Ferrix97
Well-known member
Hi!
Yesterday I tried using a battery pack from a broken (dead GPU) HP DV9000 to power a PowerBook, using one of those cheap DC-DC Step-Down modules.
The battery supplied about 15.5 Volts, the module's output was set to 6.8 Volts and was plugged into the DC Jack of the PowerBook.
With a powerbook 145 hooked to the circuit I was pulling about 0.5 Amps from the battery and about 1 Amp from the module, which is rated for 2A. I made those measurement while playing Glider, so the hard drive was kept on and the processor was not sleeping. The floppy drive was not in use.
The heat was not a major problem, the module got slightly hot, but nothing too dangerous. I later stuck an old Heatsink, that made the module cooler, ideal for a closed enclosure.
At this point, I opened the battery and found 8 18650 batteries, 4 pairs in parallel. I could take off a pair or two, making the voltage lower, (about 8 Volts) and mount the batteries together with the DC-DC module inside a dead battery. I know that I can't recharge from the computer, but I can use one of those RC Planes/cars chargers. at the moment I am using the computer to charge the battery.
do you think this is doable?