Program “I love Psychology” 

How to revive a finger battery. NiMH batteries, their training and recovery. From operating experience

We often miss good shots in the forest or at sea, we may be late or stumble in the dark because we suddenly ran out of battery. simple battery from a camera, watch or flashlight. It's hard to say exactly when the charge will be used up, unless this is a Duracell model with an indicator. But don't despair! Thanks to a few tips, you can avoid unpredictable situations and take the intended photographs from a digital camera, find out exact time, illuminate the road, etc. In this article, we will tell you how to charge batteries at home without a charger, which will make life much easier in unpredictable situations.

Know that to charge alkaline batteries you can use a special charger that can relatively quickly restore a discharged item. But each charging session will reduce its operating life by approximately 1/3. In addition, leakage is possible.

Note! At home you can charge: alkaline (alkaline) AA batteries. Don't: salt. The possibility of leakage or even explosion cannot be ruled out!

Charging can be carried out various methods. Therefore, you should not throw away an element as soon as it stops serving. A few recommendations - and he is back in action. The first method, using which you can charge AA batteries yourself without a charger. We connect the power supply to the network. Next, using the connection wires, we connect the used battery to the unit. Don't forget about polarity: plus is connected to plus, and minus is connected to minus. It’s quite easy to find where the “-\+” of a discharged object is: they are marked on the body.

Having connected the battery to the power source, wait until it warms up to fifty degrees and turn off the power. Next, wait a few minutes for the heated object to cool down. Otherwise, it may explode. Then, while the AA is still warm, it needs to be charged in a different way. It consists of the following: connect the power supply to electricity and disconnect it. This should take about 120 seconds. Next, we place the object to be charged in the “freezer” for 10 minutes, then take it out and wait 2-3 minutes for it to warm up. That's it, the charge is restored right at home without a charger! You can safely use it for the same computer mouse.

Main rules:

  1. The charge is not feasible if you arrange the + and - in a different way. On the contrary, the battery will drain even faster.
  2. It is permissible to charge the object at home 1-2 times.
  3. Using the method described above, you can only charge simple AA alkaline batteries.
  4. The charge can be carried out in any temperature conditions environment.


Another charging method is the conventional heating method. But it is fraught with consequences (explosion). In this way, you can restore, again, small alkaline batteries at home. You can also charge them in a simpler way - place discharged objects in hot water, but no more than 20 seconds, otherwise sad results are possible. Another simple way is to flatten or reduce the volume of the element with your own hands. This way you can charge various AA batteries. There is an example when a person, after the charge of a cast-ion battery had expired, simply took it out and stomped on it, after which the charge indicator showed one hundred percent.

You can also restore the charge without a charger this way: we make 2 holes with an awl near each carbon rod with a depth of three-quarters of the height of the element itself. We pour liquid into them and seal them, covering them with resin or plasticine. You can pour not just liquid, but an eight to ten percent solution of hydrochloric acid or double vinegar. Pour the solution several times to ensure sufficient saturation. This method allows you to charge up to seventy to eighty percent of the initial capacity.

Video instructions for restoring Duracell using a phone charger

Another way to charge the product: open the cell cover with a knife. If the zinc cylinder, the object's rod and the carbon powder are intact, then immerse the object in the salt solution. Its ratio is as follows: 2 tablespoons of table salt per several glasses of liquid. Next, boil the solution together with the element for about ten to fifteen minutes. Then we return the gaskets responsible for sealing to their place and cover them with wax or plasticine.

Alternative charging method

You will need

  • - an awl or sharp nail;
  • - syringe;
  • - distilled water;
  • - table vinegar 9%;
  • - 10% hydrochloric acid solution;
  • - plasticine or resin;
  • - small hammer;
  • - hot water;
  • - Charger for batteries.

Instructions

The process of restoring battery functionality is called regeneration. Practice shows that not every element is suitable for restoration, but only those whose capacity and voltage have not dropped below a certain value (for a 1.5 V AA battery this value will be 0.7-0.8 V).

Please also take into account that batteries that operate at high load currents are most easily restored ( flashlights, children's toys, portable radios, etc.); much worse - elements operating on low currents (watches, portable radios, cameras, etc.)

If the AA battery has been stored for a long time and has dried out, make two holes with an awl or a thin nail along the central rod, midway between it and the edges of the battery. Punctures should be made to a depth of approximately ¾ of the height of the galvanic cell.

Inject a few drops of water (preferably distilled) into one of the holes using a medical syringe. At this time, the displaced air will escape through the second hole. As soon as water appears in the second hole, the syringe is removed. After “filling” the battery, cover the holes with plasticine or hot resin.

Another, more reliable option for filling the battery is not water, but a 10% solution of hydrochloric acid or a double dose of table vinegar.

You can also revive the battery by immersing it in hot water for about 10 minutes.

Mechanical stress can also extend the life of the battery by 2-3 days. Try gently tapping the body of the elements with a small hammer.

There are charger options for various types batteries. Schemes of such devices can be found on the Internet.

note

Keep in mind that it is better not to take risks and, if possible, still replace the “updated” batteries with new ones, since there is a risk that liquid may leak from the old batteries and damage the microcircuits of your equipment.

Sources:

  • battery fluid

Many motorists are familiar with the situation when one frosty morning the engine refuses to wake up after a cold night. Then it becomes clear that the battery is dead. But don’t rush to run out and buy a new one. After all, you can restore a dead battery. If you charge it correctly, it will last for a long time.

Instructions

Remember that you need a battery at a certain speed. If, for example, your battery capacity is 50 amp-hours, it needs to be charged for 10 hours at 5 amps. When charging, be sure to remove the covers.
If you try to charge the battery faster, this may result in overheating or boiling of the electrolyte. And if the plates become warped, the battery will die. If the battery is sealed, it must be charged even more slowly. On average, no more than 2.5% of ampere-hour. However, keeping the battery charged for too long is also not a good idea.
There are chargers equipped with a fast charging function. It must be used

only in extreme cases. After all, such a procedure reduces the life of the battery.

If your battery is dead and you urgently need to start it, the easiest way is to charge the battery from external source. Typically, car enthusiasts help each other out by letting their car recharge a dead battery. However, for this you need to have a starter cable. They are very different. But it’s better not a “left-handed” one made by hand, but a factory one. After all, the wrong cable can melt the first time you use it. Because of this, it will heat up and lose energy. So it's not far from the fire.

If you have a starter cable, first you need to connect the red cable to the (+) terminal on the charged one. Then you need to connect the other end of the red cable to the (+) terminal on the dead battery. Then connect the black cable to the (-) terminal on the charged battery and the other end to a clean ground point on the engine block or chassis. The main thing is that it is away from the battery, carburetor, and fuel hoses. A small spark may occur during connection.
Care must be taken to ensure that both cables do not touch moving parts. Now you can start the car with a charged battery. It must run for at least one minute. Then try starting the car with the dead battery. If the engine does not start, wait a few minutes and try again. When everything works out, you can turn off the donor car. When you disconnect the starter cable, repeat the entire procedure in reverse order.

Video on the topic

Helpful advice

The battery requires care. It is necessary to regularly check the electrolyte level. Low will indicate overcharging. If only one of the cells lacks electrolyte, the battery will soon die.

Every motorist sooner or later faces a situation where the battery “dies,” and this problem is especially acute when frosts begin. There are many reasons why a battery may lose its functionality, it could be a door that is not closed completely, or an interior light that is turned on for a long time, or a forgotten working radio. In general, this is caused by any energy consumer who remains on long time in working order.

Instructions

However, in addition to forgotten electrical appliances, the cause of failure can also be a faulty one that supplies insufficient charge, or too much low level electrolyte. To restore life, first check the electrolyte level - if it is lower than required, add distilled water to the jars.

Try to evaluate your capabilities, that is, decide which way is easiest for you to start the battery. It may be possible to start with “ ”, which is only done in cars with manual transmission, but it is not recommended, as this may cause damage, such as belt slippage.

One of the most simple ways To bring a battery back to life is to use a “cigarette lighter” from the battery of another running car. To do this, you just need to stop a car passing by and ask the driver for help.

In the event that there is no possibility of “lighting a cigarette”, you do not dare to start it from the “pusher”, all that remains is to remove the battery to bring it back to life. If the problem occurs at a time when the temperature outside is sub-zero, that is, more than minus 5 degrees Celsius, bring the battery into a warm place so that it warms up.

But before that, make sure that when you turn the ignition key, at least the dashboard lights up, only in this case, after heating the battery to 20 degrees, a charge will appear in it that will be able to turn the starter and start the car.

The ideal option is to charge the battery for a day if you have a charger, which can be purchased at any auto store. After you start the car, you should leave it idling for at least 15 minutes - then the battery will finally “come to life”. In the future, to avoid unpleasant situations, fully charge the battery and contact a service station to detect energy leaks and determine the serviceability of the generator.

Video on the topic

note

The battery charger produces a higher starting current, which leads to the resuscitation of the vehicle's power source.

Helpful advice

The cold season reduces the battery's performance by a quarter, which is why one morning it turns out that it is not able to provide a normal current supply to start the engine. If it is possible to leave the car overnight in a heated garage, then it is better to use it.

Lithium batteries considered intelligent, they are equipped with a built-in controller. Lithium is the most active metal, so the batteries are compact and capacious. They contain 1.5-2 times more energy than nickel ones. But this feature also has a downside. It is almost impossible to restore batteries. It's easier to keep them in working order.

How should a Ni─MH battery be restored and why is it important?

Ni─MH batteries are advertised by manufacturers as batteries with high energy capacity, resistant to cold, and free from the disadvantages of cadmium batteries. Indeed, this type of battery does not contain such harmful substance, like cadmium. The production and processing of Ni─MH batteries does not have the same difficulties as for Ni─Cd. But they still have some disadvantages of cadmium batteries. For example, the “memory effect” remained. And in general, Ni─MH are very sensitive to charging and discharging modes. Nickel-metal hydride batteries require advanced devices to charge. In addition, in order to extend the service life of such elements, they need to be periodically restored. Let's talk about how this can be done.

Despite the advantages of nickel-metal hydride batteries over nickel-cadmium batteries, they have a number of disadvantages. And they must be taken into account during operation.


To begin with, it should be noted that Ni─Cd is more expensive. True, technology does not stand still and the price of these types of batteries is gradually becoming comparable. In this case, we are talking about batteries of the common form factor AA (“finger”) and AAA (“little finger”). have a more pronounced “memory effect”, but, nevertheless, nickel-metal hydride batteries also face this problem.

Nickel metal hydride batteries have fewer charge-discharge cycles. Their first deterioration performance characteristics observed after 200-300 charge-discharge cycles. This type of battery has a higher self-discharge compared to Ni─Cd batteries (about 1.5 times).

One more point is worth noting. Nickel-metal hydride batteries can deliver high current, but it is not recommended to set values ​​greater than 0.5*C when discharging. This leads to a significant reduction in the number of charge-discharge cycles and a decrease in service life. For now, where high discharge currents are required, Ni─Cd batteries are still used.

Do not forget that a charger for Ni-MH batteries will work without problems with nickel-cadmium batteries, but not vice versa.

Charging nickel-metal hydride batteries

Charging of nickel-metal hydride batteries can be drip and fast. Trickle charging is not recommended by manufacturers due to the difficulty in detecting when current flow to the battery has stopped. As a result, severe overcharging and battery degradation may occur. As a rule, Ni─MH batteries are charged using a fast or accelerated charging option. At the same time, the charging efficiency is higher than with drip charging. The charge current in this case is set to 0.5─1C.

Due to the “memory effect”, nickel metal hydride cells can lose a significant part of their capacity. It manifests itself less than in nickel-cadmium, but is still present. The memory effect appears during repeated cycles without full discharge and subsequent charge. As a result of such operation, the battery “remembers” an increasingly lower discharge limit, which is why the capacity decreases. Part of the active mass of the battery falls out of the process.



To eliminate this effect, it is recommended to regularly recondition or train the batteries. To do this, a charger or light bulb discharges the battery to 0.8-1 volts, and then completes the charging process. If the battery has not been restored for a long time, it is recommended to do several such cycles. The recommended frequency of such training is once a month.

Manufacturers of Ni─MH batteries claim that the “memory effect” takes about 5 percent of the capacity. Restoring this amount of capacity as a result of training is quite possible. In principle, this can be measured by discharging a fully charged battery. To do this, you will need to detect the discharge time and multiply it by the discharge current. This will be the capacity that needs to be compared with the nominal value. Some devices, for example, take measurements automatically.

An important point when restoring Ni─MH batteries is that the charger has a battery discharge function with minimum voltage control. This is necessary in order to prevent the battery from being deeply discharged during recovery (below 0.8-1 volts). This is indispensable for those cases when you do not know the initial state of charge of the battery, and it is not possible to estimate the approximate discharge time.

When you do not know the state of charge of the battery, you need to discharge it with a light bulb or other resistance under constant voltage control. Otherwise, such restoration of the battery will end deep discharge. If you are restoring an entire battery with elements connected in series, it is better to first fully charge them to equalize the degree of charge.

In general, regarding the restoration of nickel-metal hydride batteries, the following point should be noted. If the battery has already worked for several years, then such restoration by completely discharging and charging may be useless. Such restoration is useful as periodic preventive maintenance during battery operation. The fact is that during the operation of Ni─MH batteries, in parallel with the occurrence of the “memory effect,” a change in the composition and volume of the electrolyte occurs. For nickel-cadmium batteries, there are examples of restoration by adding distilled water to the cells. This was discussed in the article about.

I would also like to note that it is best to restore the elements separately, and not the entire battery.

Life modern man is very closely connected with a variety of electrical things: be it a portable radio, telephone, flashlight, navigator, camera, and much more! The main thing they all have in common is that they require power sources to function: various batteries and accumulators.

Video version of the article:

Let's talk about some ways to revive dead batteries!

They naturally often sit down, which in turn can deprive us of the chance to use them. And not just in everyday and calm situations when we can solve the problem by charging from the network or purchasing new battery, but also when you are, for example, on a hike or find yourself in a situation where your life is in danger!

Revitalization of AA batteries.

1 wayprobably known to many, it involves impacting the battery (throw it against the wall, gently tap it with a hammer!) This can return some charge, because in this way the oxides that have formed in the battery are destroyed and it will last for some time. From childhood experience, we can note a more radical effect, crushing the battery (with a multi-tool, if any) in its different parts (someone even uses their teeth and simply bites the battery, which of course we do not recommend).

2 . Battery puncturing different ways V different places, so that the puncture sites do not touch the inner rod. You can pierce randomly, you can make a couple of punctures along the rod at some distance from it, or pierce across the plus and minus, this will give itself the effect of internal processes Air will connect to the battery and form an additional electrode.

3. You can also boil our batteries in boiling water (several minutes).

4. There is also another option: make holes and fill them with water, from a syringe or something else, so that the water does not leak out; cover the holes with electrical tape or whatever is at hand.

Revitalizing coin cell batteries

1. Recharging from a AA battery, we will need two wires and a working AA battery, we will connect (with wires) the plus to the plus, and the minus to the minus of our batteries, and keep them like this for some time.

Your old laptop has died accumulator battery, but there is no money for a new one. Sad story... We take the technical passport of this battery or find its data on the Internet and look at its parameters - capacity, voltage, power, etc. We open the battery and look at the size and number of elements. They are similar in size to regular AA batteries. Next, we go to the nearest electrical goods store and buy ordinary AA batteries of the required configuration. We insert it back and seal the case - that’s it.

This simple process will cost you several times less than buying a new original battery. And now in more detail. Laptop batteries use lithium-ion and lithium-polymer cells, while devices released three or four years ago could also contain nickel-metal hydride components. In order to determine the cause of the defect, you need to know how these elements function.

Nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries have replaced nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries, and despite their highly touted benefits, they have generally failed to live up to consumer expectations due to their reduced battery life. nickel-cadmium batteries service life., have become more advanced due to changes in production technology.


NiMH batteries have their advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages include, as already mentioned, a limited service life (300 charge-discharge cycles), increased self-discharge, and the presence of a “memory effect”. This effect often occurs when batteries are used incorrectly - before charging, they must be periodically completely discharged, otherwise the capacity will inexorably decrease regardless of the number of charge-discharge cycles and charging time. In addition, the significant size and weight per unit of energy intensity were not pleasing. The advantages were low price, frost resistance and a longer service life than lithium-ion batteries.

These batteries must be subjected to initial (upon purchase) and periodic “training”, the essence of which is to completely discharge them and then charge them in order to avoid the occurrence of a “memory effect”.

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) and lithium-polymer (Li-pol) batteries are widely used in mobile technology, which is due to the high density of electrical energy per unit mass, and therefore smaller weight and dimensions compared to NiMH batteries. They do not impose any requirements for their own maintenance and do not have a “memory effect”. But they also have negative sides: in many cases, such batteries can only operate at positive ambient temperatures, are quite expensive and are subject to the aging process even when not in use. The reduction in capacity begins after about a year of service, and their lifespan is designed for approximately 200-300 charge-discharge cycles.


Let's dig deeper?

It should be noted here that all of the above is true only theoretically and is declared by the manufacturers of both batteries and batteries for mobile devices. Of course, in most cases all this is true, but there are exceptions due to design features batteries. The fact is that laptop batteries consist not of one, but of a group of series-connected elements or even blocks (sometimes, to increase the battery capacity, several batteries are connected in parallel, creating blocks, which in turn are connected in series to achieve the voltage required to power the device) . And this is where the main reason for the battery failure lies.

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No matter how the manufacturer strives to select components with completely identical characteristics, this is almost impossible to do. And if the elements of a new battery have more or less the same basic parameters (capacity, voltage, internal resistance), then after a year of operation the difference can reach up to 20%. It would seem, just think - 20%, no big deal.


Well, the device will operate on batteries not for three hours, but, say, for two and a half. But it's not just a matter of time. The variation in characteristics leads to a significant deterioration in the performance of the charger, and this is especially critical for lithium-ion cells. Despite the assurances of laptop manufacturers about the “intelligence” of their chargers, the basic requirements for charging elements specified in the accompanying documentation for batteries are not met, both in the case of lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride. The problem is that to ensure a normal charge, each of the battery cells must be charged separately from the others. But then, if the battery consists of nine lithium-ion cells, it will require nine expensive intelligent controllers to charge it, allowing you to determine the end of the process by a tiny dip charging current, which in practice will lead to a significant increase in both the cost and size of the laptop. Therefore, the so-called sequential charging method is used with control of the end of the process when the battery reaches a certain voltage. For lithium-ion cells, this parameter is 4.2 V, respectively, for the entire battery of three groups of elements, the voltage will be 4.2-3 = 12.6 V. This is quite acceptable for elements that are identical in characteristics or differ by a fraction of a percent. Greater difference leads to the fact that some cells are undercharged, while in others the excess charge begins to be utilized in the form of heat and increased gas formation.
Here it is necessary to return to consideration of the structure of a lithium-ion battery. Since its elements are quite dangerous in operation (remember the numerous stories about explosions and fires of “gray” mobile phones), any battery has several degrees of protection. The very first one is located in each cylindrical element and is a small concave plate located under the positive terminal. This plate is designed to prevent the element from exploding when high blood pressure: in case of “overcharging”, it opens the circuit, stopping the voltage supply. Despite the fact that after this the pressure inside the element drops to a normal value, the plate does not return to its original state. Theoretically, such an element (and according to manufacturers, the entire battery) must be replaced.


A second protective circuit is installed in the battery controller. It consists of a microprocessor that monitors the voltage level on each cell (in some cases only the total battery voltage is monitored) and an electronic switch that opens the circuit if the charge voltage exceeds 4.2 V per cell or the voltage of a discharged battery is less than 3.4 V per cell. element (sometimes this indicator may vary). In principle, nothing fatal can happen here, with the exception of two cases. The first is if the cell voltage drops below 2.8 V (and this happens when the battery is stored for a long time without recharging). In this case, the cells turn off, and the laptop charger thinks that the battery is faulty. And secondly, in the event of a short circuit of the terminals (despite the presence of a fuse in each battery), the controller key fails, which also leads to the inoperability of the battery.

The third chain of protection is the identification firmware built into the controller ROM. It serves to determine the type and capacity of the cells by the charger, and also prevents the use of third-party batteries.

Nickel metal hydride cells are much easier to use. They are not afraid of “overcharging”, can withstand prolonged heating without significant deterioration in performance and do not have any protective equipment built into the element. However, due to the use of sequential type chargers, failure of a battery made on their basis can occur even with completely serviceable elements. As a rule, this defect is a consequence of working on a laptop that is constantly connected to the network. AC voltage. Due to the fact that individual elements have a “memory effect” and a fairly large spread of characteristics, charging occurs unevenly. That is, when some elements are already fully charged, others have not reached even half of the norm. As a result, the voltage on the charged cells begins to increase (for nickel-metal hydride it is 1.4 V), and the controller considers that the process is completed, which leads to a decrease in the total battery capacity by 50% (Ohm's law for a series circuit). Over time, this phenomenon intensifies geometric progression, leading to complete battery inoperability.


If you have used our recommendations, the first thing you need to do is find the instructions on the Internet and study them carefully. It is clear that, as a rule, no one does this, but in vain. Sometimes you can find everything you need to restore your battery there. The fact is that most laptop manufacturers include in the software a utility for recalibrating, or “training,” the battery, allowing it to return to its former strength within 6-8 hours. For example, in the laptop we purchased, this utility is called when the system boots by pressing the F6 key. Let's consider ourselves lucky - after calling this program and waiting for six hours, the battery became like new. Moreover, the manufacturer recommends conducting such “training” every six months, and in the case of constant operation from the network - once every two months.

If such a program is not provided or it is not possible to find it, you will have to resort to “surgery”. This will require “straight” hands, as well as a certain set of tools - a multimeter (or tester), a soldering iron with a power of no more than 40 W, a breadboard knife, several car light bulbs with wires soldered to them, and superglue based on cyanoacrylate.


First, the battery will have to be disassembled. This is not so easy to do - as a rule, all batteries have a non-separable design, consisting of two glued halves. Therefore, you need to find the seam and try to carefully separate them using a breadboard knife. If this doesn’t work, you can drop the battery several times on the floor (not on a tiled one) from a height of human height - then the process will go much faster. If this does not help, you will have to carefully cut the seam using a breadboard knife, being careful not to damage the internal components.

So, the battery is disassembled. What to do next? This depends on the type of cells used in the battery.

Nickel metal hydride cells

The first thing to do is count the number of elements. The resulting number must be multiplied by 1.2 - the result will be Rated voltage batteries in volts. Next, take a 21 W car light bulb and solder it to the outer terminals of a group of series-connected elements. If it caught fire - good, no - no big deal. Now we need a multimeter. We set the measurement limit to 20 V and check the voltage on the light bulb. If it corresponds to the nominal value, but the laptop does not turn on, the cause of the malfunction is most likely in the battery controller. You can try to repair it yourself (after unsoldering it from the elements), or you can contact a radio amateur you know.

If the voltage is below the nominal one, switch the multimeter to the measurement limit of 2000 mV and check the voltage on individual elements, marking with a felt-tip pen those of them whose voltage is below 1.1 V (it is better to number the elements and write down the voltage values ​​on them in the table) . Next, you need to “train” the battery. To do this, you will need several more light bulbs with soldered wires, which will have to be connected to each (this is important!) battery element. Joined? Now you can take your mind off the battery for ten hours and do something else. Why so long? The fact is that our task is to equalize the voltage on the elements, and this can only be done by bringing it to 0 V. (Although manufacturers claim that if the element is completely discharged, it will definitely fail, in practice this has not been observed.)

After the cells are completely discharged, the battery must be charged. Since the battery is completely discharged, a standard charger will not help here - the voltage will have to be “raised”. This can be done using a laptop power supply and a car light bulb connected in series to the battery cells. It is not necessary to wait until the battery is fully charged; it is enough to raise the voltage to 1.1 V per cell, after which it is already possible to use a standard charger.

At the end of the charging cycle, the above process will have to be repeated two more times (at least), after which you can test the battery directly in the laptop.

If the above method of “training” the battery does not lead to a positive result, you will have to change the batteries. Moreover, everything at once - it will not be possible to choose the one that is suitable according to the characteristics, since for this you will need to find a similar battery that has worked for the same number of hours. It is best to use household nickel-metal hydride batteries manufactured by Sanyo with a capacity of 2100 mAh as a “donor”. With good quality, they have a reasonable price, which becomes relevant if your laptop battery contains ten or more batteries. The main thing with such a replacement is to under no circumstances use a soldering iron to connect elements in a serial chain. It is better to put a little more effort and make contact holders to which you can solder the connecting wires.

Lithium-ion cells

As stated above, these batteries are quite dangerous to operate, so repairing the battery will require special care. Before starting any active actions, make sure the battery is completely discharged (if possible). The testing process is basically the same as for nickel-metal hydride batteries, i.e. In the same way, we solder the load bulb to the elements and check the voltage. The difference is that each element should have from 3.7 to 4.1 V. If the light is on and the voltage corresponds to the number of elements multiplied by 3.7 (or exceeds it), you can safely proceed to repair the controller. If the voltage is significantly lower or the battery capacity differs significantly from the original, you will have to check each element separately. Some difficulty lies in the presence of parallel blocks (see above) - for correct diagnosis they will have to be separated by cutting the metal connecting strips-bridges in the middle (this can be done only from one end - positive or negative). Of course, before starting such a test, the battery controller must be unsoldered. Having separated all the elements from each other, you can proceed directly to their diagnosis using a load bulb and a multimeter. We connect the light bulb to the terminals of the multimeter (not the battery) and begin to measure the voltage on each element - it should be in the range of 3.7-4.1 V. If the value is significantly lower or equal to zero, the element is faulty and needs to be replaced. Of course, you can try to repair it by cutting the positive terminal and restoring the protective plate, but, in our opinion, this is impractical: the cost of a new element does not exceed 3-4 dollars.

After diagnostics and identification of faulty elements, the remaining ones must be discharged (using a light bulb) to a voltage of 3.2 V. The same operation will have to be done with new batteries that will be installed in the battery. This procedure is necessary for the controller to start charging the battery from scratch, otherwise problems may subsequently arise with the correct determination of the battery charge level.

Another malfunction that often occurs during the operation (or rather, in the absence of it) of lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries is a decrease in the voltage of the elements below the response threshold of the protective controller. In this case, the battery is not charged, and the voltage at its contacts is zero. It is quite easy to eliminate such a defect - just connect the laptop power supply through a 5-W light bulb to a series chain of elements and wait for the battery to charge to a voltage of 3.4 V per element. After this, the battery can be assembled (this is why you will need cyanoacrylate glue) and installed in the laptop for subsequent charging.