Batteries Plus / PB 170 — #8

Post #8 by flyingtoasteroven

Source Forum	68kMLA
Category	Hardware
Post Date	Thu, 9 Oct 2008 - 23:42
Original URL	https://68kmla.org/bb/threads/batteries-plus-pb-170.14694/

Post

Here's a good source for inexpensive PB1xx series batteries:
http://www.ok-battery.com/laptop_battery/apple/nma001.htm

I'm a little worried about that one. Its a NiMH. and the 170 used a NiCad.

Today I opened up a malfunctioning 170 to get the disk drive and found it littered with spruce needles! After dissembling most of it to clean it, I opened up the battery. Being a decade and a half old it had leaked pretty badly.

Inside there were ten of these NiCad cells. They were arranged in the following improvised circuit diagram:

Code:

+               —
|               |
|               |
|  C-?-C-C-C-C  |
|  |         |  |
---|         |---
  |         |
  C-C-C-C-?-C

Wherein C represents a 1.2v NiCad cell, size AF (17x50mm), capacity 1250mAh or 1400mAh depending on the model. The 170 originally came with 1250mAh cells, apparently. The '?'s in the diagram represent tiny little parts attached between the batteries. They must be the thermal fuses you speak of.

I was contemplating re-celling the battery, but if cells are $2, and a new battery $25, it doesn't make too much sense, given the risk of failure and the time and effort. But seriously, can you replace a NiCad battery with a NiMH one?