Can the laptop battery pack circuitry be used to make a cheap balance charger? I have several to work with and in dissecting on the of the packs, it looks to be a 6 cell serial with balancing connectors. If you used a laptop power brick attached directly to the circuit board, would it work? Seems like it ought to be a quick way to charge 6 cells at a time.
I'm interested in this as well.
Laptop chargers are usually high-quality, and they balance charge.
Should be easy as long as the logic control for the bios charge disable / OS bat monitor is not intigrated into the charge circuit. If so youd have to beat the logic prolly easiest to measure all volts referenced to ground and duplicate them when the circuit is stand alone see if it works .. but i suspect there prolly more than just Highs and lows controlling it .. im just thinking out loud .. never really touched one.
I like the idea. actually, I love the idea - I enjoy using what's on hand (even though its often more difficult than buying something :) )
I bet there's a way to make it work, but I don't think the motherboard is sending all the current from the power supply straight to the battery...
You should double check it being 6 in series - it's way more likely to be 3S2P (most common config in laptop battery packs). If you're not sure, check label on pack itself - 10.8V/11.1V is 3S2P, 22.2V is 6S.