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Acer Aspire 3000 Battery Internals

Acer Aspire 3000 Battery Internals

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This is a 4-cell battery; before opening it up, I was under the impression that it was a 3-cell.

The charge controller circuit board has “LIP8198” and “1-867-277-11” markings in the silkscreen, along with a strip of Kapton tape over the top of the PCB.

The PCB has +/- going to the 4 cells in series, as well as leads between each cell (probably for measuring voltage at each intermediate point), and two temp sensors: one on the battery closest to the circuit board (the one that the board’s “-” connects to) and one on the next one after that (the middle-most one).

The top side has the following ICs:

  • 3182 5J94 (Looks like a tiny EEPROM/Flash)
  • Two unlabelled 8-pin square ICs marked “04” and “07” on the silkscreen
  • 12AH4 SC SF

The bottom has the following:

  • TI bq80201DBT – “Battery ‘Gas Gauge'” for storing the cycle count?
  • TI bq29312PW – “Two, Three and Four Cell Lithium or Lithium-Polymer Battery Protection AFE”
  • A number of various bare-copper test points 🙂

With a bit of digging, it seems that the bq80201 is used for many different battery makes such as Sanyo, Dell, etc.

Relevant URLs:
Battery EEPROM Works (Software; not affiliated with this site, I have no guarantees of how well it works)
Battery EEPROM Works Forum topic re: B80201 support (Forum Thread)
Would still be nice to actually find a listing of the I2C codes that it uses.

Views: 104,458
Flambeau Brake Control Demo Kit

Flambeau Brake Control Demo Kit

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This is a nice item that I found today at Princess Auto… A grey box hiding on the bottom of a grey shelf. The phrase “Demo Kit” caught my eye, and I had to take a peek inside. I was blown away by the beautiful innards, and I just had to have it. It appears to be made by Flambeau (judging from the company name stamped into the front of the case) and the sticker on the lid says it is a “Brake Control Demonstration Kit”

A metal front panel (as seen in the picture) holds a set of terminals, a voltmeter, large Brake and Overload buttons along with various assisting components, such as Output and Stop lights, Battery test button, power switch, 30A removable fuse, and a panel-mount power plug that fits with the included wallwart.

Underneath the panel (picture attached below), reside a 12 Volt, 5 Amp-Hour SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery for powering the kit, and some type of coil or capacitor for powering the ‘overload’ button.

Bonus points for the Output and Stop Light lamps: They’re actually incandescent bulbs, not LEDs. (The power light is an LED though, presumably so you can still see that the unit is not DOA even with a near-flat battery.)

Possible uses: (besides requisite attempts to blow various electrical components up with the Overload button)

  • Portable bench power supply (With an adjustable voltage regulator, and maybe an LCD display for kicks?)
  • (Have any suggestions to add? Sound off in the comments!)

(NB, this doesn’t show up on Princess Auto’s website, as it’s probably a new item. It is SKU #8339715 and $19.99 at the time of posting unfortunately, no longer a stocked item.)

Views: 97,802
New Goods

New Goods

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Ok, so not really a project, but just to show off, here’s the newest addition to the party going on in my camera bag.

Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 Macro (72mm filter size)
B+W U/V Haze Filter for my 17-70mm lens (hey, it’s cheap insurance)

Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro (58mm filter size)
(I already have “Cheap Insurance” for this one, in the form of a U/V Haze Filter and Circular Polarizing lens from my old lens)

Sigma Electronic Flash EF-500 DG Super EO-ETTL2

8x Panasonic NiMH AA batteries

I got these all at the Views: 9,620