anyone made a DIY battery for the sager/clevo models?

Hi NBR,
long time lurker here.

I was trying to find some information if anyone has ever made a larger battery for these?

After months of consideration i've decided to order Sager NP8690 (Clevo W860CU), but i never realized that it only came with a 3 cell battery.
This is probably not something that will be an issue the majority of time, but reading about only getting about 1 hour's worth of time would potentially become somewhat of an hassle when bringing it to class.
I was thinking about downclocking CPU/GPU, which would be fine when in school, but i assume that would only gain a small amount of battery time?

Sure, buying another battery for switching would provide a similar solution, but it would be very annoying when for example taking notes (which is what i will be doing as i never use pen and paper).

I was thinking i could maybe buy a diy battery pack that i would only use while in school, or something that would charge the battery/keeping it running for another hour or so.

Thanks for any help/information!

 

In fact downclocking can save quite a lot of battery. If you downclock everything to 2/3 of the original speed it will consume 1/3 less power than before which means 33% increase in time on battery.

 

Thank you!

I will probably try and downclock/volt it as much as possible when needed.

This is the spec;

Screen - :: 15.6" 1920x1080 Full HD+ X-Glass
Processor - :: Intel® Core i7 720QM Quad Core 1.60GHz - 2.80GHz 6MB Cache
Video Card - :: ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Memory - :: 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz CAS9 2x 2GB DIMMs
Hard Drive - :: 320GB 7,200rpm SATA-II with 16MB Cache
Operating system - :: Windows 7 Ultimate X64
Optical Device - :: 8x DVD±R/W
Bluetooth - :: Bluetooth V2.0 Module
7 in 1 card reader - :: 7 in 1 card reader
Keyboard - :: Swedish / Finnish
Soundcard - :: Integrated High Definition Audio

With everything turned off and downclocked, what would be the estimate battery time? Would one be able to achieve about 2 hours with only OpenOffice (or similar) running doing notes?
Brightness set to minimum of course.

The reason for 2 hours is that i expect the classes to be no more than 2 hours long maximum, and i'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

Wouldn't it be easier to get another battery.
If you had everything in power saver mode and lower screen brightness you can extend battery life a little but a single charge should last you a class and then just swap it out between classes.
Just my 2 cents.

 

To add to what IKAS said, there are no software tools that I am aware of that will allow you to undervolt and to underclock a mobile i7 processor at this time.

 

I may be undertaking a battery mod myself soon; I will report back if I go through with it. Already separated half the battery case the day after I received the laptop to see what it looked like inside as the battery is extremely light for it's size.

 

I know this probably not the answer your looking for but get a netbook for class/taking notes.
You can get a good cheap ones these days + you won't have to worry about hauling it around everywhere and possibly getting it stolen or damaged.
Honestly I don't know anything about modding batteries or even where so start .
It doesn't sound to safe either.

 

@sp-1; Would be very interesting to see!
I saw a thread here regarding someone making a 15 cell battery, which featured a youtube link on how to basicly do it.
It didn't look that difficult but since i don't have prior solder experience, i won't test it out myself first.
I was thinking of maybe asking around and see if a friend has some extensive knowledge with batteries later on.

I can't link to the thread with the youtube link though since i don't have 15 posts yet.

@IKAS V; reports say i would get about an hour's worth of life on lowest settings with everything turned off. According to the W860CU owners thread, which i spent yesterday reading (the whole 290 page thread, it took literally a day) atleast.
Sure i could just go out and buy a netbook, that would solve the issue somewhat. Using the little screen makes my eyes bleed (my gf has one) and the point of having a laptop is to be able to carry it around. I already own a powerful desktop, and buying the laptop is, right now just for traveling, but will also be used in school when i go back.
I bought a macbook (early '08) just for this reason, but i'm selling it because i'm sick and tired of not being able to game while i'm away.

I'm grateful for the tips.
This thread was about if someone has ever tried extending the battery life in the clevos though, not buying a netbook to compensate.

@othonda; I'm not familiar with how the clevo bios looks (since i don't own one yet), but wouldn't it be possible there?
I read in the 290 page thread that downvolting wasn't possible, so i assume when you say software tools it's related to the bios aswell.

I would be interested in seeing someone try and disabling everything, downclock/volt whatever's possible and run a Office-like software (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, etc) with only word-processing for taking notes.
Brightness set to minimum aswell.
Take note of the battery life and post here.
Is the win7 battery time calculation reliable? I know that with my macbook i could always get about 10-20 min more than it stated.

Would having a dual boot system, with a very lightweight os without AV (linux distro), increase battery life to an extent that it would be worth it?

 

I heard of people putting more elements in some batteries, but it depends on the battery. I saw this for an old clevo, they incresead from 4400 to 6600 by adding 2 more elements. I am not familiar with yout model, but I know it is possible to buy more elements in general.

 

Oh ok. Thats good to hear
If you can find the link for this it would be nice to read it.

As stated earlier, i'll be getting the new 15.6" once paycheck arrives. I doubt anyone has done it on this new model yet (tried a bit of googling and couldn't find any information on it), but it's cool to hear that it has been done on older models.

 

The bios has no settings at all for any kind of tweaking (no ram timings, no cpu settings, no voltage settings), and I doubt there are any software hooks to do any tweaking as well. The only program that allows any kind of tweaking (overclocking) is Eleet. However it has no ability to adjust voltages or to underclock. My processor generally runs at 1.2GHz when idle or very low load, so in effect the power is as low as it will get for this machine. The video card also downclocks quite a bit as well in 2d under light load. With all this you still only get one hour of run time. If you could undervolt and clock even more you may get a 10 more minutes at best.

As far as modding a battery good luck with that. I have professionally designed several high powered battery operated devices, I chose to use NiMH because it’s a lot easier to use, safer to recharge, store and to design around. I have looked into using lithium batteries in the products I design and the safety issues, testing, engineering and other costs associated with lithium are very high. With that said I would not mess around with modding a battery at all. Even though I could say I could do it and know exactly what I was doing, the dangers and possible consequences are not worth it. If I wanted a laptop with good battery life I would have gotten one.

 

Oh that's unfortunate. I was hoping that it would allow similar configuration as a desktop bios would. I've got extensive (well, 10 years) of experience with settings, tweaking and configurating computers, so i knew it wouldn't be any problem once i sat down with it (i also have extensive knowledge with hardware, as my whole life revolves around my computers).
I read in the long thread someone had downclocked the graphics card. IIRC, it was the 5870. I will read up on it but i assume it's similar to editing the profiles in catalyst on a standard desktop? I've noticed that mobile drivers differ from desktop, and i'm not sure if the CCC is present on mobile.

Yeah, since i don't have any experience with this kind of work, i will not try to attempt it before any kind of documentation. Even with documentation i wouldn't try it, rather find someone that has extensive knowledge about this kind of work and pay them for it. I was merely asking if it had been done, and if so, if there's any kind of worklog/documentation available. I find reading up and learning everything about the hardware and diy projects most rewarding.

 

DYI projects are fine but they have to be feasable, I'm sure it can be done with the right knowledge and enough money but my suggestion on getting a netbook was based on this.
I know netbooks suck but at least it does basic tasks that you need for class but to each his own , sorry I couldn't be of any help with your battery issue.
Good Luck

 

I decided to fully pull the battery apart last night. I will post pictures when i get a chance.

 

If anyone wants to build there own external battery, check out these sites:

http://www.batteryspace.com/externalbatterybank.aspx

http://www.ibt-power.com/Battery_packs/Li_Polymer/Lithium_polymer_cells.html

If you decide to build your own external battery, make sure you heed the warnings and read the info provided. If the pack you want to buy/build does not have a controller, make sure you buy one. Do not try to mod. your existing packs, it is very dangerous. However, you can replace defective cells withe the same type/specs.

 

@op

I was going to do that for the sager 8690 but instead I just made a huge battery that charges the laptop. I don't know if you would consider that a battery but it was real easy.

 

I would not advice you to twiddle with the battery. You can get netbooks for $ 400, probably less.

Although the W860CU is 15,6", it is not constructed for everyday class use, except maybe for class rooms that feature a lot of energy plugs and standard size tables. In which case you would not need the battery.

Even if you mod the battery and get to 2 hours battery time, which would be an amazing acomplishment, it would still not be enough for everyday use. Sometimes you will have more than one class + breaks in which you wanna use your notebook. Even with a mod you will never reach 5+ hours of battery life with the W860CU.

 

This was something i was considering as well.
Did you document it? How much can you charge it?

Not constructed for everyday class use? Care to explain?
I know that the battery life is horrible (since it's only 3 cell), but why shouldn't i be able to use it every day in class if i could?
I also know that it's not recommended to experiment with something you do not have any knowledge of, that's potentially harmful. It's common sense.

While i appreciate any input in the topic, let's not get negative about it.
It's merely a discussion wether someone had done it or not, or had a similar solution (like moneyman01's).
I already know that a netbook would be "ok" for class, but that wasn't the topic. It was about extending the battery time for the clevo notebooks.

 

Check this site http://www.zbattery.com/seriesparallel-pf.html
it was really helpful. Just remember to use a parallel Connection and Not a Serial connection. Search Sites like Youtube, wiki answers, ect and it should Be pretty Straight forward.

 

@sp-1

Did you ever get round to taking pictures of the opened battery. I only ask as I have ordered a spare from an ebay seller in China and was hoping to mod it to provide much more capacity.

Do you have any information on the dimensions of the current cells, model numbers or how much unused space there is in the battery pack?

If its not moddable then I at least have a spare battery that I can use as and when I need more than an hours running

 

Here is the picture after I dismantled a battery from the FS D1845 laptop. Except for a small circuitry i does not seem so complex stuff. The elements could be in theory changed.

 

I will take a picture when I get back home and post it.

 

Here is a picture let me know if you need higher quality as I shrank it from 15mp. I will get measurements of the cells soon as well.