Battery Hacks

Steve Lee

Monday, October 29, 2007

1. Batteries Within Batteries

a. Perhaps the most shocking battery hack happens when you open up a typical 6v lantern battery. Inside, supposedly, are 32 AA batteries connected in series. While from an electrical perspective, 32 AA batteries could be connected to create this voltage, there is some controversy over whether this hack is real or fake. Some claim that 6v batteries purchased from Walgreens contain this type of power source. Below are two videos showing both sides to the story.

Real:

Fake:

b. Many people would be surprised to see that there are actually 6 AAAA batteries within a 9v battery. Because all “A” batteries are actually 1.5v, you can often interchange them for each other (if you can get them to fit). So, in a pinch, you can easily hack a 9volt and utilize the AAAA in your AAA device.

c. Another amazing hack can be found when you take apart a small 12v battery. Inside are 6 button cell batteries that are typically sold separately for much more money. What an amazing find.

2. USB Battery Hack

Many, many devices run off of and can be charged by the 5volts provided by a USB connection. If you don’t happen to have a computer around to charge one of such devices, you can create a USB battery charger that runs off a 9volt battery. It should work fine with any low power mobile device, and gives you plenty of power for over an hour. For instructions and more information continue here:

3. Laptop Battery Hack
If you don't want to shell out $100 bucks for a new lithium ion battery for your laptop? It turns out that many Lithium Ion laptop batteries are simply battery packs that hold previously manufactured round 18650 rechargeable Li Ion batteries. By opening up your laptop battery, you’ll find lithium batteries wired in series, and with a little handiwork and effort, it can be replaced. We highly recommend you don't this. See the video below;

4. Hack the planet – Make a battery from the earth.
Surprisingly, you can draw a certain amount of current from the earth. By embedding two copper rods in the ground, you can create positive and negative terminals that produce enough voltage to power small LED’s. Someone should try creating a grid of these and see if they can power something more substantial.

{Video Removed.}

5. The Capacitor 9v rechargeable

9 Volts are often put in devices that are rarely used. If you use rechargeables in those devices, you’ll often find that the batteries have no power when you try to use them. Capacitors, conversely, can actually hold a charge for years. In this hack, a 2.3V source is switched to 9v and held in a capacitor. With a small load, the capacitor can last 3 hours and can be recharged in 20 seconds.
Source: http://macs.hackaday.com/2005/12/06/supercap-9v-battery/

6. DIY Plasma Gun with a 12V Battery

A bank of capacitors is used in conjunction with a twelve volt battery found in a hand drill to produce an awesome mini-tesla coil gun, capable of producing current that can arc 5-10cm. The device can be used to create interesting lighting effects, or even to induce power in certain objects (such as a florescent light bulb). Further applications are possible, including wireless energy transference.

Source: http://www.rmcybernetics.com/projects/DIY_Devices/plasma-gun.htm

7. Disposable Camera & Battery into homemade taser

Obviously, this type of taser would not be nearly as powerful as any commercially bought taser. By simply bypassing the output of the capacitor in the camera, you can create a pretty substantial shock. Furthermore, it is possible to connect the capacitors in series and increase greatly the output. It’s quite scary they allow these things on planes.

8. Linux Battery Load Monitor

This awesome hack utilizes reactive strips found on some batteries used to tell whether the batteries are dead or not. With the use of some load analyzing software and materials at RadioShack, this hacker modded one of the reactive strips to display the relative load on his Linux PC.

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20040703081237/http://webperso.easyconnect.fr/om.the/web/duracell_cpumon/

9. Lithium Polymer Battery - most dangerous battery

The Lithium Polymer Battery has many applications and is considered a technological step forward from more traditional lithium ion batteries. In reality, the Lithium polymer battery must be carefully watched when charging. Overcharging or incorrect charging can lead to disastrous results. If, however, your desire is to hack your battery into a bomb….this might be the way to go. (as this guy did)

10. Make Your Hybrid Run on the battery alone

Hybrid cars in the US are often configured such that they run only on a combination of electricity and gas power. In other countries, however, regulations allow hybrid cars to be run off of electricity alone, and this function comes standard in many hybrid cars. The US versions of these cars can be hacked so the cars run on the battery alone. A step by step tutorial can be found at the following address.

http://www.calcars.org/prius-evbutton-install.pdf

# comments about: "Battery Hacks"

1. 6/30/2008 1:00:24 PM | Posted by: kossthiery

Do you know of anyway to make a LiFePO4 battery?

2. 6/10/2008 8:29:57 PM | Posted by: battery

good article.thanks!

3. 4/30/2008 1:20:47 AM | Posted by: battery

In Reality, A Typical Laptop Battery Provides Only About 90 Minutes Of Service. Many Users Complain Of Much Shorter Runtimes. Computer Manufacturers Are Hesitant To Add A Larger Battery Because Of Increased Size And Weight.

4. 2/3/2008 12:34:42 PM | Posted by: paul

Any chance at hacking a 12 volt Dewalt cordless drill battery? The price of 2 is more than the price of the drill. $110.00 for a drill with 2 batteries or 2 replacement batteries for $127.00.

5. 11/12/2007 11:47:17 AM | Posted by: Adam

Wow is all I can say.. That is such awesome information! You are going to help me save mucho dinero! Thank you thank you thank you

Battery Hacks

# comments about: "Battery Hacks"

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