Sony Laptop Battery Hack
From Fozzee.net
My laptop, by default uses a 11.1v/4800mAh battery, part number VGP-BPS2. That's just over 53Wh for those of you keeping track.It started out giving about 3 hours of web surfing, on a good day. Over time, that has diminished somewhat. I've always wanted a second, higher capacity battery, and when I found one on Geeks (for about $50 shipped), I thought now was the time. I did a quick Google search and found that SoftwareSupplyGroup had one even cheaper, at $20 + $7 s/h.
When the battery showed up, I quickly noticed that it was the wrong one. The stock battery slides into the laptop from the back, and latches on each side. The replacement battery (a VGP-BPL4, 11.1v/8800mAh, 97Wh) seems to be intended to be inserted at an angle, and locked down from the front, as it has a "latch" looking bit near the connector, and no rails to slide on. Additionally, it has recesses that would seem intended to pin the back of the battery in place, thus holding it to the bottom of the laptop.
As noted, most people would have returned the battery when they realized that it was the wrong one, but at $27, it was too good a deal to pass up, especially when the proper battery (which btw is a Sony VGP-BPL2) costs like $150.
With that, I went to work. First, I had to physically get the battery to a point where the connector was aligned. The connectors were in the same position, and the new battery's connector supports being either top or front loaded. Basically, this meant solving the "rails" issue. The new battery was intended to be tilted into place, while the laptop's slides in. I debated removing the rails from the laptop, but that would leave the battery basically supported by the connector (and whatever other mechanism I devised). Moreover, cutting the rails would mame a functional laptop, instead of a $30 wrong battery.
Once I started cutting, things were pretty straight forward; Using a combination of a cutoff wheel and a 1/32" burr in my dremel, I added "rail" recesses in the sides of the battery, and removed the "latch" outcropping above the connector. There didnt seem to be anything inside the battery housing in the areas I had to remove. More importantly, I didn't have to recess the top, to fit "under" the front portion, holding the connectors mated, as the laptop bottom flexes a bit to accommodate this.
The only real downside to this setup is that nothing but friction (and a bit of compression, as the battery is just a hair oversized) holds the battery in place. There's none of the BPL2 style latches to be had. In any case, it doesnt seem to be going anywhere. As usual, a picture is worth a thousand words. See what I did.
