Searching replacement battery-pack for Jaguar Sounder

[fls]

Hi,

The "Intelligent Sounder" equipment from a Jaguar car has got a batterypack. It's now a decade or more down the line and at least one of the cells are bad.
After spending a lot of time removing the potting, the pack showed. Luckely the label was readable!

Ni-Cd 7.2V 180mAh P/N:GP18AAK6

I cannot find the partno on the internet, but guess it's GP branded, 3 cells make an "AA" sized part, so in total 6 cells.

Does anyone know with what I can replace it with?
There are 3 solderlips. See photo. Left top GND, right top +7.2 and bottom left +3.6V
So i'm looking for either 2x AA sized 3.6V or 6x 1/3AA 2.4V.
180mAh (or close).
Or anything that will fit into that space. The space available is ~55mmx~30mmx~15mm.
I do not know anything about the charging circuit, it is still potted and want to leave it like that if possible.
My best guess is that is not a fancy charging circuit.

Many thanks!!



 

[SeanB]

6 1/3AA cells are the only option, unless you want to try fitting 6 mass plate cells into the area, which means you might want to remove more potting to get the needed volume. Pretty much any capacity cell that fits will work, though I would recommend only using NiCd cells there, not NimH cells, as the NiCd cells are a lot more tolerant of continuous float charging, which will damage the NimH cells in short order. The cells should be available from your favourite online auction site, preferably as either a set of 3 tagged cells in a sleeve, or as individual tagged cells, that you simply solder together and insulate ( especially the ends of each cell, you do not want to short them out) using some Kapton tape, and then simply pack in the space and use some acetoxy free silicone, or put the cover back on and use some thin polythene foam packing as a filler.

Charging circuit I would guess is a diode from the battery side and a current limiting resistor, giving a charge current of around 10-15mA for the pack. Probably a 560R 0.5W resistor on the board only.

[imidis]

Yeah, I'll second 1/3 aa cells.

More mAh won't hurt, sometimes it's hard to find the same capacity.

Get tabbed for sure, not sure where you are located. Last time I replaced potted batteries they were 1/3AA, had a heck of a time finding them, but I did manage., there are places that will also pack them for you as well. I had ordered mine out of the US and got them packed locally for cheap.

[fls]

Well, I give up on the nicd. Nihm is widely available.
I finally found a supplier who was willing to ship nicd to the netherlands, but the date on the battery was 7 years old!
I could not find any on my favoutite auction site.
Although some could be found in the USA, but do not ship it to the netherlands. (And the costs where huge).
I have to admit that i'm not good in guessing the search words that our chinese friends are using. Probably something with 'arduino' in the title...
(Goldcaps maybe? I have no experience with those as backup battery replacements...)

[jitter]

Mouser has 1/3AA NiCd cells available: link
Or another one in the Netherlands: here.

These don't have solder terminals, though. Maybe there's room to put them into a 2xAA battery holder?

[fls]

Mouser may bee too small in capacity. 180mAh down to 110mAh...
That batterypoint shop was the one with 7 years on the shelf.
(Not the one you linked btw but there was a type that was the exact type.)
I have seen some on big shops e.g. RS-components, but they only sell to companies...

So, I'm going to keep searching...

[imidis]

Well, I give up on the nicd. Nihm is widely available.
I finally found a supplier who was willing to ship nicd to the netherlands, but the date on the battery was 7 years old!
I could not find any on my favoutite auction site.
Although some could be found in the USA, but do not ship it to the netherlands. (And the costs where huge). 

Wow, just looked at one for shipping there, huge... Indeed =/

Even for here nutty.

I just checked the price for a small parcel via post from here to Netherlands and it's like 8 bucks (though never completely accurate) a lot cheaper.

Which places in the states did you find? And are you in a hurry?

[fls]

Well, I just got an email from 'batterypoint.nl' and they will check if a new batch of cells are available. They are willing to weld the cells in 2x3-1/3 just what I need. They get back to me after 'kingsday', which is a national holiday tomorrow.

I'm in no rush to get the cells, but I have put the unit with lifesupport on one of my bench powersupply... So hopefully not too long.
There is a memory configuration that allows the unit to be recognized. If that is lost, I bricked it...