Ok after taking apart all my battery packs I have tips to expedite the process with pictures. First battery pack took about 40 minutes (this pack is very difficult to open). After devising a game plan (seeing where wires were when opening the first pack, etc...), I opened the next 5 packs each in under 10 minutes. Very fast and not 1 cell was injured! Here's the pics I took to help you guys who still haven't opened yours yet, so you can save alot of time taking these apart!
TAKE YOUR TIME!!!
WEAR GLOVES AND EYE/FACE PROTECTION!!!!
All you need are:
Flat head screw driver
Heavy duty Razorblade
Pliers
snippers or wires cutters (optional, makes cutting wires easier)
Thanks for the tutorial Blfdemigod. Those packs look like a pain in the behind to open. Little worried about getting a short in that PCB though. Doesn't seem wise to touch or break any of the circuitry prior to disconnecting all the cells.
I received mine today (wow, that was fast), but haven't even taken them out of the cardboard boxes yet.
Well, using the screw driver to pry the pack didn't really touch the pcb, even though it kind of looks like it did. Just slightly inserted the screwdriver where shown and twist :)
Dremel I am guessing? Nice job btw, but I had to take my apart in the house (I use the built in computer nook area in our apartment for my workshop), with the wife and baby asleep, lol.
Ran the three sides around its corners on bench grinder till it started exposing gap most way around. Then went a couple shallow passes on the round side opposite the connector to give it a bend point.
My first thought was hack saw it slightly in the middle and snap it in half then decided it be better to spew plastic filings all over the garage floor using the bench grinder.
That would have 2 banks of 3 cells in series. so 4400mAh/2 = 2200mAh cells
Based on the description I’d agree 100% with dchomak, it is a cheap aftermarket replacement and will have inferior cells. But, not all aftermarket replacements use cheap cells. It the states we have brands like Denaq or Maxcapacity that are quality replacements using high quality cells. Check out this interesting video of a battery factory tour. At one part they speak of a Polish branded pack using panasonics…
No problem, I was like wow this pack is impossible to open compared to all the other packs I ever opened. For the metal burrs on the end, I used my dremel and slowly sanded them down, then used my hft stick polish and the dremel cotton buffer disc and made it nice and shiny! Better than brand new looking!
No. The battery isn’t flat at 0V and the discharge curve isn’t linear.
Look at some of HKJ’s battery reviews, he actually shows the amount of current (and also energy) batteries put out when discharged at different rates. For 4.35V batteries, he shows that information for the battery charged to 4.35V as well as for the same battery charged to 4.2V.
Just finished capacity results on the first 2 batteries.Both charged to 4.16 volts with the i4 charger. I used the LittoKala Engineer 260 for discharge capacity and internal resistance and results are very good.
Battery 1 IR = 53 and 2380 MAH
Battery 2 IR = 51 and 2409 MAH