Can a Mac Portable battery be "trickle charged"?

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Thu Apr 27 14:52:14 2000

Hi Mark,

   I recently picked up two Mac Portables. I opened them up and checked the
batteries. They use a six volt lead acid job (3 X-cells in series). You
should be able to trickle charge it with no problems EXCEPT that lead acid
cells are very unforgiving about being left dead for any period of time. If
they are left dead they will quickly develop a sulphate coating on the
plates and will no longer take a charge. You can apply voltage to the
battery but it wouldn't draw any current. That's what has happened to the
batteries in both of mine and I'd bet that your's has done the same thing.
You can connect the battery directly to a power supply and check it.

   Joe

At 10:44 AM 4/27/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Hi. I've recently acquired an original Macintosh Portable, without any of
>the accompanying paraphenalia, most notably the AC adapter. I'm currently
>hunting for a PowerBook 1xx adapter, which I'm told is usable with the
>Portable, but in the meantime, I'm looking for other ways to fire up this
>new Mac to check it out.
>
>According to the specs, the Portable AC adapter is 1.5 amps at 7.5 volts,
>center positive.
>I have one of those "universal" AC adapters that can do 7.5 V, but only 300
>mA. If I plug in this adapter to the Portable, will the internal battery
>eventually obtain a usable charge (assuming it's not totally dead, as so
>many are)?
>
>Any suggestions gratefully received.
>
>Mark Gregory
>
>
Received on Thu Apr 27 2000 - 14:52:14 BST