Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 23:20:00 -0800 (PST) From: Matt Hanson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Libretto Batteries - Rebuilding
--- John Liu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am thinking about buying lithium cells of the same dimension and > capacity (ideally even the same make and model), unsoldering the bad > cells, and rebuilding the pack. Has anyone done this? Are there any > special tricks? A few people have had success rebuilding their battery packs. You do have to be >very< careful to get everything reassembled exactly without damaging the ciruit board, mis-wiring things, or making any other errors. LiIon batteries not installed correctly can explode and make an average day turn into a nightmware. It'd be smart to plug the rebuilt battery pack into a Libby battery charger, put the charger on one side or a wall, and run the cord around to the other side before plugging it in and testing to see if the rebuild went well. With that warning though, you can get replacement cells from Sabah Oceanic: http://sabahoceanic.com You'd want the Panasonic CGR17670HG cells. Plug that part number into Sabah's search engine and you'll find them at $7.40USD each. Nice thing is that they're 1500mah instead of the original 1200mah cells, so they're power the Libbys a bit longer. The original cells were 17mm by 67mm, and those CGR17670HGs are a hair shorter, so they'll fit fine. There are also 18mm wide Panasonic cells that a couple people squeezed in by hacking off the sides of the battery pack shell. They are higher capacity, but the finished rebuild looks like hell. Not a huge problem those I guess, as I think only the top and back sides get hacked off. Once in the Libby, I don't think it looks normal. Sabah will also weld soldering tabs onto to the cells for free. They do that overseas, so I guess they aren't subject to suits that could develop if they were providing the cells from here in the USA. In fact they say they'll weld cells to any spec they're provided with. I was wondering if I could send them the dismantled battery pack, and have them attach the whole circuit board onto the new cells for me. You could also get one of the extended battery packs for the 50/70s off EBay that go for a lost less than the ones for the 100/110s, and then just swap the contents. That worked fine for me. I had one of those for my 70CT. Dropping it's guts in the 110 pack works fine, and has for everyone I've heard from that's done this. I just never bothered to glue the 2 halves of the pack together, as I'd like to go the Sabah route myself at some point. And the pack stays together quite nicely after it's plugged into the Libby. > I see that I can buy a "new" pack for around $100, but I'm a bit > skeptical - not sure how I avoid getting a used pack for my $100. I > also found some places that commercially rebuild battery packs. What > do you think about these alternatives? As I pointed out, everyone I've written has had success just buying a 50/70 pack on EBay, and swapping. Someone complained that you never know what thecondition of the pack will be before you get it. But I've not seen any complaints on the list from people who've gone that way. > Another thing I'd like to do is to better understand how the battery > pack works. Why are there so many contacts in the plug and what is all > that circuitry doing? The circuitry appears to monitor the voltage > between each pair of cells, there's something that looks like a > temperature sensor taped to one cell, and there's another component (a > slim bit of black plastic) wired to the board. > > Finally, is there a test I can do to verify my Libretto is working > properly - I don't want to spend $50 or $100 on rebuilding or replacing > battery packs and then find out it was a problem in the L100's power > board. Raymond....??!! Matt __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
