da0g+@andrew.cmu.edu (David Apfelbaum) (03/23/91)
My Zenith-183 (8088, 10M harddrive) is suffering from a dead battery. Because of the way the power system is designed, the computer is unusable. (The circuitry that detects a low-power situation and inactivates the computer is wired solely to the battery.) I have talked with the people at Heath/Zenith and they want $175 for a replacement battery-pack. They also recommended I get the power-supply-circuit "re-tuned" so that it is producing the proper voltage levels, which would cost an additional $65. Now knowing what I do about modern power-supply design and the price of hi-capacity nicads, I feel that I am being "Taken". The battery pack should cost less than half the price that they are asking. And can the power supply circuit even be "Tuned"??? But there is another problem. The computer charges the battery-pack whenever it is plugged in -- Not just when the power is off! As a result, the battery pack gets seriously trashed! According to one Zenith person that I talked to, I am supposed to run the computer off the batteries until they die, and then continue by running off the power supply. This is inconvenient when I am running long number-crunching programs. And while this will make the batteries last longer than they currently do, they will still be wearing out faster than they should be as nicads only have a limited number of charge/discharge cycles. (It is also not mentioned in my owners manual -- How convenient for them! :-( I did talk to the people at Heath/Zenith about hooking up my own battery -- or just disconnecting the charging circuit. They assured me that if I were to try such a thing, I would surely burn out my computer. Now this is something that I wish to avoid. However, it strikes me that if such a thing was possible, Heath/Zenith would be the first to deny it -- Based on the profit motive. And it can't really be all that difficult! So my questions to the net are: (1) Is it possible/feasible to hook up my own battery? And if so, how? And (2) Is it possible to disconnect the charging circuit without damaging the computer? Or just limit it to charging when the computer is turned off? I have no problems with building my own external charger, if it's necessary. Does anyone have any ideas? It really irks me to just be "Taken"! Thanks, -David Apfelbaum. =========================================================================== David Apfelbaum Student (mostly Math/CS) at Carnegie Mellon. 5266 Beeler St. INTERNET, BITNET, etc: da0g+@andrew.cmu.edu Pittsburgh PA 15217 Alternate: da0g%andrew@CMCCVB (412) 683-7216 UUCP: ...!harvard!andrew.cmu.edu!da0g =========================================================================== #include <std_disclaimers> /* CMU is not responsible for my babblings. */ #include <std_quote(s)> /* Beware of Hackers carrying screwdrivers. */ ===========================================================================