[The Tech Guy] shows us how he added cells to an MSI Wind’s battery. This hack is extremely simple but it may be difficult to get the battery back into your laptop. Also, we’re not too sure how stable it is, and you can definitely forget about taking this thing through an airport. It would be really nice to start seeing people fabricate custom enclosures. Until then, this hack is best reserved for people completely desperate for extended battery life.
[via hypatiadotca]
This is nothing new, In Santa Monica,ca. USA (the unofficial cell phone capatiol) We call hacked battery packs “Ball and Chain batteries”. I had enough cell phone batteries tied together to give 24 hours of battery power to a PC inside a back Pack. It took 8 hours to charge the thing.
I dont get it? Where exactly do you go where there isn’t a 120V or 12V power source? I’ve never used my laptop battery for more than 30 minutes….
If battery life is your shindig get a EEEPC!
@1:
Outside, some places its hard to get to a outlet(such as the coffee shop on my campus has only a few ports and are usually taken) Class rooms it’s usually hard to find a outlet. Lots of time I just don’t bother to plug my notebook in.
Reading through the thread on the forum it appears they just put the extra 6 batteries in parallel with the original 3 – that’s so something I would never do with rechargable lithium batteries! it means the charging controller board doesn’t have individual control of the cells.
You’ve all seen the lithium battery fires on YouTube?
I’ve been wanting to get a larger battery pack for this 9 month old Asus Eee I’m typing on but only rarely have I needed to use it beyond when the battery runs down and I’m not near a power outlet (I have mains & car chargers for it). Personally I’d buy one, not hack one up.
I’m working on rebuilding my MSI Wind battery. The cells have been replaced, but I’m waiting on my SMD probes and i2c programmer for reprogramming the bq20z70.
re: “get an eeepc” the eeepc’s battery life is shockingly bad. even in sleep it’ll run down entirely in 6 hours.
I just wanted to mention that a custom enclosure could most likely be easily made by opening up the stock enclosure to allow for the additional cells, then vacuum-forming an additional piece to cover the new cells, then just attaching it all together with super-glue / bondo and maybe some modeling putty to finish it off nicely.
Yeah I’m hoping to make a case in exactly that fashion! I’ve been watching all the DIY vacuum forming clips on YouTube.
“they just put the extra 6 batteries in parallel with the original 3 – that’s so something I would never do with rechargable lithium batteries”
Almost all Li-On battery packs are like this, the controller monitors each cell group (3.7v) not the capacity per se. Read the thread, I explain it better.
to comment about the TSA confiscation linked… its way old hat.
not to mention that tsa has confiscated or “changed luggage” of far less suspicious items than 8 batteries taped together.
case in point: my laptop power connector broke while on vacation. given the limited supplies on hand, I simply soldered two wires to the pcb and slid them out the original hole.
Hey, remember that things like solder paste, and other chemicals used in electronics works WILL trigger the explosives machines at TSA. So, going through, the laptop was flagged, it was swabbed, and the little hidden red light went on. I was detained and questioned for 30 minutes about why it was modified, and what the wires do.
tsa was nice about it, and given the circumstances, I should have known they would have a problem with it. they let me put it in as checked luggage, but I couldnt have access to it on the plane. delayed the flight and everything.
tsa’s rule is no modifed electronics in the cabin. No exposed electronic circuits in the cabin. it sucks for us, but it makes sense.
“tsa was nice about it…they let me put it in as checked luggage…tsa’s rule is no modifed electronics in the cabin…it sucks for us, but it makes sense.”
Err, no it doesn’t. If they don’t understand whether the modification makes the device ‘bad’ then it shouldn’t be allowed on the plane at all. If it is likely to do something ‘bad’ then it is as possible that it can do it from the checked luggage hold as from the passenger cabin. Pan Am Flight 103?
I just ordered my MSI Wind on bestbuy and i would have to say that it is perfect for me because it is very light and easy to carry on my bag.
believe me there are places you can be with your laptop where you wont haver either 120V 12V or 240v supply.
Pls how do i reprograme the PIC in my toshiba S155 and Dell latitude to accept fresh cells, a source for fresh cells