# BirDog Question



## HIgh Order (Jul 12, 2021)

Hi!
Long time lurker.

I need the pinout for the BirDog Ultra meter's battery, the one with two plugs. I've searched, looked around and asked, no one seems to have an answer. 

Anybody here know?

Thanks in advance


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Can you post pictures ? Is it have colored wires coming out ?


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## HIgh Order (Jul 12, 2021)

of the box side? (I don't have a battery.)

These plug into what appear to be a charging board. A wall wart also plugs into this board.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Well, perhaps, if you could dismantle old non-working battery ...
https://manualzz.com/doc/13056584/replacement-birdog-ultra-battery-replace-your-older-birdo...
What the pinout will give you ?


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## HIgh Order (Jul 12, 2021)

Thanks! I saw that ad, too. No real response from any of the contact information though.

Sadly, I don't have the battery, I bought this as-is, and thought I'd fix it. Knew I'd have to build a battery pack, but had no idea I'd have to chase the layout!


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

perhaps you could find someone with it and do your non-invasive measures


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## HIgh Order (Jul 12, 2021)

No one I've reached so far has even seen one in forever, lol. But thanks for trying!


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

well, I see only one way out - buy old cheap battery to dissect it


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## HIgh Order (Jul 12, 2021)

Have you seen one of those?  People have offered to sell me the battery either at great expense, or they say they'll throw the receiver it is attached to for free LOL!


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

I'm working "pro bono" with notebook's batteries last year... there are a few smart batterie's Analyzers on a market; they could read a lot of info via SMBus/I2C/etc.
I'm itching to tear apart some BirDog's battery to see if there is a control PCB, what cells used [18650 ? - *four !*], how they connected [2S2P ? - nope, *4S1P ! 3.7V x 4 = 14.8V*]?


> 2800 mAh four cell Lithium Ion battery
> HORIZON BIRDOG SATELLITE METER BATTERY BP1501 14.8 VOLT 2800mAh Li-Po BATTERY


If I would guess by number of pins in two connectors ... it could be connected to each cell(s) in series of 2/3 pairs, then wires could go to each cell;
or there are Vpos/Vneg of the battery and SCL/SDA and SystemPresent contact (like in notebooks) ?

EDIT. Could be the 2 wires connected to battery's V+/V- and other three wires connected to each cell's positive contact... then one wire would be free ?



> CELL TYPE 1865


 it's 18650 !

In EU, the battery is selling for 40 EUR rarely
Found it in CO HORIZON BIRDOG SATELLITE METER BATTERY BP1501 14.8 VOLT 2800mAh Li-Po BATTERY - Littleton, CO - $40

According the rules printed on other side of the battery, two pin and four pin connectors , seems to me, are directly connected to cells. Because there is strict order of [dis]connecting to the battery.

I would pay the $40 for a privilege to find out its pinout and reveal internal connections. Then I would make my own packs and sell them to cover the expenses for parts and my time


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

And here is my last thought - perhaps the meter is charging each cell separately, if it has six wires and required special order of connection ?


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## HIgh Order (Jul 12, 2021)

You make excellent points. I'll get a better picture of the board they plug into in awhile. 
That ad, at the bottom, said 'from eBay'. I could never find the ad referenced on there. I tried contacting the seller on there a couple of weeks ago with no response.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

try 
*Reply to Seller*


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

I'm working on my own battery for my TDS3000 ;
and there are 5 pin connector, it has wires to each triplet of cells [4S3P] and the scope could charging internally [very slow !] the triplets separately and doing voltage balancing;
original TDS3BATC have inside own PCB with temp sensors and balancing by BMS chip, if you using own battery charger; it doing 5 times faster then the scope


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## HIgh Order (Jul 12, 2021)

Right, it's my working theory that the one connector supplies +V and ground, and the other connector is used for balancing the cells; this is a common arrangement in electrically-powered airsoft replicas. I just don't have time to go out and start scoping the charging board right now, I kind of thought with the number of these meters out there, information would be more common lol.
I'm not sure what a TDS3000 is, but here, battery packs are pretty easy to come by, most cities have a chain store that will rebuild them while you wait... if you have a used core to begin with.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

it's a Tektronix scope  portable :thumbsup:


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## HIgh Order (Jul 12, 2021)

I went and looked at it on their site. That thing has a *huge* battery!


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

It's just 12 cells [4S3P] of 18650 type in new model, or 11 NiCad elements in old kind


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