As a result of visiting Hamfest, I ended up with a laptop to take apart – a fairly new Toshiba Satellite C675D with a broken screen. It’s not a Hamfest if you don’t bring home something to take apart of course! Today we’ll be testing the battery it came with to see if it’s salvageable.The date code says it was made in 11/2011
Patient all hooked up
Here is the BMS that came with my Headway LiFePO4 cells. After a few pictures it’ll be very clear why I felt really leery about entrusting my cells to its care.
Looks like this was a 13 channel design, with only 8 populated
This all started when we bought a house and it came with a bit of grass. And grass wanted to grow and had to be cut. Initially I paid a lawn service to come and cut it, but they kept cutting bits I did not want them to. So I looked at the annual amount I was paying them and decided that would be my budget for a mower. Being an electrical guy, I very much dislike all things gas powered, stinky and noisy. So the absolute requirement was for the mower to be electric. I looked around a bit, and my choices seemed to be a bunch of no-name large box store mowers running Lead Acid batteries or corded, a few exotic European market-only Lithium powered mowers or making my own. I picked neither Continue reading