21 May 2013

Anatomy of a laptop battery pack

Three packs at different stages of dismantling
After successfully reviving 7 out of 8 Li-ion cells (3.7V, 2200 mAh), while waiting for the balanced charger to arrive from China, I started working on pack #2.

In this post I will show how these three packs look like. Inside a pack there are 8 cells, in parallel 2-by-2 (marked in violet). Hidden on one side there are a lot of electronics and taped between two cells a thermocouple.

Zooming in pack internals.

In pack #2 at reachable joints I could measure some 3.6V, so perhaps these cells do not need a restoring current. Disassembling is next.

Cells from pack #1 still hold the partial charge and I am optimistic they can be turned into a set of working battery packs.... when the balanced charger will arrive.