Ellis...you bid on 95 of these things?

[Gene]

95? Is that you?

What would you DO with that many? :-)

Obviously, you can buy as many as you like!

Gene

[Gene]

Oops!

Guess I didn't read EITHER...hope I'm not "touchy" :-)

[Ellis Easley]

I bid on 4 of them because I have 4 old packs waiting to be rebuilt, and I'm disenchanted with the cells in the portable drill battery packs I bragged on a while back - the straps they are connected with don't solder easily. I think they are made of stainless steel and I finally managed to tin them using an organic acid flux and 96/4 tin/silver solder, then washing all the flux off and finally soldering wires to them with 96/4 rosin core solder. Along the way I found that one source of trouble was the heat sink effect of the cells so next pack I rebuild, I'm going to try making cuts most of the way across the width of the strap, from alternating sides. After making a few cuts like that, I will stretch them out like expanded metal, making a longer, narrow (ziz-zag) strip that should be easier to tin (better temperature control), easier to wash off the flux, and maybe even long enough to eliminate any additional wires.

[Christof]

First of all, I did bid on 10, yes. That's because I have use for 6 (one in, one spare, for 3 devices) and I tend to give out spares when people I know need them.

For rebuilding purposes, I've found that off the shelf 3 AA cell NiMH battery packs for cordless phones hooked up in groups of 2 work wonderfully. a bit of foam to keep things from shaking and you've got plenty of power to handle basic use.

[Christof]

Oh, BIG thanks to Katie!

[Ellis Easley]

Yes, thanks Katie!

Did anybody remember to thank the guy who found the HP42S warantee replacement units in HP's parts department?

[Ellis Easley]

I thought about using some NiMH AA cells to rebuild an 82033A battery (for HP97 and HPIL printer and tape drive) but they won't fit. They might fit in the battery compartment - without the 82033A plastic - crossways, but it looks very iffy!

[Christof]

I've actually made several cloned 82033A packs from scratch, so I've not had that problem. I do, when using AA cells, lay them the other direction in some cases. (can't remember whcih packs I do which with at the moment)

for the thinkjet, I just used a couple already assembled 3 AA packs intended for cell phones and wired them together
works great :)