It was a cool little Packard Bell Statesman laptop. No specs, no power cord, no idea what was in it. So I spent a day tearing it apart to see what guts this thing had, and to figure out how to power it (batteries were dead and I had no power cord). Adding to the predicament was the fact that I couldn't find ANY information online.
So after a week of toying around with attempts to charge the battery, and even riggin a power supply to act as the battery, I finally found some clues that helped me guess the pinout of the normal power connector (it looks something like an s-video plug, so no simple power/ground scheme). So my final solution was a power "adapter" built from my IBM laptop adapter with some paper clips and wire (total fire hazard I know).
And here is the result...
Specifications (I'm guessing):
Intel 386 (running at 25 Mhz)
4MB RAM
200MB HD
Color VGA Screen (640x480)
Floppy
PCMCIA Type 1 slot
Ports: Parallel, COM, VGA out, PS/2
An interesting part of this laptop is a feature called the J-Mouse which basically makes the J key (which has a small depression in it) work like the red dot TrackPoint on IBM laptops. You move the key around with your finger to make the mouse pointer move. While holding your finger on the J key, several other keys function as left/right click and double click.
The Packard Bell Statesman is extremely similar to the Dell NL-25 in design and hardware. The info related to the power connector for the NL-25 helped a lot; however, the power connector does NOT appear to have the same pinout as the Statesman.
Dell NL-25 Pictures
Dell NL-25 Specifications
Dell NL-25 Tech Notes
UPDATE (12/7/08):
This is the power connector pinout that I used to power the laptop on. This is drawn as if you were looking at the power connector on the laptop. I used 16V for the supply voltage and it seemed to work fine, but I have no clue if it will charge the batteries.
7 comments:
Could you describe this power adapter? I have the same computer with no power supply!
Mógłbyś opisać to zasilanie, co do której dziurki? Mam taki komputer, ale też bez zasilacza.
Prosiłbym o maila na adres
coronzon88 (a) gmail.com
Hi. I just received nl-25 of eBay. But there's no power adapter for it. I used your scheme along with dell specification to power it up with my fujitsu/siemens adapter. It works but have no mouse so am not able to do anything yet. I just wonder if anyone know where could i get modem from? is it possible to put lunix on it and what kind of? and how to make power adapter for it the easiest way? Or if possible purchase one. I don't understand the need for 4 pins. Thnx
Moge przetłumaczyć na Pl ;P
Linux might be possible. You could try Damn Small Linux, but even that might be too big since the minimum specs are 486 and 16MB RAM (the laptop I have is only a 386 with 4MB RAM).
The power adapter, you can either try and find one on ebay or just add a regular DC power plug somewhere on the laptop case and use any power supply that has the right voltage. I have no idea what the other 2 pins are for on the power connector, they seem to be for charging the battery according to the Dell tech notes.
Wow. That was quick. I thought this blog has been abandoned years ago and only hoped for some other visitor's help. It seemed like the battery takes charge on the other two pins. But I don't think the laptop been used for years. I got the mouse today and this time am unable to start it. Do you know if it's possible that I made a wrong connection and damaged some electronics. I have a bleeping green battery light. Thanks for any help and time spared. By the way, are you Polish?
Yes I am Polish, but it's easier for me to write in English. I haven't had time to post anything so that's why the blog seems abandoned, but I still get the comments in my email. Anyway, I doubt you burned anything because I did a lot of poking around before I got it to turn on. Check for loose connections on the power plug and try booting with the battery pack removed.
That drawing is backwards, it's drawn as if you're looking at the plug if you treat it like you're looking at the back of the pc, then you're putting unlimited current into the battery, which will make it very, very hot, and possibly explode!
I should point out, though, that if you don't have a battery, putting power into the charge line will still power the computer. I've done a lot of research and experimentation, and I've got the entire power system figured out, if anyone's interested..
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