ThinkPad 510CS battery rebuild

[goldeneagle]

At first, I was worried my 510CS went bad. Turned out it was a defective DRAM card. With that out of the way, I was planning on rebuilding the battery for it, for when I showcase it next year at VCF.

I took the battery apart, and inside is a Duracell DR19. Took that apart (pictures to follow later on) and that has 9 x Sanyo HR-AUL inside. They're all connected in series, giving you about 1800-2200mAh @ 10.8V nominal. It should be a very easy pack to rebuild. I don't know what the battery life is, but I'll have to report back on that as well.

[goldeneagle]

I've also confirmed too, the 510CS does not work with a 32MB IC DRAM card. It starts initially, and the display then corrupts. So the most you could add is a 16MB IC DRAM card, which brings you to 20MB of RAM.

[solidpro]

How are you finding the 510CS? I have one somewhere but I don't think it works and I seem to remember that it felt like the end of the PS/2 era machines where IBM hadn't quite 'cracked' it. By that, I mean the 700c is 10 great things and 1 horrible fault, whereas my PS/2 Notes are 10 horrible things and 1 thing great.

The 500, 510CS, 530CS are all quite elusive. And if they do come up they're either perfect and overpriced or hideously messy and still overpriced! By the time the 535 comes out it's a nice machine to use and service.

[avigneault]

Very interested to see how you get on with this build, I haven't had much luck with the 360 battery converting to 4/3A, regardless of it being a dumb pack.

[goldeneagle]

Very interested to see how you get on with this build, I haven't had much luck with the 360 battery converting to 4/3A, regardless of it being a dumb pack.

You're supposed to use 4/5 A, which is the size it came with. I think it takes 16 cells. Whatever you do, don't make the mistake I once made by buying Tenergy, or any other crappy Chinese knockoff battery.
I tried reviving some cells - some cells revived, others are still at 0 volts. QC seems to be bad. Sadly, at about double their cost, you have original Sanyo (probably now Panasonic) cells that definitely hold their weight. I think I first rebuilt my packs in 2017 or 2018 and they still work quite well.

[avigneault]

Yes, I bought 4/5A and successfully rebuilt this battery. Thank you for the input!