested in rebuilding battery packs?  

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 10:46:21PM -0800, King Beowulf wrote:
> These days I just hunt Amazon, or Batteries+ (local PDX-Vancouver, 
> also can special order), for a good deal. 

I've done that, many times, which is why I have the pile of depleted
battery packs.  The Chinese knockoffs are far cheaper but do not
last as long as the Lenovo packs, which use high quality Panasonic
cells.

At some point, my venerable laptops (which do my tasks far better
than modern crap designed for passive media consumption) will be 
too uncommon for the market to support, and new battery packs will
no longer be for sale from Lenovo or China or anywhere;  even a 
stockpile of "new" battery packs will decay with time. 

That is why it is exciting that the cells themselves are available,
still in high demand for other consumer goods, and retrofittable to
rebuilt battery packs.  Fuses can be stockpiled, too;  unlike high
energy chemistry bombs AKA battery cells, fuses and circuit boards
rot very slowly. 

I expect to waste a few depleted packs learning how to do it right. 
I presume I can modify the packs with screws so I can keep rebuilding
with new off-the-shelf LiIon cells for a very long time.  That means
one less barrier to Really Long Term Support.

The big problems are (1) attaching the leads, and (2) teaching others
how to to this, some of whom might prove to be litigious idiots.  
Fast spot welders deposit very little heat beyond the weld, and
idiots and their lawyers are a curable social disease.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com