FS: Handmade ThinkPad T/X6x/4xx/5xx battery reprogram kit

[kfzhu1229]

I have previously made a post (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=137160) about this concept, and a number of you are interested in this project.
I have now gathered a batch of ~12 CP2112's from China, as well as all the complementary components that will be required to make the contraption easy for you all to get your hands on.
Unfortunately, I seemed to have ordered 13 ThinkPad X6x style female connector and 1 male connector, instead of the other way around! Hence I can only sell a maximum of 2 such kits until the male connectors arrive in a later order!
I'll start with a price of 20 Canadian dollars a kit, plus some C$10-15 shipping to most places around the world.
Now, I'll repeat again:
The point is to provide an all-in-one solution to make the unlocking of old ThinkPad batteries easier and more foolproof. But if you are to rebuild the battery pack, understand the safety implications with that first, and then practice on smaller packs and make sure you're actually familiar with this job before you press ahead with these! I will take NO responsibility about what you will be doing right or wrong!
The kit includes:
- CP2112 with a capacitor removed (So that no software can modify its firmware), and only the necessary pins: GND, SCL, SDA pins soldered, as well as a blank to show you how to insert the cable
- Short & handy complementary Micro-USB to Type A cable
- Adaptor to the ThinkPad T/X6x style connector with only the necessary pins on header, and a blank on the temp pin to guide your cable insertion. P+ pin is separately angled so you can never mistakenly fry your CP2112!
- Pre-bunched (SMBus) SDA/SCL/GND cable for easy connection, the cable arrangement is already fixed according to the pinout on the CP2112 vs the battery connector, and will be visibly notched for you to instantly tell which end goes where. No fiddly connection retries for you to worry about
- Two jumper wires (male-female) for jump starting the BMS (P+ of pack to P+ of connector). This is specifically required on certain ThinkPad BMS
- A complementary CD (not pictured) with all the commonly used software could also be provided. I do not own or charge money for these software, or know for certain if the BE2Works utility contain malware, use the BE2Works utility at your own discretion! I can only guarantee that they perform programming tasks as expected!
A few bonus items I'm considering for probs a 3 dollar upcharge:
- A separate adaptor made for the T/X4x and older IBM era ThinkPads! It has the same header pinout as the T/X6x adaptor as shown below in the Imgur gallery
- Extra handmade cable
A different PCB is used, since pin spacing is not the same between this connector and the T6x one.
Unfortunately, the BQ8011/BQ8012 commonly found on T4x batteries is fully external EEPROM based, and has no ability to change parameters via SMBus command on the battery connector. You MUST desolder the EEPROM chip and program them externally! Hence why the T4x adaptor is only useful for troubleshooting, not programming, and hence I will not be misleading anyone and won't be selling it individually!

Additionally, I can fabricate adaptors for non-ThinkPad laptops, anything from 5 pin to 9 pin, all of which pictured in the gallery

With this kit, the connection setup is reduced to 3 easy steps:
1. Identify the blank pin on both side of the SMBus data cable, connect it correctly on both ends to both PCBs. The blanks only match in one specific way and direction.
2. Connect the battery to the contraption
3. Connect the MicroUSB cable and attach it to your PC
Always connect the battery to the CP2112 contraption before connecting it to your computer! In case you still got the wiring seriously wrong, it's much better for you to end up with 12V blasting into the CP2112 than having the 12V blast into both the CP2112 and your computer's USB port!
P+ pin header is for jump starting the BMS only, never connect it to anywhere near the CP2112!

Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/XnANUfY

[kfzhu1229]

I have gotten all the necessary components to make these as desired now! PM if interested!
Meanwhile, I am also working on a more formulated route for T4x era batteries, and even for the earlier 2x/3x era batteries! Those will require much older software, and generally require you to desolder the EEPROM, and I will toy around with the "obsolete" method of LPT based adaptors and see if they can program those EEPROMs!

[kfzhu1229]

Bump, with 7 units remaining.

[Orava]

Hi,

Do you still have units available, I'm looking for a way to reprogram bms for X240-X270 series Thinkpads.

Thanks!

[kfzhu1229]

Do you still have units available, I'm looking for a way to reprogram bms for X240-X270 series Thinkpads.

Thanks!

I can send these kits, but I do not have anything of that age, so as for the actual unlocking tools you may be on your own. There are guides on youtube talking about the BQ900x found on Sanyo-Panasonic ThinkPad batteries, which should work if your battery is that. Bringing up smart battery diagnostic information will always work like a charm with my software collection regardless of your BMS though, because that information's retrival is standardised, and the connector is still the same old Lenovo 7 pin with a notch in the middle

[ThiccPadBoy]

Hi! Do you have tutorials for reprogramming? I don't even know what software to use. Some people mention be2works, but the license costs $400. Also, I wonder if the procedure will be the same for different models, since there are so many kinds:
- T6*(p) 14 in, T400
- T6*(p) 15 in, T500, W500
- T400s, T410s main
- T420s, T430s main
- T6*(p), T*00, T4*0s, W500 ultrabay
- T*10, T*20, W510, W520 6 cell (55+)
- T*10, T*20, T*30, W510, W520, W530 6 cell (70+)
- T*10, T*20, W510, W520 9 cell (55++)
- T*10, T*20, T*30, W510, W520, W530 9 cell (70++)
- T*10, T*20, W510, W520 slice (27++)
- T*10, T*20, T*30, W510, W520, W530 slice (28++)
- X6*s 4 cell slim (prismatic)
- X6*(s) 4 cell enhanced (cylindrical)
- X6*(s) 8 cell
- X6* tablet 4 cell
- X6* tablet 8 cell
- X6*(s)(t) slice
- X30* main
- X30* ultrabay
- X200 tablet, X201 tablet 4 cell
- X200 tablet, X201 tablet 8 cell
- X220 tablet, X230 tablet 4 cell
- X220 tablet, X230 tablet 8 cell
- X200(s), X201(s) 4 cell
- X200(s), X201(s) 6 cell
- X200(s), X201(s) 9 cell
- X220, X230 4 cell
- X220, X230 6 cell
- X220, X230 9 cell
- X220, X230 slice
- X121e X130e X131e
- Some more for R series, Z series, L series, E series, and non-ThinkPads maybe?

[kfzhu1229]

Hi! Do you have tutorials for reprogramming? I don't even know what software to use. Some people mention be2works, but the license costs $400. Also, I wonder if the procedure will be the same for different models, since there are so many kinds:

Hi, to answer your questions:
- Yes, I have tutorials for reprogramming. I've made a few here and there on this forum, on reddit, and on Chinese 51nb and mydigit forums.
- And, on the bright side, most of the laptops you mentioned has the same 7 pin Lenovo battery connector with the exact same pinouts, so only one wire harness and adaptor is required. On the downside however, is that just mentioning the laptop model is NOT enough to determine what BMS you have. It differs from each battery FRU. A Sanyo battery for an X61 has BQ8030 for example, while a Sony battery for X61 has BQ80201. A Panasonic battery for T61 has M37512 with Panasonic firmware, an LG battery for X200 has M37512 with LG firmware.
So, you likely have to pick a selection of the batteries that you either badly want it rebuilt, or those that you have high confidence that the cells are good but just the BMS killed themselves. Open them up, and identify their BMS chips. You have to tell me like one or two such BMS IC's so I know how to cater a writeup of reprogramming those.
I have my collection of various software, from old utilities like Accplus and Smartbatteryworkshop (meant for old BMS with separate EEPROM chips like those from a T4x and earlier), to various versions of BE2Works demo, a cracked BE2Works 4.52 that works with majority of BMS up to like 2011, and open source stuff like DJI Battery Killer and smbusb. They're packed in the iso file I mentioned, I can share it regardless if you buy anything from me. As per forum rules however, if you want my collection, you'll need to send me a PM saying that you want the software collection, and that while I put my efforts in making sure of file safety, nothing is guaranteed to be virus-free, especially BE2Works 4.52 crack that always triggers a lot of antivirus warnings.

But to make things easier for you, again, name me one or two BMS chips, and see if I know of existing knowledge on how to fix them with just CP2112 with the collection of software on hand. For the likes of BQ8030 BQ80201 M37512 R2J240/51F51, I have high confidence I'll be able to help you, and this kit will make the experience as least intimidating for beginners as possible without hundreds dollars of payware or hardware.

EDIT: For the likes of X3x, it uses the IBM 5 pin. additionally, those have separate EEPROM that must be reprogrammed externally, and greatly tests your soldering skills. If it's a BQ8011 (Sanyo) or BQ8012 (Sony), then the EEPROM chip is a standard 24C01 chip that can be reprogrammed with a simple CH341a. If it's an old Sanyo with ASxxxD, or Panasonic with M37516, that would be one tough job for you... See my X23 Panasonic battery with M37516 post for details

[ThiccPadBoy]

Hi! Do you have tutorials for reprogramming? I don't even know what software to use. Some people mention be2works, but the license costs $400. Also, I wonder if the procedure will be the same for different models, since there are so many kinds:

Hi, to answer your questions:
- Yes, I have tutorials for reprogramming. I've made a few here and there on this forum, on reddit, and on Chinese 51nb and mydigit forums.
- And, on the bright side, most of the laptops you mentioned has the same 7 pin Lenovo battery connector with the exact same pinouts, so only one wire harness and adaptor is required. On the downside however, is that just mentioning the laptop model is NOT enough to determine what BMS you have. It differs from each battery FRU. A Sanyo battery for an X61 has BQ8030 for example, while a Sony battery for X61 has BQ80201. A Panasonic battery for T61 has M37512 with Panasonic firmware, an LG battery for X200 has M37512 with LG firmware.
So, you likely have to pick a selection of the batteries that you either badly want it rebuilt, or those that you have high confidence that the cells are good but just the BMS killed themselves. Open them up, and identify their BMS chips. You have to tell me like one or two such BMS IC's so I know how to cater a writeup of reprogramming those.
I have my collection of various software, from old utilities like Accplus and Smartbatteryworkshop (meant for old BMS with separate EEPROM chips like those from a T4x and earlier), to various versions of BE2Works demo, a cracked BE2Works 4.52 that works with majority of BMS up to like 2011, and open source stuff like DJI Battery Killer and smbusb. They're packed in the iso file I mentioned, I can share it regardless if you buy anything from me. As per forum rules however, if you want my collection, you'll need to send me a PM saying that you want the software collection, and that while I put my efforts in making sure of file safety, nothing is guaranteed to be virus-free, especially BE2Works 4.52 crack that always triggers a lot of antivirus warnings.

But to make things easier for you, again, name me one or two BMS chips, and see if I know of existing knowledge on how to fix them with just CP2112 with the collection of software on hand. For the likes of BQ8030 BQ80201 M37512 R2J240/51F51, I have high confidence I'll be able to help you, and this kit will make the experience as least intimidating for beginners as possible without hundreds dollars of payware or hardware.

EDIT: For the likes of X3x, it uses the IBM 5 pin. additionally, those have separate EEPROM that must be reprogrammed externally, and greatly tests your soldering skills. If it's a BQ8011 (Sanyo) or BQ8012 (Sony), then the EEPROM chip is a standard 24C01 chip that can be reprogrammed with a simple CH341a. If it's an old Sanyo with ASxxxD, or Panasonic with M37516, that would be one tough job for you... See my X23 Panasonic battery with M37516 post for details

Thanks! As a new user here I'm not authorized to send PMs yet, so I'll wait till I can.

Can you recommend a way to find your mydigit posts? It seems mydigit makes it hard to search for posts on it due to a paywall or something.

[kfzhu1229]

Thanks! As a new user here I'm not authorized to send PMs yet, so I'll wait till I can.

Can you recommend a way to find your mydigit posts? It seems mydigit makes it hard to search for posts on it due to a paywall or something.

The PM part will be quickly sorted by RealBlackStuff.
The mydigit posts of mine are about non-ThinkPads, as that is not a ThinkPad centric forum, namely it's about an Acer AS10D61 and HP OT06, both of which with BQ20Zxx series BMS, which I believe is nowhere to be found on ThinkPads (It's mainly found on Samsung and LG packs, while no Samsung thinkpad packs existed at the time, and LG ThinkPad packs used R2J240 51F51 instead).
But yeah, can you please name a few specific FRU's of batteries that you already have on hand that you want to rebuild the most? Through that I can have a good educated guess as to what BMS controller is present on those, and hence I can more or less walk you through how to reprogram them?

[RealBlackStuff]

ThiccPadBoy can PM now.

[ThiccPadBoy]

ThiccPadBoy can PM now.

Thank you!

Thanks! As a new user here I'm not authorized to send PMs yet, so I'll wait till I can.

Can you recommend a way to find your mydigit posts? It seems mydigit makes it hard to search for posts on it due to a paywall or something.

The PM part will be quickly sorted by RealBlackStuff.
The mydigit posts of mine are about non-ThinkPads, as that is not a ThinkPad centric forum, namely it's about an Acer AS10D61 and HP OT06, both of which with BQ20Zxx series BMS, which I believe is nowhere to be found on ThinkPads (It's mainly found on Samsung and LG packs, while no Samsung thinkpad packs existed at the time, and LG ThinkPad packs used R2J240 51F51 instead).
But yeah, can you please name a few specific FRU's of batteries that you already have on hand that you want to rebuild the most? Through that I can have a good educated guess as to what BMS controller is present on those, and hence I can more or less walk you through how to reprogram them?

I'm most interested in the 55+/55++/70+/70++ family of batteries, and the 27++/28++ family of batteries. They are used by a ton of models ({T,W,L,SL}{4,5}{1,2,3}0). While there are plenty of generic tutorials on how one should spot-weld the cells, the more tricky steps are severely undercovered: (1) the optimal way to take apart the battery with minimum damage to the plastic, and (2) how one should reset the controllers of specifically these models. Again, I don't even know what software to use, nor what hardware to use: do I use CP2112, or do I use EV2400?

[kfzhu1229]

I'm most interested in the 55+/55++/70+/70++ family of batteries, and the 27++/28++ family of batteries. They are used by a ton of models ({T,W,L,SL}{4,5}{1,2,3}0). While there are plenty of generic tutorials on how one should spot-weld the cells, the more tricky steps are severely undercovered: (1) the optimal way to take apart the battery with minimum damage to the plastic, and (2) how one should reset the controllers of specifically these models. Again, I don't even know what software to use, nor what hardware to use: do I use CP2112, or do I use EV2400?

(1) You have to determine how the battery is assembled. T/X6x and earlier batteries (excluding tablet batteries) generally are very easy to disassemble. Held together with clips and no glue. Find a weak spot in the battery pack that easily creates the most amount of seam, start prying there, and go tackle clip by clip until you release everything. If you yank the cover, you have to do it with only a reasonable amount of force. Brute forcing will crack the plastic cover and clips.

X6xT X20xT as well as the later X2xx T5xx batteries have more rigid reverse clips as well as soft silicone glue, making them harder to open. Find a seam as before, and then you also additionally need to find a sharp blade to SLICE through the edges before you pry anything, making sure to not injure yourself with the blade. Prying these clips would require a lot of force, and don't be surprised if you end up marring the sides of these batteries significantly.

Additionally, many other manufacturers use hard epoxy to glue the sides of the battery shut (HP is notorious for doing this). To open these batteries, slicing is very important, you must slice open as much of that epoxy as possible, because these types of hard epoxy are generally more rigid than the plastic casing itself, setting you up to cause major structural damage if you don't weaken them first.

(2) would be impossible to answer without specifying a few FRU's explicitly, except that they all typically can be done using the CP2112 and then tools from a cracked BE2Works 4.52 to DJI Battery Killer to SMBUsb, or preferbly also FX2LP and SMBUsb if dealing with things like the R2J240 and M37512.

[cautious_egg]

Thanks a lot - I am keen to learn more. By the way, did you find out how they lock-out the controller when battery is disconnected?
Is there any chance to message me the programming notes (I cannot message you)?

[kfzhu1229]

Thanks a lot - I am keen to learn more. By the way, did you find out how they lock-out the controller when battery is disconnected?
Is there any chance to message me the programming notes (I cannot message you)?

That depends on the specific battery controller. I know for the stock TI chips, like the BQ208x and BQ20Zxx, they have a lot of dynamic data in the memory that would all be lost and needs to be re-initialised on a full power loss and recovery, which includes the tracking of the battery characterstics and failure flag.
For some other controllers like the BQ8030, it is technically not supposed to enter failure status with a power loss and recovery, but sometimes it just happens, and it happens more frequently on later incarnations of the BQ8030.
For the likes of BQ8011 and the other external EEPROM based BMS chips, it's certainly not supposed to enter failure status with a power disconnect (becuase you HAVE to disconnect power to reprogram these). However, these boards tend to have two positive leads, one thick one going through a fuse, another thin one, if these two leads lose continuity with each other, it thinks that the fuse has blown and the BMS locks.
Unfortunately for beginners though, I feel like the whole idea of unlocking the BMS has been misleading (almost on purpose it seems), with the actually correct resources typically locked behind paywalls so greedy people can earn money by selling this as a "service". I figured out my way with "unlocking" these BMS, formally known as removing the failure flag, and it certainly didn't cost me money other than buying cheap CP2112 hardware and investing money into some better wiring. That's what I was trying to do - to break away some of that barrier.

[makai]

Hello,
I own a X61s and the non-availability of good battery options has plaqued my X61s for years. A few years ago, I investigated rebuilding my batteries, but eventually gave up. I'm again looking into rebuilding the batteries, and during research, ran across your thread. By the way, I already own a CP2112 from my previous attempt, and I also built a makeshift cable for it to interface with the battery.

The problem is, I'm as stuck as I've always been as I'm not a software guru. Also, while I do have a text doc telling me what the pinouts are, it's been so long I don't know if the info is even correct. This is what my doc tells me... the lines depict the connectors on the battery connector...
|| ||||| ... being: + + [gap] SCL SDA [unknown] GND GND. Can you tell me if this is correct? TIA... Much appreciated!

Also, my 4-cell battery utilizes BQ8030 and my 8-cell uses a BQ80201. According to your post, these BMS numbers are tied to specific vendor batteries, Sanyo and Sony. Does it matter which battery manufacture is used with the BMS's? For instance, can I use LG batteries with either BMS or would it be better to stick with Sanyo and Sony's?

Also, you thread mentions "tutorials"... do you have one for a X61(s) battery?

Lastly, I'm not sure if your post is still active as I don't see many replies. Do you still have kits available for purchase? Will the Trump tarrif affect the price? I wouldn't mind buying a kit if I can get out of this non-availability battery conumdrum.

Thanks and Aloha!

[Shredder11]

Also, you thread mentions "tutorials"... do you have one for a X61(s) battery?

This 30min video showing the entire process of creating a battery from scratch, might give you some tips or ideas. The video was based on a battery for the IBM ThinkPad 701C, but perhaps the process applies to any other battery project.

https://youtu.be/9PaTKBc88CI

[makai]

Thanks for the vid, but I believe the battery he's working on doesn't have a BMS that locks the battery.

I've rebuilt batteries for older Dells, and even my X31 Thinkpads before (I think... can't remember anymore). Those batteries can be rebuilt with no issues as the circuit boards can be removed from power with no issues. Just replace the batteries and reconnect the circuit board, and you're good to go. Unfortunately, with locking BMS batteries, it's a totally different animal, hence I was hoping the OP had a tutorial for the X61 that would show the pinouts and connections to the CP2112 so I don't make any mistakes.