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Replacement Nicads for HP Battery Packs

Posted by Katie Wasserman on 4 Mar 2003, 5:55 p.m.

Here's a list of what I use for replacement nicad batteries in all the rechargeable HP calculator battery packs. Aside form the 41C rechargeable battery pack (82120A), all of these batteries are available from Digikey http://www.digikey.com. What's especially nice about buying from them is that they are excellent quality batteries, are always in stock and they will pre-configure any arrangement needed for only a small extra charge. By pre-configure, I mean they will spot-weld the solder tabs together in the configuration that is needed inside the HP battery pack, thus making the battery replacement much easier and exactly the same as HP did it.

Please note: DIGIKEY DOES NOT RE-BUILD BATTERY PACKS they will only sell you the batteries inside the pack (correctly configured), you have to open the plastic pack yourself, remove the old batteries and install the new ones – this requires soldering to the ends of the pre-configured batteries for the following packs: 82001B, 82033A, 82430A. Don't send your battery packs to Digikey, just order the batteries from them using the part numbers below.

These part numbers are all for nicad batteries. Digikey does sell nimh batteries in equivalent configurations but the HP charging circuits were not designed for them, so I have not provided part numbers for those. You can try them on your own if you like by looking up the appropriate part number on Digikey’s site.


                                               DigiKey      Price/pack
Calculator(s)     Battery     Construction     Part         (a/o 06/2005)

Classic series HP-75C/D 82001B 3 x AA 700mah P092-F031 $ 8.55

Woodstock series 82019B 2 x AA 700mah 2 x P092 $ 4.42 (individual cells)

Sting series 82052A 2 x AA 700mah P092-F021 $ 5.71 2 x AA 700mah 2 x P092 $ 4.42 (individual cells) ------- $10.13

Spice series 82109A 2 x AA 700mah P092-F021 $ 5.71

Topcat series HP 82143A printer HP 82161A drive HP 82162A printer 82033A 4 x subC 1500mah P175-L022 $10.06

HP-94D/E/F 82430A 4 x 2/3C 1000mah P238-L041 $29.28

41C/CV/CX rechargeable 82120A 4 x 1/3AAA 50mah $14.00 ] (see note below for details)

Notes on the above:

- All of the prices are for single quantities. And all of these batteries have a somewhat greater capacity (about 15%) than HP's original packs.

- Individual cells (with tabs, e.g. P092T) and the end cells used in packs come with solder tabs on them. For the 82019B, 82109A and 82052A battery packs remove the end tabs before inserting into the plastic pack. This will leave a flat end to the battery that matches the original HP battery pack's design. Part number P092 (no T suffix) are flat-top cells without tabs.

- There are two variants of the 82033A battery pack. In one case the V-connectors attached to the end cells inside the pack. This is how the Digikey battery pack comes and will be a cinch to install. The other variant has the V-connectors attached in the middle of the pack and will require you to do some soldering work to get the Digikey pack to match the one being replaced.

- The 82052A battery pack needs to have the end two batteries freely movable within the pack in order to make good contact with the connectors inside the calculator, so separate cells are used. The middle two cells can be joined together which helps to create more pressure on the outer two batteries for better contact.

- I have rebuilt an 82430A battery pack, a very hard task! It uses 4 2/3C cells that must be removed by cutting the pack apart. There is no seam to cut on so you need to remove the rubber grip, and cut out the entire center section of the pack (a Dremel tool with a small rotory saw blade works well for this). The 4 2/3C cells are a very tight fit, so you might want to use a smaller size (4 AA's will fit). After you replace the cells and glue the removed center section back in place, you can use a large piece of double face tape to hold the rubber grip in place. I found that carpet tape is perfect for this

- The 82120A (41C) rechargeable battery pack uses 4 1/2-N cells. Unfortunately this size is no longer made by any manufacturer. Sanyo was the last to manufacture these but they are longer available. (TG Works carried them for a while, but they are no longer in business). However, I found a reasonable substitute also made by Sanyo; 4 x 1/3 AAA cells fit with room to spare. They are slightly smaller in diameter than the 1/2 N cells and therefore have about 30% less capacity, but they work fine. They are available as part number 1/3AAA-50WT from any Sanyo distributor. The lowest price that I've found is $2.50 each from The NiCad Lady http://nicdlady.com/cell_pr.html#nicads

Edited: 1 July 2005, 1:56 p.m.

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