All you need is the long strip with the electronics on it and it is long enough to be cut and still be soldered to the tabs on new cells, which are longer than they need to be anyway! I would take a digital photo of the cells before taking them apart, as that makes putting the new ones in much easier. Tom Begin OT: sorry for the OT post, but I couldn't help myself-check this out! http://media.smilepop.com/smilepop/flash/12_2002/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf Tom on 2/25/03 12:05, Thomas Ethen at cacanne at chibardun.net wrote: > Cut the tabs just short of the weld! >> How in the heck does one separate and remove the cells?