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PowerBook 170 Battery

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
I have a PowerBook 170 that is in great physical condition. The only thing wrong with it apart from pretty bad tunnel vision is the battery.
The battery does charge and increases voltage, but is not powerful enough to turn on the laptop.

When using a multimeter, the voltage of the cell is dropping visibly. I have heard about freezing the battery to possibly give it some more life.
Does anyone have any experience with this? The battery does have enough charge for about 5 seconds of the laptop being on before shutting off, so its almost nothing.

Not really expecting much since its probably not fixable, but it would be great if anyone can help.

Edit: The battery is not swelling and looks to be in good shape at least on the outside, no leaking or swelling.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
You’re looking at 31 year old NiCad cells, they’re toast. I have run into 2 100 series batteries with similar behavior to yours.

Battery 1: PowerBook 180c OEM pack. Held charge but not enough to power the laptop. Rapid voltage drop off after being unplugged. I froze the battery overnight and it did not help.

Battery 2: PowerBook 150 Aftermarket generic pack. Held charge enough to power the laptop for around 30 seconds. I ran reconditioning software and froze it for multiple days in the freezer. After this, it held charge for around 1 minute. I suspect this pack is around 20 years old.

So for me I haven’t had luck with the freezer, but I’ve heard other people that have. You can give it a go, but I can guarantee that those cells are likely to be thoroughly toast.
 

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
Well, should be a fun little experiment anyways. Where would I even find any reconditioning software?

At worst, nothing improves, so its worth a shot.

On a side note, is it worth re-celling since its in good condition, and what would that require in terms of tools and materials?
I have a 3d printer if I need a shell printed
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
You can find Battery Amnesia on macintoshgarden. I doubt it will help in this case though.

Recelling: From what I've heard, it's pretty easy to build a 100 series battery compared to other systems. The original shell will likely be ruined due to having to break it open. There's a thread on it somewhere, let me go fetch it up from the depths.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Thread located!

And the STLs for a new battery case:
 

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
I also modeled the battery door. Not specifically for use with that shell just to plug up the hole in the side of my PowerBooks that were missing their battery.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5249730
If you didn't know, you can take the sliding part off the battery, just be very careful. That is what I have done so I don't have a hole in it. Thanks for the file though as I will certainly use it in future.
 

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
Thread located!

And the STLs for a new battery case:
Thanks much!
 

avadondragon

Well-known member
If you didn't know, you can take the sliding part off the battery, just be very careful. That is what I have done so I don't have a hole in it. Thanks for the file though as I will certainly use it in future.
Oh I know but not all of the PB1xx series batteries were designed that way. I have one which has a non-removable faceplate and I've had others that never had a battery at all. But yeah my favorite PB180c gets the original battery door.
 

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
Oh I know but not all of the PB1xx series batteries were designed that way. I have one which has a non-removable faceplate and I've had others that never had a battery at all. But yeah my favorite PB180c gets the original battery door.
Alright. Just making sure :)

I never knew about the non-removeable faceplates, so that's new to me, thanks for correcting me.
 

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
Well, of course it ended up doing basically nothing, so I will have to re-cell it eventually.
That will be a fun project to tackle.
 

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
Where should I start with rebuilding the battery?
I can 3d print parts if necessary, but since my battery isn't swelling or leaking, it should be possible to reuse the shell.

Where would I buy the cells, and what cells should I use? I have a standard temperature adjustable soldering iron and hot air gun, is any other tool required?

I have no experience building batteries so any help is greatly appreciated.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Did you read through all 5 pages of that thread? What cells to use depends on how much battery life you’ll want. Larger cells will give longer runtime but building that battery will be more difficult than building one with smaller cells. You’ll want to use NiMH type cells. AA is probably going to be easiest to build, but I think A cells will fit with a bit of work. Again though, read through the thread.
 

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
Did you read through all 5 pages of that thread? What cells to use depends on how much battery life you’ll want. Larger cells will give longer runtime but building that battery will be more difficult than building one with smaller cells. You’ll want to use NiMH type cells. AA is probably going to be easiest to build, but I think A cells will fit with a bit of work. Again though, read through the thread.
Alright, thanks again. I don't need amazing battery life, maybe just an hour or two, so I will look into the AA cells.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
NiMH rechargeable, make sure to get ones with solder tabs if you don’t have a spot welder. You’ll also need thermal fuses, details are in the thread. I need to do it myself soon.
 

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
I think I will just purchase a small spot welder since I plan to buy more PowerBooks, and there is a person local to me who would be able to benefit from working batteries as well.

This is definitely going to be a long project, but I cant wait to have a working battery eventually.

Guy I knew tried to use a car battery and got a working battery but I don not want to try that since those are pretty dangerous to work with and don't produce the best results.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
I also should probably pick up a spot welder at some point. Will make things easier as I've been meaning to get into battery rebuilding for the better part of 2 years now.
 

Powerbook27364

Well-known member
This is some of the info from the other thread, there is an stl file in the other thread which I may print tonight and test tolerances on my printer since its been a little bit weird recently. I have some AA batteries lying around to fit in, but they wont be used in the final result.
These seem like good batteries: https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-BK-3HCCA4BA-eneloop-Pre-Charged-Rechargeable/dp/B00JHKSL28

Expensive batteries though. I suppose its not too bad given that I just paid about $70 for a battery for a much more modern laptop.


From Westinghouse's old comment:
.016 x 1/4" strips for the terminals that connect to the PowerBook internals, and .016 x 1/2" for the contacts between the cells.

From the thread, I was not able to figure out how to wire the batteries, or how to get protection circuitry, so that will be interesting, but its 5 cells to get 6.6v, so should be easy enough to wire them up.

I also have 18650s that I want to see if I could fit some inside it instead, to give a super high capacity battery. I would lose the internal charging though.



This hobby is very fun, but my wallet isn't too happy with me right now. My PowerBook 170 still needs a bluescsi, which is on the way, a new screen to get rid of tunnel vision, maybe the led backlight mod, and the battery.
 
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