Sniffing Around Inside A ThinkPad Battery

For most people, a battery pack that’s misbehaving simply means it’s time to get a new battery. But when the battery in their ThinkPad wasn’t able to muster up more than 20 minute…

DIY Off Grid Battery Pack From EV Battery

Car camping gets you out in the great outdoors, but sometimes it’s nice to bring a few comforts from home. [Ed’s Garage] has taken a module from a salvaged EV and turned it into a handy porta…

Power Tool Packs Make A Portable Powerhouse

The revolution in portable and cordless appliances has meant that we now own far fewer mains-powered gadgets than we might once have done, but it hasn’t entirely banished the old AC outlet fr…

Half Power Bank, Half Spot Welder

There was a time when every gizmo on AliExpress also had a big white LED so it could also work as a flashlight, but maybe the power bank is the new flashlight. [Aaron Christophel] has a battery spo…

A 48 Volt Battery Pack With Carefully Balanced Cells

Many readers will have at some time or another built their own lithium-ion battery packs, whether they are using tiny cells or the huge ones found in automotive packs. A popular choice it to salvag…

Vehicle-to-Grid Made Easy

As electric cars continue to see increased adoption, one associated technology that was touted long ago that still hasn’t seen widespread adoption is vehicle-to-grid or vehicle-to-home. Since…

E-Bike Battery Tapped For Off-Grid Laptop Power

If you’ve travelling via bike, you’ll know there’s a certain advantage to packing light. But what if you need to take your beefy desktop-replacement laptop with you on one of thes…

Soldering Station Designed Around Batteries

Companies now are looking to secure revenue streams by sneakily locking customers into as many recurring services as possible. Subscription software, OS ecosystems, music streaming, and even food d…

Hackaday Prize 2022: A Backup Battery Pack

These days, we’re all running around toting smartphones and laptops that could always use a bit more charge. Portable battery packs have become popular, and [Anuradha] has designed one that p…

Ryobi Battery Hack Keeps CPAP Running Quietly

When it comes to cordless power tools, color is an important brand selection criterion. There’s Milwaukee red, for the rich people, the black and yellow of DeWalt, and Makita has a sort of te…

Fighting Back Against Dodgy Dyson Batteries

If you’ve ever worked with multi-cell rechargeable battery packs, you know that the individual cells will eventually become imbalanced. To keep the pack working optimally, each cell needs to …

When Battery Rebuilds Go Wrong: Understanding BMSs, Spot Welders, And Safety

Batteries are amazing. Batteries are horrible. Batteries are a necessary evil in today’s world of portable everything. If you’re reading this sentence, even if it’s not on a mobil…

A LiPo Cell Makes A 4AA Pack For A GameBoy

Electronic toys of yesteryear were fantastic objects of desire, but came with the fatal flaw of requiring batteries. Batteries that cost more than the average youngster’s pocket money and for…

Review: Battery Spot Welders, Why You Should Buy A Proper Spot Welder

Making battery packs is a common pursuit in our community, involving spot-welding nickel strips to the terminals on individual cells. Many a pack has been made in this way, using reclaimed 18650 ce…