#1  of 3                                                         
My daughter was discarding a 5 yr. laptop battery ,12 V.         
3000 mAh,with NiMH batteries, G G 22 A R type,made in Taiwan.    
Measures 4 " wide, 3/4 " thick, 5 1/2"long,about 1 3/8 lbs.      
Not having a laptop,I decided to open it up to see if any        
of the batteries were still good.                                
 I used a table saw to shave off about 1/16 " at a time on the   
end away from the end with the electrical contacts.              
Once an opening showed,it was easy to put in a screwdriver       
and pop the top off.                                             
  The electrical contacts were marked  +  and - on the case.     
Inside,the 5 electrical contacts were marked:                    
                                                                 
Ground for -                                                     
Pack +                                                           
DQ                                                               
Type                                                             
Bat +                                                            
                                                                 
 From the back end,I see 5 bulbs on the left,with openings in    
the case.I guess these denote the degree of charge.              
I see 10 batteries, 2 1/2 " long,(AA=1 7/8")in 5 rows of 2 each 
They were 21/32 " O.D. larger than an AA of 18/32 ".             
There is a wire near the center from back to front with          
a diode in the wire.The whole assembly lifts out.                
                                                                 
On the left with the bulbs is a circuit board with a small       
1/4 "square switch,that has a circular button ,and looks like a  
toggle switch matching an opening in the case.                   
The board is marked 20H100-006-B4 or 84.                         
                                                                 
 Strips of 2 batteries are glued to the adjacent strip and I     
used a single-edge razor blade to cut the glue.The strips        
are joined to each other by flat 1/4 " metal ribbons that are    
spot welded to the batteries.I cut the ribbons with diagonal     
pliers by holding the strip tightly and bending the strip back   
forth until it broke.I noticed that there were 2 other diodes    
in between some of the strips ,maybe part of the circuit         
to indicate the amount of charge left.                           
                                                                 
   I used a razor blade to easily cutoff the blue plastic        
coating.The batteries were chrome colored with the label         
IJ08- HT-3.The plus end had a white,plastic insulator around the 
plus terminal.The voltages on 5 were zero and other 5= 0.01 V.   
I started thinking that maybe I shouldn't have peeled off the    
blue plastic coating to minimize shorts in storage.But they      
were partially cut when cutting the strips apart.I can always    
wrap them in electricians tape.                                  
                                                                 
    I understand that I need special battery chargers to charge  
NiMH's and that regular Ni-Cad chargers should not be used.      
So I rigged up a 12 V. car battery charger with  5K and 350      
ohm resistors in series as the load and a 470 mfd (200 v.)       
electrolytic across the setup as a filter.                       
                                                                 
  The batteries showed zero to .05 V.First,I tried to shock the  
cells with the 12 v, from the battery charger.The cell voltage   
Jumped to 1.2-1.3 volts then drop to zero in a few minutes.      
So I thought,if an electric shock had some effect,maybe a        
thermal shock would be different.So I put hot water into an      
Aluminum cake pan,( 180 F dropping to 150 F on the meat          
thermometer ),inserted the batteries 1/2 way up ,let sit for     
5 min.,then put into ice water for 5 min..While cold,I shocked   
them again with 12 V..Had same effect.Got 1.2 to 1.3 cell        
voltage then dropping to zero in a few minutes.                  
                                                                 
It's to time search the Net for more information.                
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www.chem.orst.edu/ch411/scbatt.htm                               
 
Gives brief description of all kinds of batteries                
(continued )
 

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