Hacking A Laptop Battery

[Kiriakos-GR]

That seems like a much better alternative. How about the cells? What are some good places to go for those? Also I haven't been able to find that connector, can you provide a link?

Do you have any physical store with parts in your area ?
If yes , just the picture it will help.

Its commonly used on CB (vehicles) or VHF ( boats ) radios.

Or alternatively use ebay search.  

[Lance]

I'm not a big fan of using standard connectors like XLR for non-standard applications like power. What if someone plugged it into their amplifier/mixer, or plugged their microphone into your power supply? But at least low voltage DC is unlikely to kill/seriously injure people.

I'm going to be the only one using it. If I ever did make one for another person I'd pick a more dummy friendly one.

That seems like a much better alternative. How about the cells? What are some good places to go for those? Also I haven't been able to find that connector, can you provide a link?

Do you have any physical store with parts in your area ?
If yes , just the picture it will help.

Its commonly used on CB (vehicles) or VHF ( boats ) radios.

Or alternatively use ebay search.   

Sounds like a plan. There is a store or two around here, when school's out I'll have more time to look around.

Are there any brands of batteries that are particularly good compared to others?

[Kiriakos-GR]

Are there any brands of batteries that are particularly good compared to others?

I have no idea of what batteries you are planing to use.
There is plenty of options , but its one it will drive in to a specific sized battery pack,
plus the weight it will come in the equation too.

Generally I favor Sanyo - Sony - Panasonic .   

[Lance]

Well I guess I'd be going for some lithium ion cells. I guess I should be asking what characteristics should I be looking for in a battery.

[Kiriakos-GR]

I do not suggest any use of lithium ion cells , they need special circuitry about charging that you do not have one.

But hey I got confused again ... are you thinking to rebuild the original pack ? ( My suggestion to it its a big NO )
Or to make an alternative battery pack completely external ?   ( Yes with common batteries like NiMH  AA but you will need many of them,
and the 2700mA version does not come cheap.)

About making the battery pack , you are alone on this , as concept.
Its best before you go for shopping , to make an schematic of what you have in mind and post it here ,
so to get an advice . 

[Hypernova]

My classmate for his final years proj was making a 3ch Li-Ion power supply and charging system for a robot (which I was building) using some TI management chip.

v1: didn't do anything
v2: blew the chip which takes a week to source from farnell
v3: changed mosfet which blew
v4: Works when he enabled each channel by themselves. 

And then when he tried to use all 3 at once they all blew up and he's out of spare chips at this point. 

Oh and this was before the day of the exhibition.

[Lance]

I do not suggest any use of lithium ion cells , they need special circuitry about charging that you do not have one.

But hey I got confused again ... are you thinking to rebuild the original pack ? ( My suggestion to it its a big NO )
Or to make an alternative battery pack completely external ?   ( Yes with common batteries like NiMH  AA but you will need many of them,
and the 2700mA version does not come cheap.)

About making the battery pack , you are alone on this , as concept.
Its best before you go for shopping , to make an schematic of what you have in mind and post it here ,
so to get an advice . 

I was looking at both actually. I know I need special control circuitry for lithium cells, but I'm sure I can come up with that.

[Hypernova]

I do not suggest any use of lithium ion cells , they need special circuitry about charging that you do not have one.

But hey I got confused again ... are you thinking to rebuild the original pack ? ( My suggestion to it its a big NO )
Or to make an alternative battery pack completely external ?   ( Yes with common batteries like NiMH  AA but you will need many of them,
and the 2700mA version does not come cheap.)

About making the battery pack , you are alone on this , as concept.
Its best before you go for shopping , to make an schematic of what you have in mind and post it here ,
so to get an advice . 

I was looking at both actually. I know I need special control circuitry for lithium cells, but I'm sure I can come up with that.

Any half decent battery charger chip will have example circuits spelled out for you.

[Lance]

Sounds good. I'll shop around when I have some more time.

[Lance]

For charger chips, are there any brands that are generally considered better?

[Sionyn]

interesting read

http://www.laptops-battery.co.uk/blog/how-to-replace-battery-cells-inside-laptop-battery/

[Lance]

Yeah, I'll need to wait till the summer before messing around with this. School is keeping me quite occupied at the moment.

[Kiriakos-GR]

interesting read

http://www.laptops-battery.co.uk/blog/how-to-replace-battery-cells-inside-laptop-battery/

 

This is why .... I was suggesting to avoid rebuilding such packs.... there is no simplicity about doing it . 

[Lance]

interesting read

http://www.laptops-battery.co.uk/blog/how-to-replace-battery-cells-inside-laptop-battery/

 

This is why .... I was suggesting to avoid rebuilding such packs.... there is no simplicity about doing it . 

Isn't the challenge the whole point? Or part of it at least?

[Kiriakos-GR]

Isn't the challenge the whole point? Or part of it at least?

Nop , there is no challenge if you try to do something like that,
with out having knowledge - special parts - and tools.

This thread had come to 5 pages , its not wise to speak over and over about already known things.