Batteries Cassette Drive/Printer

[John Kercheval]

Hello:

Anyone have any ideads for replacement batteries for Cass. Drive and IL Printer?

John Kercheval IN VA

[David Smith]

If you have the old battery pack, it can be rebuilt by Batteries Plus, Batteries, Etc. or other similar battery places for around 20-30 dollars depending upon the cells used. I prefer to use the highest capacity cells available (2000-2400 mAH). They are not as apt to be damaged by the rather high charge current that HP dumps into these packs if you leave it on the plug for extended periods.

If you don't have the old packs you can try to find them on the Classifeds here or Ebay.

A third alternative is to have a four cell (sub-C size cells) pack built up at the battery store with wire leads then either wrap the leads several times around or (gasp!) solder the leads to the terminals in the battery compartment.

[Tony Duell]

If you have the old battery packs, it's possible to rebuild them. You cut open the plastic housing along the joins, and take it apart. Inside are 4 sub-C size NiCd cells. Recover the terminal strips from the original cells and buy 4 new tagged (i.e. with solder tags) ones. Solder them together in series (to make a 4.8V or so battery), then solder the original terminal
strips to the 'ends' of the cells, making sure you get the polarity correct (same as the original of course).
Put the new cells into the housing and try it out. If it works, then glue the housing together again with something like 'plastic weld' or a similar solvent-type adhesive.

[John Kercheval]

Thanks,

I was THINKING about trying that, building my own pack out of rechargeable "c" bats, but am glad you went first:)

I guess you guys in the UK are one step ahead of us again.

And, sorry , in arrears , for that "Revolutiuonary War " thing.

John Kercheval

[Katie]

Take a look in the articles forum here. There's a recently updated article that I wrote about where to get the pre-built battery pack that you need to install in the plasitc housing. It's much easier to use that than to solder the batteries (w/tabs) together yourself.

[Ellis Easley]

A source I like for sub-C's is battery packs for imported power tools that I buy at a store called "Harbor Freight Tools". Sooner or later almost everything there goes on sale for half price. I bought the 14.4 V ones that work in my drill, they contain 12 sub-C's with straps that I cut apart to suit the pack I'm rebuilding. There was a manager who said he would save dead returns for me, actually gave me one, but he moved away, unfortunately. The one he gave me, I cant't find anything wrong with! I think I paid something less than $20 for the new ones on sale (not half price!)They have a website, www.harborfreight.com, the regular price for the 14.4 V pack is $25, right now they have a 12V cordless drill with keyless chuck for $17 marked down from $46, they must have way too many - for the batteries alone, that would be $1.70 each!

[db (martinez, ca.)]

is it only on the internet or where is this place or is this place a chain? that wasn't a rant; it was a question.

[Ellis Easley]

They have had a store here in Fort Worth, TX for a number of years and also a mail order catalog and now they have a website (harborfreight.com). Their headquarters are in Camarillo, CA. The catalog doesn't list the store locations but a local flyer shows 30 stores in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. I don't know if that's it or if that's just this region. Yesterday was the first time I went to their website. I got the URL from the cover of the catalog which I noticed had limited time specials including a 12V drill with keyed chuck reduced from $39.99 to $16.99 and the same drill with a Jacobs keyless chuck reduced from $45.99 to $18.99. When I went to the website I saw that some of the specials from the catalog cover ("Winter 2002") were over, including the keyed chuck drill, but the keyless chuck drill was now reduced to $16.99. The stores don't honor the catalog specials but they always have a flyer or two or three going with specials, and there is always a bunch of stuff half off (not the same stuff all the time).