Slashdot Mirror
Notebook Battery Chargers?
Nilatir asks: "Here at the University where I work we're checking out Dell notebooks to the students in the library and our main lab. While this is proven to be good for the students I'm having a hard time managing the batteries for the notebooks. By eliminating the floppy drives and using wireless APs to access network shares we were using two Li-Ion batteries in every Latitude and getting almost 8 hours of life a day from them. But, due to some students undying dependence on floppy disks, we were forced to drop down to one battery which will only last half the day at best. We now have an extra battery for each notebook with no way to charge them (even Dell's docking station has no charging bay). Have any slashdotters run into a problem like this and how you all resolve it? Does anyone know of external battery charging station for notebook batteries?" Will laptop makers ever learn that this is one of those accessories that would sell like hotcakes?
I have the same problem, and we actually try to use one of the laptops that hasn't been checked out yet to top off the batteries. It's a pain in the ass, but at least the Latitudes have the LED battery indicator on the battery, and stop flashing the laptop power light when the tthings are charged.
It's one of the most damned expensive external chargers I've ever seen, though.
I will assume this college of yours has an electrical engineering department. Ask one of us! We are friendly especially when project ideas are accompanied by a case of beer!
Why stick up for big business?
why not an external USB floppy, and keep the dual internal batteries? Check out the floppy drive as a seperate item only for the students who feel they need it. That also buys you the ability to check out drives capable of handling different media beyond what the modular drive sold with the laptop (1.44MB floppy?) could handle.