Does anyone re-build Powerbook batteries?

[stormy]

Hi all,

As you might know I recently refurbished my PB 190, but unfortunately the battery was too far gone to save any of the internals, they were simple too far gone. I have saved the case, as to not have a gaping hole in the side. I am just wondering if anyone in the community re-builds these?

Thanks,

 

[Crutch]

yes!  I'm still looking for someone to rebuild my Blackbird batteries .... I know in theory I could do it myself but am hoping for a more professional job.

 

[sutekh]

Looks like you can still get them new:

• https://zbattery.com/Apple-PowerBook-190-14-4V-3800-NiMH
  

I'm not gonna raise my hand on the rebuild (every minute I spend on my own personal PBs is time stolen from other pressing obligations), but based on output voltage, it looks like a 190 likely has 12 x NiMH cells?  Looks to be right in the sweet spot for a 4S Li-Ion pack. If 18650 cells are too big for your case, you could also use 14500s or 14300s. Check out my recent Duo Li-Ion conversion thread...

 

[stormy]

Looks like you can still get them new:

• https://zbattery.com/Apple-PowerBook-190-14-4V-3800-NiMH
  

I'm not gonna raise my hand on the rebuild (every minute I spend on my own personal PBs is time stolen from other pressing obligations), but based on output voltage, it looks like a 190 likely has 12 x NiMH cells?  Looks to be right in the sweet spot for a 4S Li-Ion pack. If 18650 cells are too big for your case, you could also use 14500s or 14300s. Check out my recent Duo Li-Ion conversion thread...

Thanks sutekh, I had a read and it's very impressive, you are a great electronic engineer. I am good at physically doing things (I have put a battery pack together where all the electronic parts and connectors were intact) But unfortunately in this case, the insides of my pack were one big chemical mass and the cables/circuit were completely ruined, I could not even save them for looking at how it was all connected.

The only way I could do this is if you could draw me a little schematic of how to wire the pack up and what kind of circuitry I would need. From what I have read the inside of a pb190 battery is very simplistic circuitry wise. If you don't have time or knowledge for this don't worry, but thanks for your help if you can.

 

[sutekh]

The only way I could do this is if you could draw me a little schematic of how to wire the pack up and what kind of circuitry I would need. From what I have read the inside of a pb190 battery is very simplistic circuitry wise. If you don't have time or knowledge for this don't worry, but thanks for your help if you can.

Happy to assist if you can provide some pics of the innards and a cell count. Does it have any internal logic circuitry or just wiring? For instance, the 5xxx series has the EMM board, which makes things more complicated. What little info I have suggests the charged voltage for a 190s pack is 16.1v, so a 4S (4 cells in series) Li-Ion pack's charged voltage of 16.8v minus the ~0.7v across a BMS / charger steering diode puts you right on the money.

From a charging standpoint, I'd also need to know what the voltage output to the pack from the laptop looks like. I'd hazard to guess, based on the fact that it uses a 24v power adapter, that it works much like the Duo. If that's indeed the case, you could effectively duplicate the same arrangement I used, but with a 4S BMS and higher voltage CC/CV charger. E.g.,:

• Variable input CC/CV charger: https://www.ebay.com/itm/CCCV/142626757676
  
• 4S BMS: https://www.ebay.com/itm/BMS/192766685108
  

You'd of course have to measure and ensure those components, a bit of wiring, as well as a multiple of 4 Li-Ion cells will fit inside the case.

 

[stormy]

Thanks sutekh, much appreciated. I will do some work on this in the coming days and let you know. Thx.