Re: [NTLK] 2100 + Battery Rebuild = Fried Newton

~~~ On 2008/11/02 21:36, Joel M. Sciamma at joel@inventors-emporium.co.uk
wrote ~~~

> ...
> My feeling (as I don't have a complete explanation) is that charging
> batteries in the MessagePads is probably not a great idea at this
> stage and in any case it is a very slow way to get your machine
> recharged. Having a set of charged cells or primary cells at the
> ready means you are up and running again in seconds, the Newt stays
> cool, NiMH cells survive in good condition longer and you can use any
> battery technology that comes along.
>

Ryan, Joel (and everybody),

First, Ryan, I can't tell you how bad I feel. Any Newton is approaching
"treasure" status in my eyes, but a mint MP2100? Wow! Like having a tree
fall on a cherry '57 T-bird.

This brings me out of the shadows to ask a question that's been on my mind
since I got my first Newton 3 years ago: is there such a thing as an
external charger for MP2x000 battery packs? They exist for other laptops
and gizmos: for example, I've seen one for the Mac Pismo that lets you
charge 2 batteries at once, and even though they're rare and I don't have
one (yet) I hope to get one, as well as maybe finding some ambitious 3rd
party one for my MacBook eventually. But I've never even heard of such a
thing for the MP. It would be the coolest thing: just pop the discharged
pack out and plug it in, pull a freshly charged pack out of the charger and
slip it into the Newt. Voila! And if it could charge 2 at a time even
better, right?

It would be such a great thing to have but more than that, Joel's comments
suggest a need for such a thing to help protect the ever-dwindling supply of
Newtons.

Speaking of that dwindling supply, I find it ironic that now when no more
are being made, I'm asked regularly where to get one. October alone saw me
directing 4 more people to online suppliers. If only they (and I for that
matter) had been so enthusiastic 12 years ago, maybe Apple would have given
us at least one more iteration of the Newton before the plug was pulled. Or
so I'd like to imagine.

And last, on the subject of battery pack rebuilds, I'm using all rebuilds,
courtesy of maestro Frank Gruendel, and I haven't had a moment's trouble,
and I know I'm not alone. I also know there are others out there who do
expert jobs of rebuilding and get similarly good results. Without wishing
to insult anyone's skill at DIY, my own experience tells me that developing
the level of care for detail and precision needed to rebuild rechargeable
battery packs *reliably* to high standard can be hard to achieve and takes
practice. So often it's the little things that can trip you up when you're
learning.

Now, I've messed with electronic components since the late '50s and even
made my own battery packs for other projects. I'm not afraid of it. This
time though, when I weighed the money I might save by doing the rebuilds
myself against the loss of my Newt if I got it wrong, I decided I'd rather
pay someone with a lot of experience and a great reputation for doing it
right. The alternative of risking my Newton so I could learn seemed a
gamble. I wanted my Newton to get the best care possible and I knew I
wouldn't be it.

So, don't give up on using rebuilt battery packs, but IMO I'd rather pay
someone who really knows the rebuild-process and end up with a battery pack
I can bet my Newton on, rather than turning my Newton into an experiment
that could fry.

Just my 2 cents' (adjusted for inflation) worth. Since I seldom post I want
to use this post to say how much I appreciate this community of Newtonians
including the folks in the background who keep everything working.

I'll slip back into the shadows now.

 
Shalom.
Christian

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

³Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a Newton.²
            -- what Arthur C. Clarke meant

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(With thanks to Chod Lang)
http://tinyurl.com/29y2dl
http://www.diyplanner.com/node/3942

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Received on Sun Nov 2 19:16:11 2008