My first attempt at 3D drawing..

Motorla Saber (MX1000/2000/3000) re-made/cycled battery pack.

I am reusing an old Ni-Cd/Nimh battery pack and turning it into a Li-Ion /2x18500 cell) version with smaller fottprint, weight and higer capacity than the original.

This is a very early beta state so updates will follow later on when i have all the parts and refined the design.

Got hold of a batch of the "small" packs so re-mixed the original version to fit this.
Have made 2 working units so far and am evaluating them right now.
So far they exceed my inital expectations!

More on the build details when i refine/finalize the design. (or on request)
Might redesign the larger pack insert to accomodate 18650 cells later on that would be even more versatile since thoose cells are easier to come by but the size of the old "Huge" pack is intimidating for EDC use.. lol

Sorry for the poorly scratched PCB's and soldering in the pictures. (it was a 10 minute throw together during a lunch break at work) However... They work great and look and feel really great on the outside (stock - with a greyline).

So no more excuse to keep all them Sabers in the botom drawer anymore. Print and assemble a few battery cases and sell or give them away to put them to good use once more.. :P

Ok so a short build go-through..

I took old defect/dead Ni-Cd/Mh packs
Cut them open at the bottom
Pulled the old cells and flex out.
De-soldered the old goldplated connection points from the flex and threw away the rest.
took some thin (~1mm) PCB laminate board
Cut the coper as seen on the pictures and mounted it with double sided tape to the "tray"
Soldered 2 of the removed original gold plated pads up top to match the original +/- holes.

I had some "chassienuts" laying around at work so used those and some solder lugs and screws to attach cables to the battery holder (the screws also work as connections towards the cells tighten to ensure good connection) I soldered in a standard 2S Li-Ion battery controller/protection module since my cells are un-protected (they are a few cents to a buck on e-bay)
But the finished "tray" inside the case - drilled a hole to accomodate the top screw that holds the tray to the case.
Melted another "chassienut" into the plastic from inside the tray. voila!

The bonus is that the original rear charge pads get conneted to +/- as well, i intend to use this for charging using proper Li-Ion charger curcuit later on, maybe even rebuild one of thoose old gang chargers for this new setup.