TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY ARES MEMBERS (OFFICIAL)
ALL ARES AND NON-ARES AMATEURS ANYWHERE (INFORMATION)
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM ARRL DISTRICT 3
EMERGENCY COORDINATOR WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INC.
WOOD COUNTY ARES BULLETIN NR 20.07 DATE: February 16, 2020
SUBJECT: OLD COMPUTER BATTERIES
What do you do with your old laptop computer batteries? When you start having problems with your laptop computer, most of the time it's the storage battery. The computer may give you a message indicating the battery is either bad or is going bad. Or, the computer fails to operate without the power supply, or only operates for a very short period without the power supply.
When those things start to happen, you replace the battery and you're back up and running again. What do you do with the old battery? Most of the time you will take it to a computer shop to get it replaced, or just order a new one, and put it in.
Did you know that a battery is made up of from two to four cells, maybe more? Did you know that at least 50 percent of the time it's not the cells that go bad? Most of the time it's the electronic charging circuit that causes the problem. You can't do much about fixing the battery, but it can be used in other ways. If you take the battery apart, you'll find that most of the cells are okay, can be removed, and used for other projects.
As emergency communicators, with a little engineering the cells can be wired up and used as for back-up batterie for your radio equipment. If you don't want, or can't use the old battery, or batteries, don't just throw them away. Give them to someone who may be able to take them apart and use the cells inside. By the way, the same thing happens to battery operated power tools like drills and saws. It's the same type of cells in those batteries too.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV