In message ications,
Kevin Miller writes
I've had a 3m Airmate for a number of years now, and my battery is
pretty much at the end of it's useful life. I pulled up the battery in
google and the price ranges from around $95 to over $175 or more.
Krappin' Krishna! I'm on my 2nd battery and some years ago I tore open
my first pack and it consists of three D-cell nicads wired together.
Three D-cells. It boggles the mind.

Worst part is, there's a metal strap that connects them all that is
sort of stapled into the top and bottom. It would be *so* easy to make
that pack such that you can pop the lid, and drop in three new
batteries. But nope. Not a chance.

Chalk it up to corporate greed or lawyers being involved. Or both.

Wonder if Batteries Plus could renew my old pack for a reasonable cost?

Sorry for the OT rant, but this urks me. Besides, we haven't had any
decent COC activity in ages...

...Kevin

Re-make it yourself, What appears to be staples are spot welds, You can
buy cells with tags so just solder the tags together, though you may
need an active flux. For the solder, but keep on time to a minimum to
avoid the cell gassing off. Remember to neutralise the flux when
finished.

Most D cells have no more current capacity than the average AA cell, its
just extra padding. So Buy 3 NIMH cells (replacement for NiCd's) You may
even get two sets of three in the same space, but watch for heating
during discharge.

I recently had a similar issue but my device, 18V used 15 NiCd cells ,
approximately C size. Now sporting 16 tagged NIMH's. They take up less
space, are lighter, and have 50% more current capacity.
I got my cells from ebay. Saved about 80% on a new battery pack

--
John