Apple PowerBook 1xx Battery Shell

thingiverse

This is a recreation of the Apple PowerBook 1xx battery housing so that new battery packs can be made up for the original PowerBook line. This model is the culmination of weeks of work experimenting with multiple iterations of the design to have one that works reasonably well. While it is not 100% identical to the original battery pack design, it works fine when proper precautions are taken into account. There are two possible pack configurations you can use, the first using 2100 mAh 4/5A NiMH cells and the second using full 2700 mAh A NiMH cells. The former doesn't require a spot welder and gives you more room to work, but takes a lot longer to assemble. The latter full A celled version mimics the original design and requires a spot welder and nickel strips to connect the batteries. Full A cells are harder to find because they're typically only used in battery packs, and get drowned out in search results by AA cells. Battery suppliers should have both available. As battery technology has advanced over the course of 30 years, their capacity has gone up for a given size. The 4/5A version of the pack has the same capacity as the old full A NiCD design Apple used, so you don't need to trouble yourself with a full A pack unless you want the extra capacity. In my own testing, I've gotten a couple of hours at least with 4/5A cells on a PowerBook 145B, and it still had capacity remaining when I turned the laptop off. A wiring diagram is provided in the pictures, as is the polarity of the contacts. Materials required to assemble one of these packs: (for the 4/5A version) - 10 x 2100 mAh 4/5A NiMH batteries - 2 x 75C Thermal Cutout Fuse (REQUIRED) - 3-4 feet of 16 or 18AWG copper wire and/or 1-2 feet of 1/4" tinned copper braid (if you - don't want to make your own braid) - 1 x sheet fine metal sand paper - Liquid/gel solder flux - 1 x .010" thick brass sheet (For the Full A version) - 10 x 2700 mAh A NiMH batteries - 2 x 75C Thermal Cutout Fuse (REQUIRED) - Roll of nickel strip - Spot Welder - Plastic or hard card sheet for insulating the ground run - 1 x .010" thick brass sheet Thermal cutouts ARE REQUIRED for pack safety, if there's a fault with the pack (short circuit/overheating), they will permanently trip and render the pack non-functional. DO NOT BUILD A PACK WITHOUT SAFETY FUSES IN PLACE, FIRE CAN RESULT. The original Klixon thermal cutout fuses are no longer available, I had to use some generic Axial types folded to fit between the batteries. These are the ones I used: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=75c+thermal+cutoff And for the boilerplate warning: Working with battery packs can be hazardous if batteries are improperly handled. Soldering and/or spot welding to batteries is potentially hazardous if done incorrectly. If you're not comfortable doing these things, I'd recommend against attempting to build this and have someone else more experienced do it for you.