Yes, I know some of the functions (boss had a similar Toshiba). Apparently,
it not only gives battery life/charge notification and monitoring, it also
has battery temperature (for what reasons, I do not know since it was
grossly inaccurate most of the time). There even was a diagnostic for
Windows and DOS(boot floppy) that could be run and interface with the
battery to find possible run time/length, stress test, possible recharge
times, etc. I only know of the utility from a Toshiba tech mentioning it
when my boss had a problem. I don't even know if that is actually available
to the public. It was sort of like a rudementary serial interface to a battery.
-John Boffemmyer IV
At 09:10 AM 1/15/2004, you wrote:
>I just bought a somewhat older laptop, though I hope you will all forgive
>me if it is slightly younger than the borderline for the interests of this
>group (I am not sure on which side of the line it lies.)
>
>It is a Toshiba 4010CDT, which uses a Li-Ion battery, the subject of this
>message. I am amazed at the number of contacts between the battery and
>the computer (about 10) and wish to know their function. On the Internet
>I find nothing. On account of the short life-time of such batteries I
>want to install NiMH. I accept that I would have to use a separate,
>external charger, even removing the reserve battery fro the charging
>process, as the price of being able to travel with a back-up battery which
>would not die after two years of having it around.
>
>The problem is all those connections; I have no idea what they do and
>only a couple of them are needed for transfer of power to the
>computer. At least part of the rest must be communicating data about the
>state of the battery, either for the sake of charging or for warning of
>the soon-to-come shut-down for lack of enough power to continue. I would
>have to lie to the computer in such a way it thinks it is monitoring a
>Li-Ion battery, but to do it I need to know what the lies must say. Does
>anybody have a clue what the functions of these connections are?
>
>Keeping my fingers crossed,
>
>Bob
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Received on Fri Jan 16 2004 - 09:11:58 GMT