PowerBook 500 Series Battery Rebuild Failure (Oops, all dead EMMs!)
- Thread starter 3lectr1cPPC
- Start date
Probably
3lectr1cPPC
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The 16V charger came in and wow, it has a blindingly bright blue LED. Kind of hilarious.
jmacz
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Haha. Mine's not here yet.
3lectr1cPPC
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Progress but still not working quite right. It does start to charge the cells, but then it seems like the ac adapter drops out for a second before kicking back on. Not sure which rail it is. I’ll continue to monitor.
3lectr1cPPC
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It really isn’t gaining much charge. I wonder if the computer is drawing too much power from the VBATT supply, causing it to briefly shut down.
jmacz
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I am not sure this is related, but note the red thing on the display "Standard dT/dt Values". As @aladds mentioned before, looks like it's using delta temp to detect when charging is complete. I couldn't get a good read online whether most chargers track the rapid change in temperature after a pack is fully charged (ie. N degrees C in one minute) or the absolute change in temperature since the start of the charge (ie. N degrees increase from ambient/start temperature). Your current temperature is obviously within the max charge temp shown on the screen, but the question is whether it rises quickly (which is what was happening on my pack with the 2A charger and AA cells) where it causes the logic to think it peaked out .. or perhaps the battery dt values are wrong, which is indicated by the red "No" which means your battery config is still corrupt (needs correction via EMMpathy or LIND). It should be a black "Yes". And based on the fact that dT (delta temp) is being used, I'm also curious for all of our packs whether the temperature sensor is still working/calibrated/correct or if over time, those have gone bad or lost their calibration.
3lectr1cPPC
Well-known member
I definitely believe the issue is with the ac adapter as when running a test in EMMpathy it would flash an error telling me to plug in the charger while it was rapid charging - it would appear for a couple seconds, then go away and continue charging. I’ll recalibrate again though.
3lectr1cPPC
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I can’t get the smart probe to display a “Yes” under that field whether I calibrate in EMMpathy or LIND.
3lectr1cPPC
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I think I’m gonna call this a fail. That VBATT line must just be shutting off. I might retry with a 1.5A supply.
jmacz
Well-known member
Argh. That sucks. I'm guessing I'll have a similar result if we both got the same unit. Regardless, I'll try it also when it gets here.
Note that I had something with similar with another 2A charger ... the first attempt at making < 4A VBATT side I did was with a 16V 2A charger and I had a similar issue where I kept being told to plug in the charger and it kept starting/stopping. I assumed it was the charger and bought a different 16V 2A charger and that second one worked. I never could figure out why the first one didn't work and assumed Amazon sent me a faulty one.
Note that I had something with similar with another 2A charger ... the first attempt at making < 4A VBATT side I did was with a 16V 2A charger and I had a similar issue where I kept being told to plug in the charger and it kept starting/stopping. I assumed it was the charger and bought a different 16V 2A charger and that second one worked. I never could figure out why the first one didn't work and assumed Amazon sent me a faulty one.
3lectr1cPPC
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Might just be how the current limiter is designed on different supplies. If yours does end up working then send me the link to the listing. I have a fully working battery here but I just can’t charge it!
3lectr1cPPC
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Yep! TWO of them, recapped, neither work. Lucky me.
Here’s the blinding LED
Here’s the blinding LED
jmacz
Well-known member
LOL..
Well one of my two stock chargers is dead and when I opened it up, there's clearly something that burned out as there's a big 1 inch burnt section on the PCB. Some SMD caps and resistors there as well as a voltage regulator. I'm guessing it's the regulator. I don't want to bother trying to fix it.
The second one was working outside of the fishy smell so recapping it now and hopefully it stays working.
And then I have my custom one where the 2A VBATT side was working albeit I'm not convinced it's fully charging my battery due to what I mentioned earlier about the temps and the fact that it stops at 1752mAH on EMMpathy. I think it does last a reasonable amount of time. But I want to see what happens with the default 1A charging.
I've also still got those battery packs on the way... "A" size NiCDs for the Powerbook 160.. and "A" size NiMHs for the Powerbook 500. Going to see if those "A" size NiMHs work any better.
I did buy a spot welder... but I figured I'm never going to use it again after this so didn't splurge. Went with a $70 one from Seesii that had good ratings on Amazon. Hopefully it works.
Well one of my two stock chargers is dead and when I opened it up, there's clearly something that burned out as there's a big 1 inch burnt section on the PCB. Some SMD caps and resistors there as well as a voltage regulator. I'm guessing it's the regulator. I don't want to bother trying to fix it.
The second one was working outside of the fishy smell so recapping it now and hopefully it stays working.
And then I have my custom one where the 2A VBATT side was working albeit I'm not convinced it's fully charging my battery due to what I mentioned earlier about the temps and the fact that it stops at 1752mAH on EMMpathy. I think it does last a reasonable amount of time. But I want to see what happens with the default 1A charging.
I've also still got those battery packs on the way... "A" size NiCDs for the Powerbook 160.. and "A" size NiMHs for the Powerbook 500. Going to see if those "A" size NiMHs work any better.
I did buy a spot welder... but I figured I'm never going to use it again after this so didn't splurge. Went with a $70 one from Seesii that had good ratings on Amazon. Hopefully it works.
3lectr1cPPC
Well-known member
Seesii is the one I have too. STILL haven’t used it as I used the prebuilt pack for the 500 battery and still haven’t bought cells for my other dead batteries. @Powerbook27364 has used one to good success though.
It’s entirely possible that the EMM simply doesn’t support any value for the mAH capacity other than 1752. Many BMS boards don’t.
It’s also entirely possible that the 2A charge rate is preventing the pack from fully charging. It could be a combination of the two, hard to say.
It’s entirely possible that the EMM simply doesn’t support any value for the mAH capacity other than 1752. Many BMS boards don’t.
It’s also entirely possible that the 2A charge rate is preventing the pack from fully charging. It could be a combination of the two, hard to say.
jmacz
Well-known member
Yup, so if this test fails with the 1A and the test with the "A" cells also fails, then will have to dig into the code and see if a.) it's either a configurable parameter which is being encoded in the EMM via factory, EMMpathy, LIND, or whether it's hardcoded in the OS or ..
3lectr1cPPC
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Yep. Increasing the capacity that the EMM can recognize would be excellent.
jmacz
Well-known member
On a cursory glance, I don't see it specified in the System (v7 anyway) so hopefully it's configured in the EMM. Easiest way to find out will probably be to disassemble the EMMpathy code and see how it's populating that value in their UI. Will do that just for curiosity when I have some free time.
jmacz
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jmacz
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Ok, I can confirm that's a fail.
EMMpathy shows no current being provided via that power supply and as I was monitoring the output, it's at 16.06V while idle and then when the battery attempts to draw, it drops to 10V and dances around dropping below what the battery has. You can see the LED flickering as well.
I don't think this power supply is strong enough. Note I cracked it open and it's pretty bare bones inside.
EMMpathy shows no current being provided via that power supply and as I was monitoring the output, it's at 16.06V while idle and then when the battery attempts to draw, it drops to 10V and dances around dropping below what the battery has. You can see the LED flickering as well.
I don't think this power supply is strong enough. Note I cracked it open and it's pretty bare bones inside.
