hadden@ella.SRC.Honeywell.COM (George D. Hadden) (04/15/89)
hi, a while back i posted a question asking if anyone knew how to roll their own nicad battery pack for the 1100+. (toshiba wants 80 bucks or so for a replacement.) nobody did, so i gave it a shot myself. i've got some apparently successful results. here's what you need to do: 0) you'll need a phillips head screwdriver, some wide scotch tape (cellophane shipping tape is what i used), and a heavy duty (100 watts or so) soldering iron. 1) buy 4 heavy duty ni-cad batteries from radio shack. these are the 4 amp-hour, $7.95 jobs, not the wimpy 1.2 amp-hour ones that you can buy at 2 for $5.00 from target. (i can't remember the part number.) 2) take the top off of the machine -- 3 screws in back, 4 on the bottom. 3) unplug the battery pack and lift it out. you'll see it's basically four d-cells shrink-wrapped together. don't be put off by the seeming complexity of the four wires going to the cells -- they're just doubled up, i.e. two go to the positive and two to the negative. 4) remove the shrink-wrap, and unsolder the wires (carefully -- you're going to use them again) from the battery end. 5) lay the batteries out, alternating polarity, and tape them together like this: --------------------------------------- 2 black wires from plug | | 2 red wires from plug | --------- --------- | | | wire | | -- -------- -- -------- ------- --- --- | | --- --- | | ^ | || || || | | | || || || | | || || || | line up | || || || | like this | || || || | | || || || | | | || || || | | | || || || | | | | --- --- | | --- --- V -------- -- -------- -- ------- | | | | --------- --------- wire wire 6) solder the wires from the plug as shown above to the batteries, and solder the three other wires as shown. you probably don't want to keep your iron on these things all day, as it might damage the batteries. 7) pop the new pack into the 1100+, and put it back together. naturally, i'm not going to guarantee any of this -- you do this at your own risk. you'll also void your warrentee, but if your machine is under warrentee, let toshiba do it! -geo --- George D. Hadden, Honeywell Systems and Research Center PHONE: (612)782-7769 MAIL: 3660 Technology Drive MN65-2100, Minneapolis, MN 55418 ARPA: hadden@src.honeywell.com UUCP: {umn-cs, ems, bthpyd}!srcsip!hadden