I got a idea - Use a 19.2 volt drill motor battery to power a laptop

**will1384** · 01-08-2006, 03:54 AM

I got one at home thats 14.5v - its got 2 prongs - one is power
one is ground - that would be easy to wire up

I am going to look at the 19.2v batterys -

this would not be for long term use - but if your battery is
wore out - what have you got to lose -

and it might even last a hour or two

I think you could even make it look nice

and I have sean the 19.2v batterys at about $20

My 2 laptops both use 19v - and as long as you use
a volt meter - you should be ok

but on ebay laptop batterys are like $50 - so your not saving
much - but it could still be fun

**partyharty** · 01-08-2006, 10:58 AM

Whats the amperage of the drill battery? If you can determine that then you can see how long it will run (I am guessing not that long but to be honest I have never tried it).

Are you going to try to recharge it through the laptops charging port or are you going to unhook the battery each time you need to charge it (to drop it into the drill charger).

If this works (for a reasonable amount of time) it would be great. You can get the blue "noname" drills for just a few bucks (usually under $20), strip out the battery for use with the laptop, and pull out the motor for robotics (or other things).

C-ya
Chris

**will1384** · 01-08-2006, 04:00 PM

I was thinking of charging it using the drills charger

and I think the battery is a 2 to 3ah

I also found this at walmart - 19.2v NiCD Battery Pack and Charger - if its a instore unit - I may pick up one
next week - but not shure of the ah rate - its only $20

I Also found this - Laptop NiMH Universal External Battery, 19.2V 3Ah + Charger for

so it may not be worth all the trouble - but its still $50
but might make a nice extra battery

**partyharty** · 01-10-2006, 09:22 PM

Its something I will probably try this weekend with a older laptop (I have an ibm thinkpad which the batteries are $80 on ebay).

Will let you know how it goes. The only bad thing that I could see from this is if the battery drops below a certain voltage it could kill the laptop (since the rc battery is unregulated).

Although thats not really a concern as I figure it would just shut down the laptop. I am going to test it with a multimeter also just to make sure.

c-ya
Chris

**partyharty** · 01-10-2006, 09:29 PM

I did check on the newsgroups and there are several people using camcorder batteries to charge/run laptops. Most use a regulator (from radio shack) and they work fine.

c-ya
Chris

**will1384** · 01-10-2006, 09:49 PM

I some how dont think that $50 Laptop NiMH Universal External Battery
even has a regulator - but I think most would use it with a good battery
in the laptop to have more run time, then just the laptop battery alone

bad thing about regulators is they use power and will shorten the runtime

**partyharty** · 01-11-2006, 08:18 PM

According to several of the posts, radioshack had an external voltage regulator but I cannot find anything about it on the website. I can probably dig one up somewhere (I prob have one in the shed although finding it will be an issue :>)

All in all I doubt its all that necessary (like I said above when the voltage drops too much the laptop will shut itself down) but its one of those better safe than sorry things.

c-ya
Chris