Making new Friends and building new Flashlights is the “Intangible Benefit” of recycling laptop packs. That’s what I think, anyway. Be sure to remind him/her to get a good charger…
i will get this thread updated tomorrow, thanks for the contribution
The real trick is New, Oem , Unused Packs w/ japanese or korean cells inside .
Use packs are really hit or miss . they are fun to play with but the yield will generally be about 20% ~30% of cells worth keeping.
once you go new unused packs you'll never go back ...ok every once in a while that recycling box will call your name . But at least then when the manger asks you "what the hell do you think you're doing ?"
You can look him in the eye and just say ....." It was talkin to me "
Dell
Type: J1KND
Rating: 11.1V
Capacity: 48WH
Manufactured 2011.06
6 Red Sanyo cells with Purple tips
All 6 cells had 3.98 volts
UR18650A R1112
EDIT:
Added UR18650A R1112
Do any packs contain a charging system (except Hoover)? It would be handy to just use some of the NOS packs as they are.
I found this pack in the recycle bin. 21.6V (25.2V fully charged) 1500mAh
It’s just 6 cells connected in series with at temperature monitoring sensor. No balancing circuits or low voltage cutoff
The cells tested out close to rated capacity at a 1A draw I should test them at 6A or so.
Dell
Type: J1KND
Rating: 11.1V
Capacity: 48WH
Manufactured 2011.12
6 Red Sanyo cells with White tips
All 6 cells had 3.62 volts
UR18650A R2112
I think it’s safe to say that when it comes to Sanyo cells, we can no longer go by the color around the positive tip to know what mah it is.
I have two Dell packs with the identical model and specs with Sanyo cells with different colored tips.
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/27671?page=7#comment-791916 Post #215
Dell
Type: J1KND
Rating: 11.1V
Capacity: 48WH
Manufactured 2011.06
6 Red Sanyo cells with Purple tips
All 6 cells had 3.98 volts
UR18650A R1112
I guess I’ll have to just buy a Opus BT-C3100 v2.2 but I’m afraid a week after receiving it, the Opus BT-C3100 v2.5 will be released.
Someone needs to make a charger like the Opus BT-C3100 but in a 8 bay version like the NiteCorn All-80.
The white tops are 2,000mAh if I’m not mistaken. At least that is what they would be new, probably less than that now. Maybe 1800 or so. Purple tops are higher mAh than the white tops and from what I have read are also supposed to be higher amps as well. Probably not the super high amp “purple tops” though. They do make a purple top 20amp battery but it also has a very different top altogether. It has a larger top with only four or five legs. It’s a newer cell and I wouldn’t expect to find it in older laptop batteries.
The purple tops that you found are good batteries and I would keep them, the white ones I might keep depending on how they tested. But with either of them you should fully charge them and then go back and check them again a day later. If they don’t stay at least mostly charged after a day then they are pretty beat up already. In fact cells that are really beat up will drop a bunch of volts overnight. If they do that then recycle them for sure.
Dell
Type: PT434
Rating: 11.1V
Capacity: 56WH
Manufactured 2011.11
6 Red Sanyo cells with Blue tips
All 6 cells had 1.95 volts
UR18650FM R1122
This pack was a new old stock. I put them in my charger and they reached 3 volts in a few seconds and 3.7 volts in less than a minute.
I sure hope these cells aren’t damaged from being self discharged this low.
i bought two of these packs from a laptop dealer 1.5 USD for two battery packs.
one has samsung icr18650-28a .. it said cell made in korea assembled in china
5 samsung cells were 4.06 volts when battery pryed out.. they are in opus discharging now at 1 a .. 4 had 0volts
other pack has orange sanyo r1122 .. it said cell made in japan assembled in china
five sanyo cells are ok and test out to 2200mah at .5 A discharge.as it failed 1a test 4 had 0 volts.(three in parallel . one from a parrallel pack .
A friend tore apart a netbook battery pack and discarded the remains without writing down the pack info. He sent me this picture of the cells, but they look like Chinese Samsung wannabes.
Any idea what they are?
I have never seen those in my teardowns, I will see if I can find anything on them
Pulled apart a thinkpad battery pack 42t4801 and it came with 9 panasonic 2900mAh 18650s. According to thinkpad forums, this is what will come according to the model #:
ThinkPad Battery 55+ (6 Cell) 42T4797 (LGC)
42T4793 (Panasonic)
42T4791 (Sanyo)
42T4795 (Sony)
ThinkPad Battery 55 (9 Cell) 42T4803 (LGC)
42T4801 (Panasonic)
42T4799 (Sanyo)
I opened up a power bank I bought from the retail chain “Five BeLow” All items in the store cost either $1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or $5. Nothing higher. This was a so called 6600mAh power bank. It contained 3 18650 cells in parallel and to have been 6600 mAh each cell should have had to have been 2200mAh each. Or least they should have had a wrapper that said as much. Of course I didn’t actually believe this power bank to test that high, it only cost $5. Here is a pic of the guts.
It would appear that the cells are “called” 1800 mAh cells? I tested them on my OPUS 3100 and they test out at 1650mAh. Surely not 2200, but not THAT bad either. This power bank will put out a sustained 1000mA at 5V. Once the pack shuts down it will not recover on its’ own and output a little more before charging. Only after hitting it with a charge does it turn back on. For $5 I was happy with it. My 3 cell ENB will NOT output as much as this and the vacant box without any cells cost twice the price. Once things hit mainstream retail, and powerbanks are on their way, the value is hard to beat.
Does anybody recognize these cells?
Also, here is a shot of the charge-discharge board,
I work in IT so I end up with a lot of old tech. Recently, I joined BLF and CPF and learned about Li-Ion battery pulls, which piqued my interest.
I have an old iBook 15 which hasn’t run in quite some time. I pulled the battery and took it apart. This is what I found inside:
The text on the cell says: US18650GR/SET TMLD27R/SONY FUKUSHIMA and I’m fairly certain that there were 8 cells in the pack.
I wired up a temporary battery carrier in a fire retardant box and connected it via leads to a new Nitecore D2 charger and closely monitored each of the batteries as I charged them individually. 4 of them failed to charge. I believe the charger read “error” so I wrapped them individually and placed them in a bin for future disposal.
4 of them charged properly and appear to be working properly. From what I understand, as long as I’m using them as single units (not in series or parallel) basically the biggest risk is when the battery is being charged. I tested them in a Klarus AR10 and they ran fine. I did not attempt to charge them in the AR10.
From what I’ve read in various forums, if an ICR cell is allowed to discharge below a certain level, copper shunts can form in the cell which can cause internal shorts, which in turn can cause a very bad day when the cell is charged. I’m guessing that the laptop battery packs have internal electronics which disable the pack should a cell be deemed bad. Regarding the batteries which did charge, would it be safe to assume that they are shunt free or could they still be at risk?
Mahalo
Major score for me yesterday. Two 5 cell Ryobi packs in working condition, took them apart and cells were balanced. The major score was a like new fully charged 40v Ryobi 20 cell pack. Used 10 cells to rebuild a dead 10 cell Ryobi tool pack scored about 6 months ago that was ratholed. It will be used on my dedicated 1/2” drill with a Bridgeport adapter for raising and lowering the knee.
Congrats! I found one of those very same packs a year and a half ago.
Recently the 40V Ryobi String Trimmer went on clearance, I bet that pack you found went to the display model.
Sounds like you’re right on top of things.
Welcome to the world of Free 18650 Batteries!
Your triage process should safely cull any bad 18650s, and if they pass that & hold a charge for a few days (unused, of course), and deliver ~the nominal capacity, I’d tend to trust them.
Please allow me to politely provide you with a means to RTFM. The inventors of the technology were pretty thorough, IMNERHO. This, combined with your process, should help you answer your own questions.
Dim