[rescue] revived: TiBook G4 867 (DVI)/ 1GB and MacOS9

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

[NB: I AM TOP-POSTING; LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY!]

So, about rebuilding the battery, the key is to examine the cells very carefully and make sure you understand the exact layout in full detail, before taking it apart further.

I broke open the case (don't have a good solution for re-sealing it, I just used duct tape) and pried the two halves apart rather inelegantly.

For the TiBook battery, there are 8 cells total.  I gently pulled back the insulating tape (that keeps the cells from touching each other where they shouldn't) and did not take apart the pack until I had gone over, about 3 times, exactly what was connected where. I took photos and diagrammed it, then double-checked myself.

The 8 cells are laid out with (my numbering) 6 cells in a single row, with 1 cell lying lengthwise along the top and one lengthwise along the bottom, to form a rough rectangle.

e.g.:

        7 lengthwise
1  2  3  4  5  6
        8 lengthwise

(hope formatting isn't too screwed up)

The case itself, has indentations where each battery should lay. When re-assembling the pack, the batteries should fit back into the indentations.

I used the electronics bench at the maker space I am a member of - they have a spot welder to weld on each battery the flat battery tabs - much easier to solder to, and it helps to prevent heating up the cell when you are soldering to it.

Spot weld the batteries together in the same configuration (a mix of serial and parallel) as the original pack.  Once you have started welding, use some electrical tape or other means to prevent accidental contact - even with the batteries un-charged they can discharge what remains!  

As you get closer to the finished product the danger will increase a bit - so protect both yourself and the battery pack.

"Tin" the wires with solder.  Then, put a blob of solder on both the end of the wire, and, another blob on the battery tab you have spot-welded to the cell. 

To solder together, put the soldering tip onto the blob on the cell, and push the blob on the wire against it. As soon as they both melt together, remove the tip.  Remember you don't want a lot of heat going into the cell; this method should minimize heat going anywhere other than the soldered connection.  If you can, leave a bit of the tab metal that you spot-welded to the cell, able to be bent upwards so you can lessen the heat transfer into the cell.

After you have carefully finished soldering, let it sit (not on a conductive mat) for a minute or two, then, carefully feel each cell with your fingertips. If ANY are warm - you have either wired incorrectly, or two cells are touching that should not be!  Go over your connections again - in my case, the end of one cell was touching the solder blob of another cell, that should not have been.  I put electrical tape on both connections to keep them separated from each other and haven't had any problems since.

Carefully re-assemble everything into the case; wait again for a minute, feeling the cells for warmth. Then when everything seems fine, use duct tape or whatever to hold the case together and test-fit into your laptop, unplugged from main power.  Plug in the laptop and keep feeling/monitoring the battery pack for undue warmth; don't plug it in and walk away.

After the batteries are charged, test runtime (the learning by the driver or in-battery chip means that times will be inaccurate at first) and there you go ...

Cheers

Patrick



----- Original Message -----
From: Ray Arachelian <ray at arachelian.com>
To: The Rescue List <rescue at sunhelp.org>, Patrick Giagnocavo <patrick at zill.net>
Sent: Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:26:23 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [rescue] revived: TiBook G4 867 (DVI)/ 1GB and MacOS9

On 04/10/18 01:28, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
> I am sick of OSes and hardware that have remote surveillance capabilities... plus I have some writing to do, so I decided to look around for something I could use that would minimize my Internet dependence...
>
> I rebuilt the LiIon battery on the TiBook and it now gives ~3 hours I think, depending on what I do with it. Just writing, with the backlight turned down, probably more.

Wow, how did you rebuild the battery?  I do see replacement ones on
Amazon for various G4 notebooks, and I'm actually tempted to buy one,
but if it can be rebuilt, that sounds like a fun project.  Do you have
any docs/pics on how you did that?

Actually I recently purchased a 17" G4 mostly because I wanted to still
be able to compile for that platform, and to add to the collection since
Apple Inc. doesn't make 17" notebooks anymore...

I'm not planning on making it my day to day daily machine since I've
need to run modern software, but still...  It's amazing how usable it
is.  While the display isn't a HiDPI retina, it's much more comfortable
to sit infront of despite the lower resolution, just by virtue of it not
having a glaring panel of dark glass infront of the LCD, and because of
that same reason, the brightness of the backlight can be much lower
saving battery run time. 

Don't get me wrong, I do have a HiDPI linux laptop without glass and the
higher resolution is great - at least when the software supports it, I
do appreciate the resolution.  But the glare on the macbooks, feh!  (The
higher end gaming laptops are better replacement for the 17" macbook
workstations than anything Apple offers today as a "pro" 15" machine if
you're willing to run Linux)

And isn't it funny how the newer and newer macbook and pro models are
actually slower and slower CPU GHzwise?  Sure the GPUs are offloading a
lot of work.  Why bother offering an i7 if you're going to have to
underclock it or only offer two cores + two threads?  Sure, it can burst
a short while to higher speeds, but as soon as it does the fans kick it
to cool it off and when they're unable to, the CPU clocks right back
down.  I want a usable workstation, not a notebook thin enough to shave
with.

And don't get me started on the glued in batteries, soldered in RAM, and
now SSD...

Our friends at Apple really made some terrible decisions around when the
retina macbook was introduced, and they continue to make worse and worse
ones today...

The older sculpted keys on the G4 with full travel are such a total
pleasure to use vs the current macbook abomination of a keyboard that
$work offers...  If you stick to software of that era, it's quite
usable.  I'll probably find a converter and put an SSD in there to get
it to go even faster if I start using it more.  I was able to get it up
to 2GB of RAM despite the specs saying it supports 1.5G max.

The only feature I missed when using the 17" G4 is that the trackpad
doesn't support two finger scrolling.  It doesn't have a webcam, and I
actually feel much better without it. :)  No need to glue a sliding
webcam cover over it just because it was included and you don't know
when some malware will turn it on remotely...  And I find it's not
really that heavy or that thick.  It still looks quite modern and not
bulky or ugly in any way.  Gotta say, it's got really great design.