Well, sad but true Krusher. More advanced the technology .. something in the end loses out and in this case it's battery life. I try to use a plug, but that's not always practical. 6 hours is really a neccessity.

mherrman wrote:


A hint from someone that's killed an old 'book that way - watch the current and take the time to add a fuse and some resistors. The minute you ignore ohms law on this type of mod is the minute you're 'book dies.

If you want to travel with a battery like this, individual cells can look bad in an x-ray machine. I occasionally read wearable computing forums and there's always a story or two about a guy being pulled aside and asked about battery packs. In those cases a pre made pack like a larger cell phone battery or some camcorder batteries are a lot easier to explain than a box load of AA's Plus those tend to be Lith-Ion, which should give you a higher Ah rating for the size than NiCd or NiMH

I agree with Mark. I was just completed my senior design project and we started using rechargable AAs and they died continuously but we finnaly chose some JVC camcorder batteries that lasted alot longer and had a much more stable voltage.

Yea, that will be the day, when you can go without having to find a plug to charge your laptop. What if you are on a pack trip on a trail for a couple of months and wanted to watch movies at night. There should be some sort of fuel cell adapter for this kind of need. I know that I have seen solar panels for this type thing, but who is going to take the time to sit that out to get a charge? There has to be something out there!

I think the future of laptop power is solar panels. Charges from the sun, stores the energy. Instant power.

I have a group of friends that are working on thier senior design project and are creating a generator that can charge batteries while hiking. It kindof works like the forever watches that get powered by the kinetic energy of you walking. Now that is a cool idea for powering a wearable computer.

Now that would be awesome. I think if they were able to invent that they would be millionaires overnight.

"That would be an amazing mod. Take 200 AAs and string them together to power your G4 powerbook . If you managed that I guarantee you front page mod of the week !!!!!!"

(I apparently am an idiot...I can't figure out how to use the 'quote' function... May be because I'm using an ancient browser)

Actually, the AA battery idea isn't so far fetched. I haven't opened up an recent laptop batteries, but I can attest that at least the PowerBook 5300 and the Newton MP 2000 all use standard rechargeable AA cells in the batteries. I know this is the case for many PC laptop batteries as well. Replacing the cells in my Newton battery gave it life again, albeit an unimpressive amount of life, in part because I used really cheap rechargeables.

Anybody here open up an iBook battery? If it's readily done, I'd like to re-cell my dead one.

elakazal wrote:


They may look like they are standard AA cells but that is only because they are the same size. The internal structure is most likely quite different.

I could not figure out how to open up one of the ibook batteries for the clamshell. I ended up spending $90 and getting a new one.

And now the darn thing has a motherboard problem and it won't charge.

It just never ends.