The Vintage Li-Ion Battery Problem

I consider possible battery replacement options when buying a new device, often looking into the Fcc documentation to see if it's a "standard" size or some odd, skinny cell that can never be replaced. There are some standards. Of course obvious ones like 14500 (AA sized cells) and 18650's. There are also some lipo packs, the most common size I refer to as the "NP-120" as the lipo will fit perfectly in the space used by a common LiIon cell of time gone by . I've replaced numerous cells in older products with success using slightly smaller cells (Sansa Clip), or sometimes even larger cells fit nicely and it becomes a BETTER product (My BT speaker) Look into mobile phone replacement cells for the large flat ones, many don't have any special requirements or on-battery circuitry. I have a similar media player and need to source a battery and repair it, that is when I can collect it from overseas, which might be quite sone time.

Anton

If you crack the case, you can count the cells, discard them, and wire in a pair of wires from an external power supply at the correct voltage.

James Boatright

Try HERE: https://www.powerstream.com/li-pol.htm They helped me a few years back. The battery I purchased is still going strong.

Chuck Kirchner

It's inbuilt redundancy- forcing us to buy new -Totally out of order in this age of renewables. Can you mod a power pack to drive these items? It would be my approach using off the shelf components and a dc jack of some sort cobbled into the device. I sure as hell wouldn't let the buggers force me to buy new just because they want it! (*Stamps feet and crosses arms in indignance!!*)

Mike Hughes

I know the problem. I bet you can find some kind of battery for those. The problem I find is they exist but tend to be sketchy looking, not quite like-for-like or else fakes. Then if you get the battery, replacement is difficult and takes expertise, especially with phones. They need to legally mandate user replaceable batteries of various sizes appropriate to modern consumer electronics and set patent free standards for the connectors.

I can't even get it open without breaking it. No clue.

Fran Blanche

True - but the idea here is for a company to offer restoration of devices for those not at all savvy about such things.

Fran Blanche

Sure - and its reasonable and safe for a company to make adapters for standard packs to fit in antiquated devices.

Fran Blanche

Yea, but you never know what you're gonna get if you buy a new old stock battery. To be worthwhile it really needs to be a new guaranteed replacement.

Fran Blanche

Yea - but I really hate messing with lithium batteries. I'd rather have a battery guaranteed and warrantied.

Fran Blanche

I did those shirt campaigns last year - not sure if I will do them again but who knows....

Fran Blanche

Proprietary batteries, and worse still built in batteries, are the bane of modern electrical devices. I wish everything had to use standard, replaceable batteries, as in the old days.

David Peaker

Open up the devices, and you should see what type of little cell they take. You should be able to match them up with some Chinese battery available today. As far as the laptop, chances are they are standard 18650 batteries welded together with a strip. I have made a little welder for these strips. It should not be too difficult for you to do.

Rocco Rizzo

what info do you have on the battery for the mp3 player ?

Allen Lorenz

I am interested in what turns up. Depending on what survived the more (farm to in town) I have several devices with apparently impossible to replace battery packs that I would like to revive.

Kendra Akin

Knowing the power requirements of a device could you make a contacts adapter to go from an adjustable power supply to given devices? Not practical for a cell phone but perhaps other things.

William Alsing

This is a subject I have had to deal with, for old laptops, cameras and phones. As a retiree I don't have the resources to be buying new kit, so for the past 15 or so years, friends and relatives have been passing on old laptops, phones, cameras and computers. I have several old Nokia phones that I found replacement batteries for online. My current oldest laptop is a 2006 13" MacBook. The 1st generation Intel version which can no longer be upgraded. The battery would no longer hold a charge for more than 0 minutes, but I was able to find a replacement online at a reasonable price. Replacement batteries for Dell, HP and Sony laptops seem to be readily available, though I did have a problem with one for 2007 Dell Inspiron. However they replaced it free and the new one has worked fine for about 5 years. Custom batteries is something I know nothing about, other than there are a number of videos on YouTube on how to replace the cells.

Sadiq Mohamed

Where can I get a Franlab shirt like that?!

Ryan Ford

Totaly custom does not seem the way to go to me. A few standard sizes with a custom printed filler seems like a much cheaper solution for a company to be able to offer this profitably.

Honestly, I go on eBay and look these things up. I've found a bunch of different sizes of laptop batteries I thought I'd have no shot at even buying. I've even found, well, just the one battery, but it was a fresh one, for a niche UMPC palmtop computer. Of course, not every device is gonna be served by this weird cottage industry of battery replacement manufacturers, but they're out there.

Great Joe

Hi Fran, with your laptop battery pack those older ones are often just filled with standard 18650 type lithium cells so if you can split apart the plastic pack you can often change out those cells yourself.

Leigh

Looking forward to watching this video, and it is a thought I've had before with old devices that are lithium powered, often the devices are sealed so you can't easily replace the battery anyway, and when you can replace them actually getting replacements are hard to find, and new old stock is no good as lithium batteries are essentially perishable, used or not! The other problem is devices often will not start up with a dead lithium battery, so just using them from an adaptor/USB powered isn’t possible either. In the future we’ll not have many vintage devices that are working as everything is designed to last a couple of years then to be replaced.

Leigh