J English Smith Posted October 20, 2015 Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 No relation to seller - this is the best price I've seen in quite a while on new batteries from Apple service parts for the main G3 batteries. And they even offer a 30-day warranty. For anyone after a battery for a Pismo or Lombard, this would definitely be cheaper than re-celling. They appear to have multiples... http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Genuine-Apple-PowerBook-G3-Rechargeable-Battery-M7318-661-2295-/400963410856?hash=item5d5b481ba8:g:EekAAOSwpDdVCgIK Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheWhiteFalcon Posted October 20, 2015 Report Share Posted October 20, 2015 At this point it's likely the cells wouldn't even take a charge, seems like a real crapshoot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Unknown_K Posted October 21, 2015 Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 I would look up what feedback the seller got from those batteries. The price seems high for batteries that should be well past use date, but I have working stock batteries from laptops older then a Pismo that work so you never know. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
J English Smith Posted October 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 My experience has been hit or miss, but some of the old Apple li-ions have charged up just fine. I bought two NOS ones a few years back that are still pushing about 4200 mAh (about an hour and a half of normal runtime). Since this seller appears to be offering to take returns - that seems to take some of the risk out of it. The guy I bought from down in FL was offering no guarantees, so I got lucky there. Some other older ones that are "condition unknown" I pass on. And I also bought one $20 brick and don't need to do that again. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheWhiteFalcon Posted October 21, 2015 Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 I have three OEM batteries; one doesn't charge, one does but lasts about five minutes, the other looks to last a few hours at the least. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
unity Posted October 21, 2015 Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 Unused batteries have a tendency to work fairly well. Its like caps on motherboards. NOS boards rarely show any leakage because the caps have not been subjected to heat and use. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
techknight Posted October 21, 2015 Report Share Posted October 21, 2015 My 3400c battery still manages to hold its full charge, strangely enough. Maybe it wasnt used much. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Trash80toHP_Mini Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 What are the charge cycle count characteristics of the different PowerBook Battery types across the generations? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheWhiteFalcon Posted October 22, 2015 Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 From...probably the G3's until about 2008 it was roughly 300 cycles. Then they boosted it to 500 once they started sealing them inside, and somewhere around 2010-2011 they upped it to 1000 cycles. (all of those are "It'll still hold 80% after that many charge cycles", not "They'll be dead by then") Today, Macs, iPads and the Watch are 1000 cycles, iPhones are 500, iPods are 300 still. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
J English Smith Posted October 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2015 My 5th gen iPod classic is still going strong after 8+ years. Haven't babied the battery, either. Same with the shuffles. It's amazing how long some of them can last. I've still got about 6-7 working Pismo batteries, ranging from ~2200 mAh to ~4500 mAh. Nice to have the option of being uunplugged for about an hour, and of course I can always pop two in if I want to go longer. Won't last forever, but at least for now, most are hanging in there. When they start to fail, you can see the drop in fully charged mAh pretty precipitously. Every charge, they take a little less. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
haemogoblin Posted December 18, 2015 Report Share Posted December 18, 2015 Is there still no way to recycle these batteries and fit them with new cells? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheWhiteFalcon Posted December 18, 2015 Report Share Posted December 18, 2015 Lithium ion rebuilding is a touchy business still. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
techknight Posted December 18, 2015 Report Share Posted December 18, 2015 hardest thing is re-virginizing the controllers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CC_333 Posted December 19, 2015 Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 It's probably doable, though.... ....With special hardware/software, perhaps? Or perhaps not? I know little to nothing about such things at this point. c Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheWhiteFalcon Posted December 19, 2015 Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 It seems like the thing to do would be to rebuild a pack that still takes some charge, right? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Unknown_K Posted December 19, 2015 Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 Depends. If the circuit thinks the specs of the new batteries are out of spec it might just die on you. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheWhiteFalcon Posted December 19, 2015 Report Share Posted December 19, 2015 I've got three Lombard/Pismo packs, one that lasts about 30 seconds, one that lasts 10 mins, and one that lasts about three hours. Might be willing to sacrifice the 10 minute one. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CC_333 Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Why not sacrifice the 30 sec. one? Too far gone you think? c Quote Link to post Share on other sites
techknight Posted December 20, 2015 Report Share Posted December 20, 2015 Take the pack that lasts a few hours, and clone its EEPROM onto the other two. Then change the cells. itll be fine afterwords. Also before you do this, make sure the good battery is charged all the way up. Then disassemble. That way the eeprom is left in a state of "full charge" Then clone eeproms, swap the cells. Let the rebuilt batteries die and recharge. it will recalibrate itself. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
asaggynoodle Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 (edited) If anyone has the part number of the EEPROM/Controller that is used you could probably find a datasheet to rewrite the register values. My thought is to dump the ROM of a known good battery pack, then one of another that has been completely drained/used up. You could use a simple Hex editor and just compare the dumps side by side. If you then translated the Hex values to decimals that show a difference you could probably get an idea of which bits to change in order to reset the wear leveling settings. Or simply burn the ROM of the known good one to the abd one and replace the cells. Edited December 21, 2015 by asaggynoodle Quote Link to post Share on other sites
techknight Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 That likely wont work because each battery is uniquely serialized, etc... plus a ton of other calibration data thats going to vary. thats why I said just clone it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
haemogoblin Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 Mine lasts for about 45 minutes, but I know it is just a matter of time before it goes. Which is annoying, because I still enjoy using my Pismo for typing, I've yet to find something to best its ease of use. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
J English Smith Posted December 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 Yes, they are pretty great. Love the keyboard feel. I like the iBooks too, but the Pismo just has an extra something and the screen size is just about perfect too. I wish some remanufactured batteries would become available at about a $40-50 price point. There were a lot more batteries on the 'Bay when I started collecting them in 2010 or so. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TheWhiteFalcon Posted December 21, 2015 Report Share Posted December 21, 2015 The Wallstreet batteries are readily available, but the Pismo and TiBook units are getting harder to find. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Unknown_K Posted December 22, 2015 Report Share Posted December 22, 2015 Why are the older Wallstreet batteries easier to get compared to the newer Lombard/Pismo and tiBook models? I had one somewhat working battery for my Wallstreets (haven't charged it in a while) and a somewhat working one for a TiBook. I use my later G4 laptops more as laptops and they have easier to find new batteries (of various quality). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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