There are lots of posts about people doing the hackgeneer thing - taking things apart- this is mine.
Walking past the recycle bin at work I spied a laptop battery pack. Needing rechargeable cells for various outside Arduino projects I filched it. After all, it is a recycle bin - and I am going to recycle it... |
| pack with its top off. |
I always wanted to know what was in one of these. Suffice it to say - it was quite satisfying getting at the innards of the pack - involving ripping, cutting, and general plastic destructing mayhem. I was cognizant that shorting unprotected LIon cells can be exciting - So I did this on a non flammable base (Correll dinner plate - don't tell the wife - please)
View of all the pieces
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| view of pack and its controller board. |
I was astonished how big these things are. I expected them to be a little bigger than an AA battery, but these things are HUGE in comparison..
I tested the voltage of the 3 packs - and they had relatively normal voltages on them. I suspect that their capacity has been reduced to the point that they won't run a Laptop for long enough - but should be stellar for supplying a few dozen milliamps to an Arduino - for quite a long time.
I just have to track down some protection boards to keep them safely contained. Seems that everyone has them for a couple of dollars or so.
Now that I have a few - i am looking around the net for how to use then.
See here
gota see this xkcd: http://xkcd.com/651/
NOTE: in the interest of safety - Mistreating Li-Po batteries are Dangerous
Stay tuned ...
