Extended "slice" battery - My experience

[wackyD]

Anyone have any experiences to share using the snap on extended slice battery (4-cell)?

Run times, weight, how much bag space needed, hot swap?

Thanks!


daniel

[wackyD]

I thought about bringing back this topic, but started new instead http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=74257

[wackyD]

Hey folks, I happened into some new, old stock extended batteries the other day - from 2007 and 2008. Working through a big batch of them, only a handful work.

The others were far enough below the critical battery voltage and would not accept charge.

So, if anyone is interested in trying things to revive them or seeing if you can get them to charge or get around the "Battery Error - replace battery deal," let me know. They have a bigger circuit board inside that might be easier to trace and troubleshoot compared to that in a typical battery. They have four prismatic Li-on cells that are Panasonic, apparently a cobalt based lion technology.

Anyway, back to the working few, I am seeing about 1:30-45 added to the run time of my X61 when doing typical web surfing and such. Running a 780p video which pushed the processor to full, I drained a battery that was not quite at 28Wh in just over 50 minutes when testing earlier today.

I have not yet traveled with the battery, but I actually like it for use while sitting on the couch. I had been looking at another laptop desk deal (my wife permanently borrowed the last one she bought me so she can use it with her T61), but the wedge shaped battery seems to do the trick quite well and does not seem to interrupt airflow to the fan.


I am concerned about the age of the cells, so we will see if the NOS batteries were a bad call. I am also baffled by the amount of emty space in the housing. There is some temptation to try to wire in another set of four batteries in parallel, but I would hate to trip the brain of the charging circuit and wreck the battery.

If anyone wants one of the "dead" ones, let me know. We can work something out.

If there is any interest, I could also let a couple of the working one go. They do have the bracket to adapt them to the tablet.


Daniel