[PLUG] DIY Thinkpad BMS and battery modules

Jason Barnett jason.barnett71 at gmail.com
Mon Nov 18 05:34:18 UTC 2019


While someone here may be able to help you, you will likely have better
luck on the thinkpad subreddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/  Check
the links on the sidebar, there are some serious thinkpad enthusiasts on
some of those other thinkpad subreddits.

On Sun, Nov 17, 2019 at 2:41 PM tom <tgrom.automail at nuegia.net> wrote:

> Has anybody got any details on the specifications for the communication
> between the embedded controller and the battery module for the ThinkPad
> T430? Also perhaps some CAD schematics of the battery module enclosure?
> I'm not worried about the cryptographic handshake to verify battery
> 'authenticity' as I've already replaced the proprietary BIOS with
> CoreBoot which doesn't halt the CPU when an "Unauthorized" battery
> module or mPCI expansion card is installed into the system.
>
> The Lithium Ion cells Levonvo used to manufacturer their batteries have
> a lot of short comings and the 'genuine' cells are starting to suffer
> from age. Even if you were to get a newstock one Lenovo did not choose
> the highest quality cells and instead opted for lower amp hour lower
> endurance cells which do not last as long.
>
> I already am familiar with the Lenovo BMS in the fact that they have
> boobietrapped their hardware in an attempt to prevent owners from
> modifying and repairing their own machines. Where you have to measure
> the voltage of the existing cells and apply a similar DC voltage to the
> BMS and each balance lead as dropping to 0VDC would cause the BMS to
> brick itself. Compound this with the fact the module enclosure is
> glued together and made with very thin shred-able plastic. While this is
> doable I'm looking for a cleaner option. Perhaps a cleanroom design
> from the ground up with modern cells and modern microcontrollers.
>
> Has anybody attempted to do this before and has some work I can
> continue off of?
>
> Sort of an unrelated note but I would also be interested in motherboard
> schematics that could be used to design a replacement mainboard in
> the future with a modern ARM64 or RISCV (if that riscv matures) cpu
> instead of the aging X86 Intel cores. If your not required to run
> Microsoft Windows and have the source code to all of the programs you
> rely on for productivity there's really no reason at all to use X86
> chips with all the heat they produce, power they consume, and
> vulnerabilities they have.
>
> Provided you can get the power draw down you could even start
> experimenting with different battery chemistries better suited for the
> cycling and sustained usage of mobile computers.
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