Real Kato Blog: Friday Nerd Night

Well, I didn't go out tonight. Instead I did nerdy things.

I considered going out. But it was rainy and I was tired, and I wasn't up to the arduous task of convincing my Chronically-Non-Single friends to go out with me.

Oh, I still had some drinks, though. It is Friday, after all.

At home I decided to try to rescue my old Powerbook. After all, I had a working battery with a bad connector, and an old battery with a good connector. Why not try an organ transplant to cobble together one good battery?

See, when I have a few drinks, I forget about my New Year's Resolution.

So I got cracking. Literally. I had to bust open both the old batteries to take them apart, a task which involved a lot of prying and plastic-deforming. All the while I was nervous about blowing myself up, because lithium-ion batteries are somewhat sensitive to being poked with sharp objects.

After getting the batteries open, I found they were slightly different. They both had nine lithium-ion cells, but the arrangement was a little different. But I mapped out all the wiring and I was confident I could put it all together correctly. I set about with my wire cutters and my Cold Heat soldering iron.

When it was all wired up, I pushed the little built-in battery test button and... nothing. Erp. My voltmeter said I had connected everything right, but nothing was lighting up. I assumed I had damaged the cable for the battery test, and I decided that was not a big deal. Hey, maybe I should work for NASA.

So I tried to close up the case to my newly-formed battery and... it didn't fit. Something was wrong; the cells from the good battery were too big for the old battery's case. So I did what any good engineer would do: I FORCED IT. Oh, I would have used some duct tape too, but that would only have made it fatter. So I just squeezed it all together as best I could and jammed the bulging apparatus into the battery bay of the laptop. I just have to remind myself never to try to take the battery out again.

I started up my laptop. Nothing caught fire. So far so good.

I looked at the battery meter. 0%. Uh-oh. I waited. I waited. Then suddenly: 100%! Could it actually be working?

The real test: pull the AC power cord. Here's what I saw:

Hooray! Looks like it's working! I have four hours of battery life!

Now, if my house hasn't burned down by tomorrow, maybe I'll celebrate a little... with a few drinks...

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