The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Dell Laptop Battery Teardown

    The defunct 18650 lithium cell  I used for the DSO150 power supplyprompted me to crack open a battery from a long-gone Dell laptop to see if any of its cells were in better condition:

    Dell laptop battery - case cracking
    Dell laptop battery – case cracking

    Yup, gently crushing it in a vise splits the case enough to work the Designated Prydriver around the joint, a process considerably simplified by the knowledge the case isn’t going back together again.

    Prying the top off reveals the cells and their connections:

    Dell laptop battery - circuitry
    Dell laptop battery – circuitry

    One of the cells had corroded, accounting for the pack’s failure:

    Dell laptop battery - corroded cell
    Dell laptop battery – corroded cell

    The others were undamaged, but had self-discharged down to about 1.5 V over the course of several years and refused to charge.

    The moral may be to tear the pack apart as soon as it fails, a point always easier to recognize in retrospect.

    So I taped the packs to prevent shorts and tossed them into the recycle box.