[Duo2400] Re: duo 230 battery/rebuilding

[ElBrio at aol.com]

Dear Helen:

Coming in a bit late on this subject....I have rebuilt quite a few batteries 
for the Duos.  If you know which type you have, it is rather simple.  A Type 
1 takes tabbed "AA" cells (10 in all) and a bit of time to replace the cells. 
 You do need a soldering iron... an inexpensive 15-25 watt iron is fine (make 
sure you use ROSEN core solder, not ACID core....that will damage the cells 
and the computer).  

If you have Type II or Type III battery packs, you will need 10 pcs of 4/5ths 
"A" cells.  Sanyo makes these....check with an electronics distributor or 
amateur radio battery providers (amateur radio types...."hams".... are 
notoriously tight fisted and tend to rebuild their own batteries....I'm an 
amateur, too) for the cells.  I use a US company called 
www.batteriesamerica.com, which has the Sanyo cells.

I use a Dremel tool to cut open the packs....used to use a knife, decided 
that the Dremel was faster (and less likely to cut off body parts in case of 
a slip).  To resecure the case, I use a product called "Goop."  It is a 
urethane type adhesive, quite flexible and non conductive.

Caveats.....get cells with tabs.....soldering directly to a cell may kill it. 
 Watch polarity, portables don't like reversed voltage.  Also, there will be 
a small flat component in the battery pack, somewhere around halfway thru the 
line of cells.  It is an overtemp breaker....if you short circuit the battery 
pack, it opens and keeps the short from killing the battery or burning up 
something.

Anyway, hope this information is informative, and hope you can rebuild a few 
cell packs!

Cheers!
Andrew