#1  of 2                                                             
                                                                     
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 the 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.                    
-------------------------------------------------                    
www.chem.orst.edu/ch411/scbatt.htm                                   
                                                                     
Gives brief description of all kinds of batteries                    
                                                                     
---------------------------------                                    
NiMH Batteries and Chargers - Knowledge Base for NiMH Batteries      
and Chargers - http://faq.altekpower.com/faq/ch411/scbatt.htm        
                                                                     
#  ID  Created    Issue  Type  Title                                 
1   5  1/8/2003    Normal UseNimh Batteries - First Time Usage       
2  27  1/12/2003  Charger - GeneralGeneral Charger FAQs              
3   3  01/13/2003    Charging NiMHNiMH Batteries - Trickle Charging. 
4   7  1/8/2003      Normal UseNiMH Batteries - Memory Effect        
5   6  1/8/2003      Charging NiMHNiMH Batteries-Amount of charges   
6   9  1/8/2003      Normal UseNiMH Batteries - Terminology          
7  20  1/9/2003   Charge NiMHNiMH Batteries-Not completely charged.  
8  17  1/9/2003   Normal UseNiMH Batteries-Holding charge-shelf      
9  24  1/10/2003  Charging NiMHNiMH Batteries-Type Charger Req.      
10 18  1/9/2003    Normal UseNiMH Batteries - Care for Maximum LIfe  
11  8  1/8/2003     Normal UseNiMH Batteries - not holding a charge  
12 10  1/8/2003    Charging NiMHNiMH Batteries - Hot when charging   
13  2  1/8/2003     Charging NiMHMH-C204F - Charging Question        
14 34  3/27/2003   Charging NiMHFast Charging vs. Slow Charging      
15  3  1/8/2003     Normal UseMH-C204F - How it works.               
16  11 1/8/2003    Normal UseNiMH Batteries - Voltage                
17  13 1/9/2003    Charging NiMHMH-C401 FS - Conditioning            
18  22 1/10/2003   Normal UseNiMH Batteries - Higher Capacity        
19  35 3/27/2003   Normal UseNiMH instead of Alkaline                
20  26 1/12/2003   Charging NiMHMH-C204F-Charging Question Add #1    
21  29 1/13/2003   Normal UseNiMH Batteries-Do they loose capacity?  

--- Maximus 2.02