600x ultrabay battery question.

[paul*robertson]

It sits in the slot where the optical drive, or floppy drive sits. If the thinkpad is on battery, which one does it take power from first. As the main battery runs down, does it automatically switch to the ultrabay battery. Is the process of switching the main battery a straightforward one with regard to the 600 dropping onto the ultrabay power source.

Finally, i guess the only ultrabay batteries (if i can find one) have little capacity left, if any.

I would just like to option to swap the battery in my 600x without having to shut down.

btw, if anyone has one that is surplus to requirements, i would be interested.

[pkiff]

Can only answer a couple of your questions.

I'm not at my 600X right now to double check, but I'm pretty sure that when you have the Ultrabay battery installed, the unit draws power from the Ultrabay first, and it will fully drain that battery, and then it will automatically switch over to the main battery. So if you had two Ultrabay batteries (I used to), then you could swap out one that had drained while using the main battery to power the unit, and then insert a fresh Ultrabay battery for uninterrupted power. I'm not sure about doing the same kind of a switch using two Main batteries. I have a feeling that you may not be able to swap the main battery while staying powered only using the Ultrabay battery. I can probably double-check what happens in these scenarios when I get back home.

In terms of getting a hold of Ultrabay batteries, I recall being most satistified with the results of getting my Ultrabay batteries repacked rather than trying to obtain new ones. This left the outside packages looking somewhat beat up, as there was clear evidence where the batteries had been cut apart to replace the cells, but the resulting battery seemed to last longer than new generic replacements. Unfortunately, I no longer have a reliable place to recommend to go to get this done. I used to use batteryrefill.com and was satisfied 5 years ago or more, but in more recent years I have seen a variety of complaints about them on this forum and others. I personally never had any issues with them other than the fact that they were often slow.

Phil.

[paul*robertson]

Okay, thats kind of the opposite to what i hoped. It would draw from the main battery first, and the ultrabay would be a "back up" while you swapped the main battery, allowing you to keep working.

I have three 600 series main batteries (and hoping to get an ultrabay one)

[ozzymud]

You can still do this... just don't put the Ultrabay battery in until you want to swap the main one.

See this:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_us ... _batteries

In Linux you can also choose which battery discharges 1st

[pkiff]

You can still do this... just don't put the Ultrabay battery in until you want to swap the main one.

See this:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_us ... _batteries

I think it is probably still worth checking whether this procedure actually works on an actual 600X machine, running Windows software, regardless of what appears in thinkwiki. I am a strong supporter of thinkwiki, and I believe it is a great resource, but it is only as good as the people who contribute to it, and it should not be taken as a reference fact, it is more of a guide to some of these kinds of finnicky issues, especially when you are using Windows instead of Linux. Some of the information on that page may not be applicable to the 600 series.

For instance, regarding Linux capabilities for switching the battery load, the 600 series does not even appear to be listed in the page that lists compatibility with the "Tp smapi" module that appears to be required for this function, so I doubt it is very compatible with it...:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi# ... fic_status

Not saying hot swapping the main battery won't work under Linux, but I'm just pointing out the gaps in the references over on thinkwiki. Also, I think it is possible that under Windows, you may be able to warm swap the main battery without needing an UltraBay battery to maintain power -- I think the "backup battery" may serve that function, provided you are in a suspend state...

Phil.