Reet....

I've got a 6 cell 11.1v 4400mah battery from a laptop which I'm planning to use for a portable dreamcast....

Not really sure how to go about making a protection circuit for it or even if it already has one built in.... I also wanted to know if i can use the laptop charger to charge the portable dreamcast? I know people say to use a pico power supply but is there a way i can use the power brick...

There is a circuit board attached to the 6 cells which I don't know if it is a protection circuit...

I did see somewhere there were circuits for using stacked 3.7v batteries but i don't know if the same ones would apply?

Can anybody help me out? I'm not even sure how to wire the batteries together!

moved to the proper forum section

Some have built in protection circuits.

If the laptop charger is meant to be plugged straight into the battery then yes it has a built in pcb and yes you can use it to charge the battery. If not then you will need a pcb , then you hook the batteries to the pcb and the charger to it also.

Yes you will need a PicoPsu if you are using a 11.1v battery. The Pico will divide the voltage into the 12v , 5v, and 3.3v your portable will need.

Firstly... sorry for posting in the wrong section...

secondly... AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!! starts making sense now!!! I thought the pico psu was to plug the charger into but it makes more sense now that it distributes the correct voltage...

http://www.buypcaccessory.com/products/mini-box-picopsu-80-80w-output-12v-input-dc-dc-power-supply.html?from=froogle

is this what people mean by a pico psu? and the power bricks that people have been linking are what has been used as a charger???

so how would i wire up the batteries and charging socket? (I'll pull it from the laptop to use the same charger) is that done via the protection circuit? then from that to the input of the pico psu?

if I use this http://www.batteryspace.com/pcbfor111vli-ionbatterypack10a-1alimitwithfuelgaugesocket.aspx would i split the 3 pairs of cells form the laptop battery and wire them as in hailraizer's guide (http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=34576)

I will post a pic of the batteries as I'm not sure how to separate and wire them but i'll get the proper camera as my phone isn't brilliant....

also... if this shouldn't be here shift it over to my dreamcast post... or trim it to be relevant!

ta for all the help...

Well... I've been a bit of a tard....

been moaning on to myself about how i havent had a reply but the I realised I was supposed to be posting pics of the battery... doh!!!

http://www.hugill.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/IMG_20101218_233145.jpg
http://www.hugill.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/IMG_20101218_233213.jpg
http://www.hugill.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/IMG_20101218_233422.jpg
(couldn't get the images small enough... grr...)

I'm assuming the board attached is a protection circuit... I'm planning on pulling the motherboard of the laptop apart to try to retrieve the power section of it so that I can use the same plug but just need to work out how to get the pico psu there...

also... the way the batteries are wired seems a bit odd to me as I can't work out if they're in series or parallel... I'm assuming the ridged end of the battery is positive so starting from the right hand side the two cells have the two positives connected with a wire coming off to the pcb at a point called up... then the two negatives are connected together with another wire going to UM, but the metal bit connecting the two -ve's is folded again to connect the next two cell's +ve's... the two -ve's of that sell have a wire coming off to UL, and again connected to the next 2 +ve's... with a wire coming of the -ve's to UG...

i think UP=Universal Positive and UG=Universal ground... but no idea about t'others...

The connecter is labelled (if the pic isn't clear enough) P-,P-, alert, sys, batt, dat, clk, P+,P+.

I'm guessing the only bits needed will be the P+'s and P-'s... and they would be wired together?? as in the 2 P+ together and 2 P- together not all 4 together... that = burny nasty mess...

as this is a 4400mah how much battery life would that give me? this is @ 11.1v....

to confirm this is the pico psu I would use to connect right?? http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.417/.f... would it be a case of connecting the battery to the black and white cables? then obviously the molex can be cut off and and the appropriate wires soldered to the right bits.... where would i put the charging bit in? or would it be a case of attaching the power of the batteries to the end of the pins and the appropriate sized socket and the wall plug will just charge the battery?

ta!

p.s. can one of the mods change the tite of this thread so it's spelled right? just noticed it!!

ta again!