KenO wrote:
Hi Mike,

Thanks for your comments. Hopefully my previous posts have answered
why I want to test Li Ion battery packs.

"I've taken packs that wouldn't run a laptop for 10 minutes and tested
them at lower current. I got almost ALL of the original watt-hours
out. I've switched to testing individual cells for internal
resistance." Hope you have some experience with the Toshiba Li Ion
battery packs!

Have done some searches but have not found any info on the pack
connectors.

Ken
I have a similar need for older toshiba packs.
Problem with lithiums is that they degrade whether
you use 'em or not. Most battery packs you can find today
were manufactured about the same time as the laptop.
It's unlikely that you'll find anything newer than
10 years old for a 15 year old laptop.
I think the only viable alternative is to have the
pack rebuilt with new cells.
There are people who do that, but it ain't cheap.

It is possible to rebuild them yourself.
I bought used spot welder for the purpose.
New cells with tabs cost more than a new pack.
I tried to use cells from a different good pack.
It's a crap shoot depending on the controller design.
Some lose their brains when you remove power and it's all over.
Others remember the previous capacity, so the new battery won't
last much longer than the old one.
I've only found one battery pack with a pic processor in it.
I managed to reset the pic and recovered it.

In my experience, you can buy a newer laptop with a usable battery
at a garage sale cheaper than you can buy a used/bad battery for
an older laptop. Even if you do have to buy a battery, it'll be
a newer vintage.

AS for the pack connectors, there's almost nothing that can be done
from the outside...by design...they don't want people blowing themselves up
and suing them.
There's data/clock pins that access half of the chip to readout status.
There's a different isolated bus inside the pack that can be used to program
the parameters into the chip. You have to take it apart, and build an
interface.
But you still have no idea the data format of what numbers to put in.
There's a vendor who will send you the code for a hefty fee per battery.

To get batteries apart, you clamp them in a vise along the seam.
Use a sharp wood chisel and a lightwieght hammer. Smack it along the seam.
You want high peak force to snap the seam without a lot of mass to penetrate
the pack. It's easy to damage the cells or the circuit board, cause the
plastic is thin
and sits right on 'em. You can't just pull the plastic apart,
you have to break the joint.
And they're typically glued in, so getting the cells out of the plastic
can be a challenge. Be careful where you pry, cause there are thermistors
and thermal fuses buried in there.

Bottom line, unless you have a LOT of packs to fix, give it up.
Have someone who knows what they're doing, recell it.
Or better yet, go to a few garage sales and get a better laptop.
People are decommissioning some mighty fine laptops to make room
for their shiny new ipad.