HP65 Battery Pack

[Tom Walker]

Anyone know of a source for a new bat pack for the HP65, or are there any newer batteries than can be inserted in the old pack???

[Tony Duell]

Yes, yoy can rebuild these battery packs. The cells are just AA size tagged NiCds.
I posted a message last week about rebuilding HP45 batteries -- the HP65 uses the same pack. So it's worth searching for that message, and all the other old messages about these batteries.

[Tom Walker]

Tony, thanx for your info re the HP65 Bat Pack. I've been working on same--boy, it is a bit of a project to get that old pack separated! Re the terminals, when looking at the open HP65 where the Bat Pack sits, is the top spring clip closest to where the charger plugs in the + voltage??? You mentioned in another message "closest to the front" but I'm unsure of what that means. I've been concerned also about soldering connections so I don't get too much heat that would hurt the bat itself. Any suggestions???
Tom

[Tony Duell]

Yes, they are 'fun' to cut apart :-). As regards the polarity, 'front' means the front of the machine when it's in use -- that is to say
furthest from the charger connector. All my HP 'directions' are given with the machine in the normal operating postion (so the 'left side' is the side where the +/-/*// keys are on an HP65 _always_).
You can verify the polarity quite easily -- the -ve battery terminal is connected to the middle one of the charger connector pins, the +ve battery terminal is connected to the outside pins (these are shorted together when the charger isn't connected).
As regards soldering the contacts to the new cells, buy 'tagged' cells (these have solder tags welded to the terminals), use a hot soldering iron (so you can make the joint quickly) and tin both parts (tag and contact strip) with solder. Then hold them together and heat them with the iron.
It should only take a couple of seconds to make the connection that way, and you won't damage the cells.