Battery Power

[kerncraftergold]

For the ones that haven’t saw my last posts, I am trying to make a Raspberry Pi laptop with an old dead MSI GP60.  At the moment, I have the screen and trackpad working.  I am trying to figure out the keyboard, which I still am working on what the best way is, but I need power.  My idea is to use the removable laptop battery for my power supply, and maybe even the original AC adapter, as both still work well.  But, in removing the MOBO, I also remove the circuitry for charging the battery and getting the different voltage rails.  Is there any way I can use the original battery?  I would love to use as many original parts of the laptop as possible.  
Thanks!

[kelvinhall05]

The easiest option would be to design your own charging circuit PCB and have them made by a cheap fab in China. Shouldn't cost more than $30-40 for five boards including parts and shipping.

 

Also, this isn't what your post is focused on, but if the keyboard module is just the matrix with no processing on it (very likely is) then it would be extremely simple to map that matrix and wire it up to a Pro Micro or something similar running QMK and then just connect that to the Pi with USB.

[kerncraftergold]

14 minutes ago, yaboistar said:

gonna be honest, i'd just tear a powerbank down and cram it in there so that you've got a rechargable power source with a properly designed charging circuit and the appropriate safety features. messing about with lithium batteries is generally considered a bad idea

I’ve thought about that, (I’m trying not to break the bank with this), and I have a few banks already, but they are only 5V, whereas my screen requires 12.

[akio123008]

26 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

The easiest option would be to design your own charging circuit PCB and have them made by a cheap fab in China

Haha did you even hear what you just said? You just used "easy" and "design your own charging circuitry" in one sentence xD. (Edit: just noticed it said "PCB" so you might mean just taking someone else's design and throwing it onto a custom PCB)

 

On a serious note, while that is an option indeed, I wouldn't go about it that way. Not only is it not that easy to do, but also potentially unsafe. There are standard PCBs on the market that you can buy for this sort of thing.

 

Even easier would indeed be to just use a power bank instead.

 

3 minutes ago, kerncraftergold said:

and I have a few banks already, but they are only 5V, whereas my screen requires 12.

You can get very cheap boost converters that can provide the 12V you need.

 

[kerncraftergold]

I guess I didn’t think about the Dc-Dc converters.  I have a family member that has much electrical expertise, and he’s always regarded against them for their inefficiencies.

However, I want one that works similarly to a laptop power pack, as I want to be able to use a power button, rather than cutting the power to the RPi with an on/off switch.

 

[kelvinhall05]

12 minutes ago, akio123008 said:

Haha did you even hear what you just said? You just used "easy" and "design your own charging circuitry" in one sentence xD. (Edit: just noticed it said "PCB" so you might mean just taking someone else's design and throwing it onto a custom PCB)

 

On a serious note, while that is an option indeed, I wouldn't go about it that way. Not only is it not that easy to do, but also potentially unsafe. There are standard PCBs on the market that you can buy for this sort of thing.

It's really not that hard, lol. I'm gonna assume you have zero experience with it if you're assuming it's difficult and dangerous...

[akio123008]

32 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

It's really not that hard, lol. I'm gonna assume you have zero experience with it if you're assuming it's difficult and dangerous...

Designing a circuit for charging these batteries isn't what you'd call easy.