Battery revamp is worth doing

ARM based Windows laptops are now able to run x64 programs in November Insider Preview, a site said so I thought, hmm... this will get interesting.

Edited by stingraze 2020-10-28 10:08 AM

30+ hours are for two battery packs together, not just one.

I need two packs to ensure that my Jornada has a constant supply of power without AC, while I use my spare (and somewhat broken) backup machines as charger itself.

For moderate use (1-2 hours a day), I don't need to charge it for more than a week.

I suppose Sigmarion III's higher specs (CPU, display) drains the battery faster than the older Jornada. Still, the recelled pack(using NCR18650A MH12210, 3100mAh) on my Sig3 holds its charge very well.

It certainly will. With Apple going all ARM next year, the others will follow suite with hardware. I suspect ultrabooks will be the first to get the treatment, but it won't be mainstream for a couple more years. I just hope that there are no more gimmicks from Microsoft. Just release the compiler tools and let as much old code be immediately portable as is practically possible. If they try to repeat the Surface RT mistakes or start trying to limit decent compiler access it to .net 4.9 and higher, they'll sell themselves short again and Google will start eating them alive.

Finally I gave in to the temptation. Along with several more new Sanyo 18650 cells (for my Sigmarion I and II), I bought a LiitoKala Lii-500 charger. This charger has received pretty positive review in general and has a very good cost-performance ratio. It cost about USD$15. A real bang for the bucks.

I immediately used it to run a NOR test for the new cells.



Edited by hpcboy 2020-11-01 3:23 PM






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Wow, thanks for the great guide hpcboy! I really need to do this, as I want to be able to actually use my Jornadas on the go more

Just go ahead! It's worth the effort and the exercise is fun in itself.
If you haven't done recelling before, try to pick up a junk or depleted laptop battery pack as a pilot experiment. Practise opening the casing and extracting the content, which is the hardest part. Most laptop battery packs, including those for the HPCs, are basically the same in design and layout.

A bonus tip:

After recelling the battery packs for the handhelds, it is important to test the capacity of those old cells. In fact, very often when a battery pack seems to be dead, it would turn out that only one or two of the cells inside the pack are depleted, while the rest are still functional.

For example, in this 10+ years old battery pack for a Fujitsu laptop, only one of these six cells no longer holds charge, while the others are still working despite their aging condition.


So for the sake of the environment and the pocket, do not throw away the cells right away!

Those old cells, even though not ideal on the handhelds anymore, can still be put to good use to charge up other devices. One ideal solution is to put these cells in an empty powerbank box. DIY such chargers is pretty cheap, normally costing just a few bucks in USD.

I was lazy though so I bought a readymade powerbank box for just 2 USD.


A simple parallel layout of these cells like this can easily give you 3,000+ mAh of capacity.


It charges devices like smartphones just fine (with slight mods it can even charge your HPC)! No need to buy brand new powerbanks anymore.

If anyone needs help with batteries, there's a specialised shop 100 metres from my place. They do obscure batteries, brick-and-mortar, backorder from reliable sources, some even made locally. Let me know and I can ask.

They are helping me sort out a new battery for a RAID card I have here.

Here are the results of my first NOR test:





With these findings, I can now go ahead to recell for my Sigmarion II.

Count me interested! Do they ship within the EU?

So, I took the plunge & did the MobilePro 900 Battery.

Scoring into the battery was the intimidating part:




Thanks to the links & help of hpcboy, I managed to match up a perfect drop-in replacement - LG MJ1. Found a genuine supplier on eBay.



Initially were half-charged & the charger added another ~2300 mAh on top.


Also big thanks to the rest of the community - soldering not required.




Snug fit:




The battery performs excellently.

Beforehand, half an hour was the most the poor machine could manage with an SD card plugged in. Perhaps 10 minutes with wireless (WEP).


Now, it has endured three hard resets and software re-installs, an hour and a half of SD + wifi usage, 8 hours of suspend - the battery is still at 80%, and the "estimated time remaining" has moved from 2 hours 40 minutes to 2 hours 26 minutes.

Next, perhaps the 780 & the Casio?

Congrats! It's so fun, isn't it?

I recently bought a Casio A-22T (brand new!). From what I read, Panasonic Eneloop is among the best NiMH and especially great for its super long hold of charge. I suppose it will also work great on A-10. The catch of course is you need to pop in and out the cells. But with a decent charger the cells actually charger better and faster than they would be inside the device.

More MPH battery mayhem

And more, it has a good overview of how he's actually making these in this video, if you're interested. They're all recycled batteries!

I have found scoring the case is not necessary. Hold the battery like you're wringing out a washcloth... just keep wringing it forcefully and it will start to crack open along the seams and then use a finger nail/guitar pick/credit card to complete the job. Works easily on Jornada batteries too.

I don't use solder either...just a piece of foam tape on one end to compress battery against contacts. I use old laptop batteries as replacements (cheap guy) Then I put it together with a few lengths of scotch tape along front and back seams...for easy access later if necessary.

I use the tip of a paring knife under the battery tabs twisting slowly to pry the metal tabs from the old batteries...twist it so as to elevate the sharp edge under the tab, carefully ( never point the knife toward your body or other hand)...just twist/pry and slowly walk it along. This way the tabs come off perfectly intact, easily straightened for slipping between new batteries, etc. Works great. My two cents worth...but can be priceless!

Joval

Edited by joval 2021-01-25 5:19 AM