with a little messing around.

I am not sure if all these steps are needed but this is what I did to get it going.

Most likely just installing the Sierra watcher and driver would do the trick.

 

--Lenovo x61 7676-5cm

Fresh install of Win7

Install MC8775 drivers from lenovo

Installed "Access Connections" 5.50

Could see the Telecom network and tried to connect, does not get an ip.

Downloaded and installed The Generic Watcher for the AirCard 875

Could see the Telecom network and tried to connect, does not get an ip.

Re installed the MC8775 drivers from lenovo

SUCCESS

 

This thread was most helpful

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/852097.html

 

Watcher

http://www.sierrawireless.com/Support/Downloads.aspx

 

Initially there did come locked but current ones are not.

We miss Fireman Sam and Spider. Not cool.

It was 2 months since I last had to to anything about he epg.

Lat time it was changing the router and forgetting to update the HTPC.

 

Now it's sky's fault.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=84&topicid=58524

 

Might have to get a DVB-S.

I will try some of the less involved FREE options in the thread first.

Why, yes.

What you get for retail $50 is beyond belief.

Practically identical to the 1202 with the addition of the radio.

Unfortunately it also shares the glued on LCD connector.

 

Made up a few units for the test.

This the smallest I can make using off the shelf parts.




Used a nice case from Jaycar.
6 hr runtime on a 610mAh 1 Cell Lithium Polymer.
Could fit a slightly larger one in the case, maybe up to a 800mAh.
Loosing a little efficiency with the voltage regulator.



The field is not very 2.4ghz friendly with lots of trees.





The modules have a advertised LOS(LineOfSight) range of 3000ft(900m)
cue tui's ad.
One does this with only 5mW(6dB), while the other uses 100mW(20bB).
In thick bush both tested to the same range, 40m.

http://www.moonblinkwifi.com/dbm_to_watt_conversion.cfm


The CCC (Control Command Centre) vehicle.




1x network analyser, White one attached to radio antenna.
1x Receiver for the mapping laptop
2x laptops, mapping, network analyser.
3x Radios to contact the teams.

How well did they work?

GPS better than expected. Radios, poorer than expected.
The gps tracked well even when under tree cover and sideways.
I just dropped into a spare pouch of the player.

If the transmitter has to go through your body first then 5mw is not going to go far.

On this particular field the repeaters had a range of 100m.
The trackers 50m, due to poor placement on the player.

The plan was to shoulder mount the trackers for best gps reception and rf transmission.
Unfortunately I did not get a chance this time.
Next time.


For comparison some cell phone can pump out 2000mW(33dB)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBm

This project started some time ago, (early 2008?) but is finally here. :)

As the name implies it can track multiple GPS units.

The tricky bit was the software.
There are some off the shelf products aimed at fleet management.
I tried to get some going but gave up.
The best candidate ran on linux but my kungfu is not strong there.

So after learning VB6, I wrote my own.
It's pretty no frills at the moment.

-The test site
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?ll=-36.815914,174.643008&spn=0.002358,0.003954&t=k&z=18

Data


View from point D > C. Not the best case scenario for 2.4ghz rf.


View from point C > B


View from point B > A


A from the clear


At the base station



-Review
You can see me driving into the park.
I walk all 3 with me until IO loose the signal and then place the Red unti there.
I then walk around the bush to check signal, no loss.
Down the hill until I loose it near the bottom.
Place the yellow unit.
Down a path, don't get far until I loose it.
Understandable once you see the picture.

The Red unit drifts quite a bit after placement as you can see by the clump of red around it.
Looks like about +-5m.
I forgot to take a pic of placement, it was in a tree, sideways.
So the gps antenna was not pointing up.

The Yellow not so much but probably more due to the fact it was not there long.
5 mins at most.
The Red was there for 13 mins?


-Hardware


A MediaTek MT3329 based module
http://www.quadroufo.com/product_info.php?products_id=68&osCsid=30f5671f821443f0877ab545feea6c3f

PAN4561 wireless module, loaded with Synapse Meshing firmware.
Each radio can repeat the signal until it gets to the destination.
The test from A to D would be 3 hops.
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=P14236CT-ND
http://www.synapse-wireless.com/


How small could it be made?

Comes down to how long you want it to run.
It draws about 3.3v 180mA.
The battery pictured will run it for 6 hrs.
It is a 2s lipo pack which would be reconfigured to 1s2p

Cost?
The gps can be had as cheap as nz$40 per unit
$35 radio modem module
$5 battery
$5? suitable case.
----
$85

On the base station side,
$35 radio
$10 USB > RS232 converter
$5? suitable case.
----
$50



-To do
Adjustable trail length
Smart updating, eg no extra markers if unit is not moving


Since the Radios are 2 way, we could add a screen and send each unit text messages.

Unfortunatly I do not have an original to compare it to.

I was asked to access this battery after it got returned.
User reported it only charged to 80%.

Externally the battery looks fine.
You have your usual Chinglish
"Raplace"
"Do not dispose of in fire, but keep the battery away from fire."


Internally.
-No thermal fuse or over current PTC.
-There is a thermal fuse next to the MOSFets on the control board. Not much good there as it would take a lot to heat them up. Probably from the cells dying, ie too late.
-Construction looks clean and tidy.
-The serial numbers on the cells are all over the place. Not a major as long as the cells are matched properly.
-Welding is good.
-Nice thick connector straps.

Electrical testing.
Cells are counted from the negative terminal, 1-4.
A cell is this case is 2 parallel cells.

The cell voltages were, Volts
3.91, 4.04, 3.89, 4.03
They accepted this much charge to 4.1v, mAh.
898, 127, 995, 284

Reasing this much energy at 2A to 3v, mAh.
3660, 539, 3707, 3543

I think we have found the problem with low capacity.
The (BMS) Battery Management System/Circuit was not doing it's job at keeping the pack balanced.
It may have also been poorly matched at the factory.
Either that cell is holding back the pack.
As a pack is only as strong as it's weakest link.


So is it worth buying a OEM battery for your laptop?
For up to 50% less than an original, yes.

As long as the supplier is reputable and stands behind their product.

 

I needed to assess the condition of a lot of Lithium-Ion cells.
While I could have used my regular charger it would have taken 1-4hrs (charge, discharge) per cell.
With 50+ cells to test I needed something better.


Tried various designs for Charger and Discharger.
The discharger was a little more tricky as I wanted relative(to consumer devices) high amps.

There was the LM350(higher amperage version of the LM317) based one.
http://users.telenet.be/davshomepage/current-source.htm
Straight out of the datasheet.
Copnstant current source = constant current load for the battery.
The dropout was too great at the low voltages I was using.
4.2-3v in, Dropout up to 3v.

Then I tried this one.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1107072

It didn't work initially as I was trying to drive it with the battery that was being discharged.
This did not provide enough gate voltage to open up the mosfet

Once I increased the supply voltage it work as expected.
For 2A the gate voltage required 5+ volts.

This is the biggest PCB yet I have made on my mill.
Some issues as I have not sorted out the Z Axis backlash yet.
Depth of cut was all over the place and some tracks didn't make the cut.

A slight change was made to the circuit to allow for micro controller cut off.

8 Channels were made, the number of ADC inputs on most micros.
1 was faulty but I have not been able to find the fault yet.
Nothing fancy, discharge and count the time it takes to reach 3v.
As long as the cells are +-3mins of each other, they are safe to be packed together.

The charger runs much cooler now that I have reduced the input to 6.6v (3.3+3.3 linked PSU) from 12v.
It doesn't have to burn off so much energy.


Note: To link multiple PC PSU's together you have to keep the ground of each separate.
You can do this by making sure the case is not touching or disconnecting the internal PCB from the case.
The case is still earthed so no safety is compromised.

 

Just a summary of what I learned while working on Project Extended-Runtime(yet to be posted).
This involved disassembling a variety of old laptop batteries.

It was interesting how much/little safety each manufacturer put into their packs.

The bare cell itself already has some safety built in. Not so sure about extra cheap ones.
-Over current PTC
-Over pressure cut off
-Controlled venting. Still dangerous as this includes flames. But stops it from exploding.


External levels of safety includes, in order of activation
-Balance protection
-Over charge/discharge cut off
-Over current PTC
-Thermal fuse

-Cell dividers



A more detailed article
"Lithium-ion safety concerns"
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-5B.htm

Other good links
"Discharging at high and low temperature "
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-15.htm

"Charging lithium-ion batteries"
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm



How bad does it have to get before they go bang?
Pretty bad it seems. We will examine the lower threshold type.
Normal operating temperature is -20°C to 60°C (-4°F to 140°F)
At 130°C (265°F) you should stop using it.
Note, boiling water is 100°C (Depending on atmospheric pressure)
The thermal fuses in some packs are rated at 98°C.
At 150°C (302°F) get it off your lap and watch the light show.

Levels of failure required+
+Protection circuit fails to stop over charge/discharge.
+Thermal fuses fail to open circuit
+User does not notice the heat and smell emanating from the faulty device, assuming they are using it at the time.
+Vents are clogged.


Incidents of failure?
Very rare.
When it does it's big news, but considering the number of cells shipped (each laptop has at least 6), it is still very rare.
The failure is usually from a manufacturing defect rather from failure of the protecting systems.
Are cheap ones more susceptible?
They have to cut costs somewhere so a lower level of Quality Control might be it.
So you will be safe in the knowledge that if one fails on you you will get your 15 mins of fame, and most likely a new device.


From the packs I have seen, the worst one had no balancing system.
This can lead to premature capacity loss once the cells start getting unbalanced.

The best one had everything, but it doesn't help if the cell is faulty.

Once thing I did think was odd was that the cells were charged to 4.2v
Which contradicts what I had read before.
After more reading they can be charged to 4.2v(10% more capacity) but with a lower service life.
How many cycles do you want from your cell?

 

Even if there is a balancing circuit it may not be operating properly, leading to reduced service life.

 

A selection of protecting circuits from various packs.

Cheap laptops and long battery life don't usually go together.
With reasonably powerful laptops going for under a $100, heck under $50.
p3 1Ghz - P4m 1.6Ghz
Powerful enough for what I want to do with them, run simple VB apps.
1 or 2 hours is not enough.
I want it to run the whole day dammit. 8+ hrs

Got into one of my must have modes.

After a bit of reading I find Lithium batteries don't loose capacity they just loose the ability to deliver it at sufficient amps.

i.e. internal resistance builds up.

 


I had a few battery packs saved from our last clean up.
You know ones for 5 year old laptops.
Surprisingly most still worked after recharging.
One was sitting at 0.2v.
Once charged, it delivered 1600mAh at 1A, nice.

After taking apart 5 packs I didn't look forward to soldering all those cells.
So I started looking at doing it properly.
The proper way of course is welding.
But the machines aren't cheap, us$2000+

After reading some success stories I though I would give it a go.
http://www.ledhacks.com/power/battery_tab_welder.htm
http://www.philpem.me.uk/elec/welder/
http://frikkieg.blogspot.com/
Many more, google away "capacitive discharge welder cheap"


Most designs used SRC's as the main switch.
The only down side is they don't turn off until there is no current flowing.
So either all the energy is delivered or you break contact.
Not the most precise control but simple and cheap.

I didn't have any on hand but I did have some high powered MOSFETs.
IRF1503
http://nz.farnell.com/international-rectifier/irf1503pbf/mosfet-n-30v-240a-to-220/dp/8657440

The numbers looked right for the job
Max Voltage Vds:30V
Pulse Current Idm:960A

The disadvantage with a MOSFET is the on resistance(RDS on).
At 1000A even 0.01 Ohm is significant.

I had a few so I went wild and paralleled 6 of them up.
Could have gotten away with less but better to be safe than sorry.
I am sure I could have done it more elegantly but I wanted to make sure it worked before putting in the effort to pretty it up.

To ensure fast turn on and off, critical at these loads, I used a Driver IC, rather than just a simple transistor.
LM5110-1M - DRIVER, GATE, DUAL, 5A
http://nz.farnell.com/national-semiconductor/lm5110-1m/driver-gate-dual-5a-compound-5110/dp/8181403?Ntt=8181403

AVR Tiny13 as the controller.
http://nz.farnell.com/atmel/attiny13-20pu/8bit-1k-flash-mcu-dip8/dp/9171550

Drew up a pcb in eagle and milled it out.

Put some code together in Bascom AVR.

Assembled and did some low voltage tests, looking good so far.


I went with the Dual Pulse timing.
Why not, it's only a few more lines of code.
Adjustable via Variable resistor.
10-100ms

Away from any sensitive electronics.
A 1000A pulse generates a 'little' emf.

SUCCESS

Power supply is a universal laptop ac adapter. 15-24v 3A
You don't really need anything high powered.
The only advantage is recovery time.
But since we are using a controlled pulse, less energy is wasted so anything with a suitable voltage would do.
What voltage?
From what I have read and gut instinct, as high as the capacitor will go.
Up to 40v. Above this and YOU may start conducting.
Only a light tingle but I would avoid it.
12v will do the job, 24 is better though.
Shorter pulse, better penetration.


The capacitor came from TM
$85, 2.0 Farad Capacitor- American Accessories


Nickel strips/strapping from
http://www.titanenergy.co.nz/
I have to give Tony a plug, I was able to collect some on new years eve.
Now that's service.


Wiring from Dick Smith.
4 Gauge Power Wire , 85A 12v
http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4b3d400a01beb1422740c0a87f3b068d/Product/View/W1230
The ends of the cable are not soldered in.
Just held in by pressure of the cable ties.


Probe Tips,
PolyMax 3.5mm Gold Connectors
http://hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=68


Misc copper wire.
Spare house wiring I had.

And the shopping list comes to (*I had to buy, rest was on hand)
$
*85 Cacacitor. Could have saved if I went hunting
30 6x Mosfets. I am sure I could have gotten away with just 2.
50 Laptop AC Adaptor. A used 16v+ one will do the trick.
--controler board
0.5 12v regulator for driving MOSFET
0.5 5v regulator for microcontroller
3 mosfet driver
2.5 Tiny13 a 555 timer would have worked as well if you didn't need the dual pulse
*10 1m 4ga/ Cable. Could have used thinner due to my short run
5 Misc, Button, Switch, Led, VR, Cable tie, Heatshrink, Tips
---

nz$186.50
I am sure I can get it below $100 with a little planning.



Back to the laptop battery.
My test subject will be a IBM R40e.
It will run with 12v via the DC port.
Unfortunately this does not give you a runtime or graceful shutdown when it runs out of power.
And you have to charge them somehow.

The other way is to wire the extra cells into the existing battery controller.
This should work.
It will need to be cycled at least once for the controller to see the extra capacity.

To do, put the switch on the probe.
Maybe use thinner wires if it becomes too difficult to work with.


That was my 2010 new years eve, what did you do?



Capacitor


Paralleled MOSFETs


Control board


Cable ends


Test Setup



It works



Test Battery pack

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=48&topicid=54872

Don't miss out

 

I think I know what I want, do you?