Cheap imitated Made in China cells

I buy those cells from some local stall, rechargeable AA size Ni-MH fake Sony brand. I know it wasn't original since it is very cheap around RM4 each piece. Initially I use it only for my wireless mouse, but I found it just perform like a 3-4 years rechargeable battery that use in my mouse. Seem like this cell only suitable to be use in clock only, therefore I decided to open it out and see what happen. Picture below show a piece cracked by me and another piece is the look before it was cracked.The picture below show the true cell part of the cell. However, it is only about 3cm height and not in high density too.
You know what I found at the bottom of the cell? A dummy weight make by cement, this is the trick of the seller to convince those buyer to buy their battery.

And it label a 4000mAH capacity! Honestly, a single cell don't reach 4000mAH. The highest in the market now only 2600mAH for AA size.

The is the clear look of how the thing arrange in a cell.

Whatever manufacturing technique go to China, there are always some business man try to make it cheaper. Demand and supply, there are many poor man in China, thing must be cheap so that they capable to purchase. But honestly, I doubt if poor people want cheap and low quality stuff? I certainly don't buy this for real usage, just to see what they have up to.

And also, one more event that I remember is my friend buy a labeled USB2.0 hub for RM5 in a computer shop, even it is USB1.0 also never mind as long as it work. However, when he ask for my help to see why the hub just don't work, I open the hub housing and notice that there are no chip inside at all! All there have inside is a USB wire that split it connection to four connector, can this kind of device work as a hub?

As more people want thing to be cheaper, the market create some demand, there are supply. What can we do? The cheapest survive?

Attn: Don't open a battery cells to inspect what is inside, if you want to do so, make sure that you do in a place with good air circulation. Don't attempt to breath in the vaporization from a cell, as it will poisoning your lung.

How I hope Malaysian can developed a better way to dispose off our used battery cells to reduce environment pollution.

About bq80201

[ALTBATTERY new]Whoever have solution to Sanyo OEM battery pack that utilize bq80201 as fuel gauge are welcome to discuss in this topic here. People pay few ten thousands to get the secret, it just not worth the price for a small company. This may increase the cost of refilling a battery. As far as I know, this technical is not yet available in Malaysia, but a small amount of China man have the secret, I have see refurbished battery from China have the 'Cycle Used' parameter clear to zero on battery that using bq80201 , this mean they know how to communicate with the chip and rewrite the info inside.

Currently, we have non-perfect solution for some old circuit board with bq80201(manufactured before years 2004), but we having problem with those bq80201 newer than 2004 since Texas Instrument have obviously upgraded the hardware layer base on micro-controller bq8020.

Beside, as we see, more and more new fuel gauge manufactured by Texas Instrument with different version of firmware or hardware exist in the market, mostly use by IBM laptop battery, for example, bq8030. Beside bq20847, bq20857 use in Dell laptop also increase the difficulty to refill those battery. We have yet to discover the method to reuse those circuit board.

Almost all Dell with 1-3-5 LED flashing when pressing test button can be clear, but the problem may remain as the board just don't immediately learn a new capacity after the cells is replaced. This mean we have to cycling current through the circuit board before it can be reused.

Currently, we refill those battery by cycling the circuit board with dummy cells, sometime it take more than 10 hours to cycling the board. This is a waste of time, which also mean a waste of money to us. Looking for instrument or method to make the board restore all necessary parameter to default but with less success.

Other older chips for example bq20XX, PSXXX, M3751X, AS3XX, PIC16C63, all can be done.

P/S: Please don't simply copy this article, this article is original from this site, if you want to use it, please copy also link to this page http://alternative-battery.blogspot.com/, thank you.

Refill a phone battery?

I have a phone which I don't use it for quite sometime. Why? Becoz I just can't get the battery in the market! Nowadays a phone is considered very cheap already. Instead of purchasing the spare part, most people will rather buy a new phone. I get the below battery which cost me around RM15 at Low Yat first floor, it is cheap, but I only manage to use it about 3 months. Initially, it standby about 3 days, but the performance drop dramatically after a few weeks. Open it out, I found that they were using some used NiMH cells inside the battery. Honestly, for the price I have paid, I really can't complain much about it. Beside, I know that Sanyo don't make those cell anymore, I wonder who are their target user... Now, everyone use Lithium ion type cell which promise to give you light weight and longer standby time than Ni-MH.

So what to do next? I decided to change the cells to Li-ion cell to see how would it be. I open up the battery housing and see three pieces of second hand used Ni-MH cells which is manufactured by Sanyo inside.

Since the cells I put in is much thicker than battery housing, it have to cut a opening at the back of the housing.

Done! This 1800mAH 3.6V cell give me standby more than 10 days! Off courses I don't bring this phone along, it is very dangerous to bring too. And it just no too safe to be charged up by using original charger since Ni-MH and Li-ion cell is charged with different algorithm. I use an external charger to charge it directly from the back instead. Look like a remote controlled bomb? The component at the back just play the role of simulate the single Ni-MH cell Voltage level, this will be used to report the power status or power meter on the phone, otherwise the phone keep come out with beeping and show "Invalid Battery" in the LCD screen.

Please don't feel strange about this article, just some personal hobby, everyone have hobby. Life can be bored without any hobby. Please don't imitate, if you want to do this, make sure that you understand what you are doing. I don't pay any responsible for what the risk you will take if you imitate this. Furthermore, this is not a practical way to use a phone.

P/S: If you want to use any information and picture on this page, please copy also the link to this page, isn't it simple? Thanks.

Discussion

Please feel free to post a question by click the comments link or click me.

Do not ask about info that you need to know urgently. Email: mail.altbattery@gmail.com.

You can publish your after use experience or problem face regarding your current battery or battery refilled by me, which required more expertise and answer.

比亚迪铁电池

【本报讯】（记者蓝岸通讯员徐安）高交会大幕未启，新科技突破喜讯频传。昨天，比亚迪在会展中心发布全球首个铁电池，并宣布铁电池成熟商用——以铁电池为动力之一的双模混合电动汽车F6预计于2008年推向市场。
　　据介绍，比亚迪铁电池在“高容量要求”、“高安全要求”及“低成本要求”三个核心指标上技压群芳，并远远胜于锂电池，其不仅有望为深圳带出一条电动汽车产业链，还有望成为未来笔记本电脑、手机、电动玩具中的能源替代品。
　　比亚迪铁电池首次实现成熟商用
　　据了解，与传统的镍氢电池和锂电池相比，比亚迪发明的铁电池有先天优点：全球铁资源充裕，铁比镍、锂金属更便宜，加上其环保性，不会造成如镍氢电池和锂电池丢弃所产生的污染。
　 　早在几年前，比亚迪组织500人的研发团队，开始了铁电池的研发攻关。经过上万次试验和测试，比亚迪成功研发出电动汽车专用的铁电池，取名为“ET－ POWER”。比亚迪相关负责人介绍说，它代表了比亚迪在电池领域的最新科研成果，其中E表示环保和电力（environment和electric）， T则表示技术（technology），power则表示动力和能量的意思，比亚迪以“ET－POWER”来命名新汽车动力技术，取意未来科技、未来汽车 动力的含义。
　　据了解，“ET－POWER”铁电池每块电压为3.3伏，60安时，电池充电循环次数可达2000次以上，电池的持续里程寿命大 于60万公里。以F6双模电动汽车为例，车上共使用了100块铁电池，充满电续驶里程可达430公里（电动模式100公里＋混合动力模式330公里），最 高时速可达160公里／每小时。
　　与目前应用最为广泛的锂电池相比，比亚迪铁电池除了具备便宜和环保优点外，由于采用全新设计，电池容量、循环 寿命、使用温度范围、放电性能均优于锂电池。此外，由于采用高热稳定性材料和缜密工艺设计，比亚迪铁电池安全和可靠性大为增强。与锂电池不当使用中可能出 现的爆炸现象相反，铁电池安全可靠，即使扔在火中也不会发生爆炸。
　　首次用于比亚迪双模动力汽车F6
　　在新闻发布会上，比亚迪亮相全球首款以铁电池电机和汽油发动机为动力的双模混合动力汽车F6DM，其核心动力电池就是ET－POWER。
　　据介绍，F6DM采用电动车系统和混合动力系统，是一种将控制发电机和电动机两种混合力量相结合的先进技术，不仅大大降低了油耗及排放，更提高了动力和操纵性能，实现了既可充电、又可加油的多种能量补充方式，实现了真正意义上的双动力混合系统。
　　比亚迪总裁王传福表示，DM是“双模”（DualMode）缩写。如果将纯电动简称为EV，混合动力简称为HEV，则比亚迪DM电动汽车是EV＋HEV，简言之就是可充电的混合动力电动汽车。这种系统将会取代油电混系统，成为世界上最主流的新能源汽车系统。
　 　据悉，比亚迪双模电动汽车已经申报了700多项国内外专利。该车经过了多种状态下的整车试验，在城市路况下基本可实现纯电动状态的行使，在比亚迪电动汽 车充电站快速充电10分钟可达50％的电量，在家使用普通插座慢速充电，充满电也只需9个小时。据介绍，目前整个双模电动汽车系统的成本为5万元，产量提 高后成本可大幅降低，预计该车将于2008年下半年量产上市。
　　发明铁电池再添扩张“核动力”
　　据了解，作为全球市场份额最大的电池 巨头，比亚迪从10年前建厂至今，每年以翻番速度迅速扩张，从资本金250万扩张到市值300亿元，从单一的电池生产到跻身为世界手机业举足轻重的多元化 手机零部件的集成供应商，从造车、卖车的“门外汉”到凭借生产单款车型F3突破10万辆的销售“奇迹”，比亚迪只花了极短的时间。
　　业界人士指出，比亚迪5年前切入汽车产业，使企业获得强有力的发展，而此次铁电池的成熟商用，意味着比亚迪旗下两大产业——电池IT产业与汽车产业实现无缝整合和对接，两大产业的战略会师无疑为比亚迪后续发展提供强大动力。
　 　作为汽车领域的创新成果，王传福对比亚迪双模电动汽车的前景充满信心。他说，在双模电动汽车明年推向市场后，2009年纯电动汽车也将面市。除了拉动电 动汽车产业链条外，比亚迪计划将铁电池推向笔记本电脑、数码相机、数码随身听等数码产业链中。王传福表示，目前技术已经不是主要障碍，主要是传统锂电池的 电压为3.7伏，稍高于铁电池的3.3伏，一旦解决电压问题，这种新型电池无疑是锂电池的最好替代品，市场前景不可估量。

Source: 比亚迪铁电池
This article is about the new battery technology researched by China, the Ferum cell. Those cells can make a continue discharge of ~3.3V 60A, by packing it into battery, it able to power up the incoming car in future, in fact, they already start manufacturing electric-petrol hybrid car. In future, they intend to use the ferum cell on notebook application or mobile phone. Let see how far the future can go...

Testing a smart battery

A smart battery is a battery that report the Voltage, current, temperature and calculate the estimated remaining time for usage base on current condition. Beside, it contain self monitoring on healthy condition of the battery. Picture below show the basic test software of ALTBATTERY. The result before change and after change the cells of a battery pack.

The impedance measurer can easily check if the battery cells is new or age. When the cells is new, the loading effect is low, which mean the chemical response fast inside the cell. This also help us to trace if the cells is connected properly. The single cells impedance can various if let say one of the cell is not connected or installed properly.

David's working table, old school day experiment type...

And some prototype and equipment,

Procedure of change the cells in a battery pack

The battery is first opened, there are a right way for open each type of battery.

Remove the existing cells, since the controller board is glue to the housing, this must be done very carefully to avoid short circuit occur.

After the cells is removed, as you can see the metal plating connect to the cells is still attach to the board.

Remove the circuit board very carefully by cutting the silicone plastic glue on the board.

The board is removed!

Remove the remain silicone glue to allow easier insertion of battery and board.

The metal plating was removed from the board.

Spot welding a new group of cells and ready to have it insert into the controller board.

And before the cells inserted, the board must be reprogrammed or re flash to allow normal operation of battery pack.

The battery is then send to test it functionality.

See also:
Testing a smart battery

What battery?

Please note that Alternative Battery Enterprise don't sale any new notebook battery. Below is some snapshot send by our customer for repaired. Currently success rate of a battery being repaired is ~100%. When they care about their battery, they willing to go through a more difficult (may be not so difficult, they email us and wait for our arrangement) process and wait for our service.

External smart battery charger

Since some customers report that their notebook internal charger not function. A stand alone smart battery charger have been developed by our engineer, currently compatible with ~30%-50% of smart battery in the world. Will upgrade the firmware to make more battery compatible.

• SBS(smart battery specification) version 1.0/2.0(with PEC transfer protocol) compatible.
• Up to 3A charging current. Charge to 80% within 2 hours and fully charged a 4400mAH in~3.5Hours for most notebook battery.
• Using SMPS, High charging efficiency >80%. (Generate very less heat during fast charging)
• Maximum 200mV stepping voltage.
• Constant current, constant voltage charging (current loop inside a voltage loop) algorithm.
• About size of a normal notebook power adapter. (Direct connect to battery)
• If anyone interested can give some comments.

No compatible with:

• Dell with ExpressCharge(TM of Dell) system.
• Fujitsu and some Toshiba no SBS comply.
• Compaq special battery with built in charger. (E.g. ARMADA(TM of Compaq) series)
• Old Asus or Old IBM with one-wire(TM of Dallas) protocol.

Will add support upon request. In future, we plan to make a smaller one so that it is more portable.

How to know no of cells of a Li-ion battery pack?

We assure our refilled battery work at 100% close to an original battery! Below is the price for standard cells, 2200/4400/6600mAH. For others price please mail for enquiry.

• 3 cells 10.8V, 11.1V 1300mAH-2200mAH, RM140
• 4 cells 14.4V, 14.8V 1300mAH-2200mAH, RM140
• 6 cells 7.4V, 10.8V, 11.1V 2600-4800mAH (up to 6550 for 7.4V model), RM180
• 8 cells 14.4V, 14.8V 2600-4800mAH, RM220
• 9 cells 10.8V, 11.1V) 4800mAH-6550mAH, RM230

How to pay?

For those who are interested, one Li-ion cell usually able to carry about 3.6-3.7V1300mAH to 2600mAH. when two cells are combined to work parallel, this will double the capacity, i.e. it will result in higher capacity, but with the same voltage. Double the cells allow double the power the combination of cells can output.

To achieve higher voltage, the cells are connected in series. If you are curious, why they don't simply parallel up the cells to make a let say 3.6V, 12000mAH battery, instead they make of 10.8V, 4000mAH? First 12000mAH battery pack is extremely dangerous! If it able to discharge in 2C, there will be 24A continue. If there are a direct short occur inside cells due to manufacturing defection, there can be higher Ampere such as 100A, resulting in quickly vaporization of chemical inside the shorted cells and can result in explosion of a single cell. Whatever they do, I never see they make more than 3 cells in parallel , since the safety valve is not designed in handle this, otherwise it will tend to have liquid leak.

The second reason is the chip inside the notebook is unlikely to operate with 3.6-3.7V. In fact, a single cells tend to operate from 3V to 4.2V. If a chip inside notebook operate at cmos logic level interface, it is more likely to draw a 3.3V from a power source. 3V may be too low and can result in system stability issue, where as 4.2V is too high and can result in increasing power dissipation while this is unnecessary. Beside, if the processor is using let say 1.2V, it is extremely difficult to regulate a 1.2V with high current from a low voltage like 3.0V. The filter capacitor to regulated the power will become larger, this is absolutely undesirable in a notebook.

Warranty

We guarantee that our refilled battery work close to new battery! Quality work, quality product give us confident to sell you a quality refilled battery.

First month 100% money back guaranty (in case the battery doesn't work, we reinsert the old battery cells and send the battery back to you).
6 months limited warranty (we try to fix the battery and extend the warranty for another 3 months). If we fail to fix or the same problem reoccur within the next warranty period, we will refund you only 80% of the total payment that you have made which will not including posting fees

What type of situations covered by the warranty?
Warranty void if:
Psychical damage occur to a refilled battery.
Damage cause by misused, mistreated, attempt to charge/discharge a battery with any other way beside of using it original charger.

Warranty statement:
The battery work for less than 80% performance it should be.
If the battery stop working totally within 3 months (this is circuit board problem, but since the battery is not yet heavily worn, we will try to fix the circuit board of the battery or 80% money back guaranty if we fail to do so). After 3 months, charge RM50 upon any services to fix the battery if the battery fail. User will get extended warranty period up to 6 months start count from the day of purchase.

What we do?

We replace the worn and teared battery cells of your notebook battery on a very practical level.

Professionally treat to most notebook battery pack, promises to deliver:
-nice or superior work.
-Spot Welding, effective connection between cells.
-Brought to you by altbattery.com!

With the high capacity 4000mAH battery. We guaranteed that the battery send back to our customers work more than or close to 100% performance (provided that your original capacity is 2700mAH, 3600mAH, 3900mAH, 4000mAH or 4400mAH) compare with original or else 100% money back guaranty within one week from the date of purchase. In fact, most of it reach more than 100% compare with original.

More important is, your battery can be tested the way it should be by us. Over one year, we have developed a various way of testing battery with different brand. To test a battery properly, it will need some intel's System Management Bus comply reader and writer, to get current condition of the battery and some extra information, for example, number of cycle of your battery, manufactured date, reporting battery running parameter(voltage, temperature, etc), wear level and etc.

Contact

Alternative Battery Enterprise
Tel: 012-9026289(David)

Email mail.altbattery@gmail.com.
Or leave a message click me.

How to order my service?
Please mail your location (Which state(Negeri)) and exactly the model number of your battery to:

mail.altbattery@gmail.com

And you will be served within 3 working day. You will get price quote, success rate of your battery to be refill and way of lowering cost of delivery for you.

Alternative Battery Enterprise

Alternative Battery Enterprise (亚特耐替电池), formerly known as altbattery.com(2006-2007) is a established small business in Malaysia primarily dealing with notebook battery refill and embedded system design and implementation currently.

We provide quality work to our value customer, because we believe our customer is the primary motivation that drive our progress to provide this service in Malaysia.

What do we do?