Breathing new life in laptop batteries

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Thu May 6 23:34:56 1999

Francois wrote:
>
> Hi all,
> I know we already had a discussion on that topic but I can't remember what
> was said since I was not too interested at the time.
> Some of you mentioned that it was possible to restore "dead" batteries from
> laptop. The ones in question are NiCads and very much dead as far as I can
> tell.
> Any info appreciated

There is a chipset that can "restore" dead NiCads, but I don't recall the
manufacturer or part number. Basically it measures the voltage, puts a high
current short pulse into the cell, waits, measures, and repeats the cycle. A
friend of mine made up a test circuit using these chips, and brought quite a
few dead cells back to life. My understanding is that a more modern version
of that chipset is now being used in the charger circuit for laptops and
other NiCad apps.
Received on Thu May 06 1999 - 23:34:56 BST