Charging T30 battery in T40 impossible? No, i did it today!

[frankiepankie]

My dad had a T30 battery lying around which he gave to me.

I don't have a T30, neither my dad. I was interested about the battery health (i am planning in using the cells for recelling my X41 battery or something).

I looked at the battery connector of my T40 battery, and the T30, and they looked identical. They also both had the plus and minus sign at the same sides of the connector, so i just went for it and soldered an extension cable for it.

I used the Ultrabay connector battery board thingy that is found in 15" T4x
I used a saw and Dremel to cut the PCB in half, so i ended up with 1 male battery connector, and 1 female connector
Put a cable between in, and tadaah my battery connector extension cable is done!
I tried it first with the T40 battery, and it worked fine.
Then i just did a small wish and plugged the T30 battery in... and PRESTO it works

I verified this by going to the Battery MaxiMiser program and look at the battery details. It read out the battery cycles, serial number (which matched the one on the battery sticker itself, so i knew it was working)

Pictures:
The extension cable:
http://tweakers.net/ext/f/1cdFpWFb5Je46 ... B/full.jpg

The T30 battery connected to the T40:
http://tweakers.net/ext/f/Ln5FW1ZQCQfQk ... 5/full.jpg

Proof of this hack:
http://tweakers.net/ext/f/6geaZYa99ChFb ... 9/full.jpg

[dr_st]

Jiminy Jillikers, that's a nice hack!

[frankiepankie]

Jiminy Jillikers, that's a nice hack!

That is what i thought.

I think it is also possible with other batteries that use the same connector.

[dr_st]

As long as connector is the same and voltage is the same - why not?

[Harryc]

Nice job. Just wanted to point out for the less handy folks out there that IBM/Lenovo does make a multiple external battery charger. It does not connect to the laptop.
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-IBM-Thinkpad-X- ... 43a402e276

[underclocker]

That is a great hack, very nice job. I've purchased (and eventually sold) more than one ThinkPad that I didn't need just to test batteries. Very nice.

What the forum needs is a shared equipment pool for members to check out tools, hacks and every ThinkPad model, old and new. Like a library. That would be quite useful. The "borrower" would just pay for shipping.

[billp117]

Love the scotch tape...

[frankiepankie]

I applied the Scotch tape for insulation, the inside of the T40 has some metal parts and i don't want any free sparkling effects

[BillMorrow]