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Powerbook 5300c Battery Rebuild (sorta)

I'm confused...the 5300 does not have USB, if I am remembering right...?

(Raoul, if you ever want to investigate Lombards (G3 400mhz) with a working battery, PM me. I have two for sale that are in decent condition, those didn't move when I did my sale last year. Happy to send photos, specs. Or Pismos, have many, but now that I've moved into iBooks for my main portables, looking to downsize a bit.)

 
unity said:
tecknight, what do you mean there are no USB PCMCIA adapters? There are, but do you mean none that work with MacOS 9?
Click to expand...
I have never found any USB PCMCIA adapters. 

Keep in mind PCMCIA is not the same as CardBus. There are tons and tons and tons of cardbus USB out there. 

PCMCIA = 16Bit. 5V.

CardBus = 3.3V 32-Bit. 

PCMCIA kinda coincided with ISA, CardBus with PCI. 

the 5300 and 1400 are not CardBus compliant. They wouldnt be, they arnt PCI-based Macs. 

 
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I only discovered the difference a few days ago and I was using the terms interchangeably, sorry.  Can you recommend a cheap cardbus USB card?

Also: https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/24710-wavelan-silver-turbo-and-powerbook-5300c/(let me say upfront the card is fine.  I tested it on my Newton immediately after it crashed the 5300)

And I take your points about Clasilla.  I wasn't thrilled with its performance on my 7100/66 with 50 mb of memory; however this is a 603e; and it's faster.  The memory (which'll be 24 hopefully tomorrow) isn't thrilling either.  8.5 (now .1) runs okay on the machine.  I'll experiment with 8.6.

Also keep in mind I wasn't trying to build a tricked out laptop.  I have a Lenovo that I can use.  Maybe after this semester - or next year or something - I'll upgrade to a 1400, but I'm pretty partial to Old World at the moment as far as the G3s go.  I appreciate the offer, J English.  I'll keep in touch.

 
I can get my 190 with Orinoco card on the net pretty much anywhere, although I cannot find a reason to do it lately. I use a virgin mobile prepaid phone with the portable hotspot feature. There is no password so it is easy to connect. It's more fun (more distractions) on a Powerbook G3 or something with Classilla.

 
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I should say that I've gotten the card to work. I get network errors every time I try to actually load a page.

 
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And this battery will be used in which? They are not the same internally. The 3400 can charge several batteries, including the 5300 battery. But the 5300 can not charge a battery for a 3400.

 
Well its just the case. I'll have to do a little research on the internals. Not the batteries themselves but the whatever it is component in the back of the circuit and the leads. The back thing, I think, if I'm correctly remembering a pic I saw, looked different.

I'm also pretty sure the batteries are lithium but that's a different issue.

This would be for use in the 3400c.

 
That's not going to work.  The Li-ion battery clearly (I think) uses some sort of intelligent system.  So I will go to batteries plus in the next few days, but barring some real miracle on their part I'll likely get these (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QJNX3ME/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A327G0VM18EU0N x2) and possibly try the battery setup itself taped into holders, with the wiring soldered together.  I'm still not clear on why that's necessarily less secure - but I'll ask the guys at batteries plus also.

So then secondarily, does anyone have a 3400/Original Powerbook G3 dead lithium battery they want to sell very cheaply?

 
Ok. 1) I have the batteries. 2) I have the battery cases.
 

They don't fit vertically, but I got some others that may (http://www.ebay.com/itm/170985400398).  I may exacto-knife out the little tabs after I get the other battery cases.  Then in theory it's just that series (Pic 4).

[i needed to clean a little more - Pic 5...]

 
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It has begun...

And wear some rubber or vinyl gloves when cleaning out the battery crap. Cadmium is poisonous to the human body if over exposed to it. And Lithium is not poisonous it does soak into the skin easily, dragging along what other crap that is with it.

 
Thank you. I should have posted an update. Everything fits and is pretty clean. Waiting on soldering iron.

I think the discoloration [i've worked on that stuff multiple times for weeks.  Every time it hits air the discoloration returns.  After the scrubbing bubbles I don't believe it's possible it's corrosion.]  in the case itself is the glue they used to stick the batteries to the top and bottom.

 
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I actually also have a question.  There are five pins [you can probably see this pretty well in the photo].  The one on the left [facing the cam] is negative; the one on the right is positive.  The three in the middle are not connected to the other two pins.  The two outer pins (of the three in the middle) are wired together, which is that wired loop with the blue joint at the top, and one of them is wired into a square black component that connects to one of the outer (of the three middle) pins.  I assume that's analogous to the long black rectangular component on the other end of the circuit.

Okay; so my question is how are those three pins in any way connected to the circuit?  Or does that occur through the computer itself?

 
It works. However... the 5300 died today... of course.... and the 3400 (and 5300) didn't normally shut down. They'd just restart. Well see if the battery changes that. Total cost, like $14.

 
For the record, here's what I got/needed:

12x 1.2v AA NiMH Batteries - (20x:) http://www.ebay.com/itm/271675325458

2x AA Battery Cases/Holders - http://www.ebay.com/itm/170985400398

A NiMH Powerbook Battery [i don't know what the two internal components are, nor do I have the metallurgical skills to build the pins properly]

Solder

Soldering Iron

Krazy Glue

Tape

To open, I used one of those rubber mallets against a flathead screwdriver between the top and bottom part.  It's just glued together to begin with and I think professional repack places may just use the mallet.  I don't know which causes less damage to the case.  I gutted the batteries and saved the pins and the back component.  I cleaned everything.

Once you get the battery cases, on one end, the positive and negative leads go from different holders into the pins [that connect the battery to the computer - follow the +/- on the outside of the battery-pack case; red is generally positive for the holder wires].  On the other end, the other leads go to that [rectangular] component on the back of the original circuit - very important to note which side is + and which is -.  Or I don't know if it's important because I don't know what it is; but I see no way of telling which was originally which otherwise.

I haven't finished this part yet, but I expect to tape around the battery holders (to keep the batteries in) and then put double-sided tape strips on the top and bottom of the battery-pack case to hold the holders in place.  The wires I'm keeping between the holders to make the vertical fit better.  Then I'll be Krazy Gluing along the edges and sticking it back together.

 
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The battery does not appear to be working - after I attempted to charge it for maybe 10-14 hours in the 5300.

However, with the 5300c's inability to properly reset PRAM and other indications of power-related problems, let me hold off speculation until I try to charge it overnight in the 3400.

Perhaps the voltage is off because the cells are all discharged.

 
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