Teardown/Gut notes for TYT MD380 battery
2017.02.05 N0ZYC

I recelive this battery from another ham that had "cooked" his TYT battery by leavking it
on charge prior to getting the charger current-modified.  The stock charger supples a bit
too much voltage and will rapidly degrade the LiPo batteries.  Get your charger modified
asap.

I was given the battery with intention of gutting it and installing wiring to turn it
into a "battery eliminator".  This was difficult because the shell of the battery is made
of the same hard/strong material as the charger (nylon?) and is plastic-welded together
pretty thoroughly.  Good strong construction which I like, just not very easy for
maintenance.  In this case, my screwdrier barely made a dent on the seam when I first
tried to pry it open.  So I went off to the dremel.

I was seriously considering the possibility of nicking a LiPo cell with the dremel, as I
could not find ANY pictures or info on what lay inside the shell.  I ended up using a
metal cutter (NOT a ceramic disc!) to remove the back around the sides.  I was careful
not to damage the upper or lower clips or the battery contact area as I needed to keep
that as intact as possible.

After running the dremel along both sides, I noticed the battery was not in that area,
so I was safe.  But in the end I also ran the dremel along the bottm seam, and that was
a mistake, at least where I did it.  That's where the contacts run up from the battery
board at the bottom to the rear housing and run all the way up to the contacts for the
radio at the top. (tabbing wire)  Those got cut my my dremel, though no other damage
was done, the battery board and battery were untouched.

Theere are two LiPo packs inside, and strong doublesided tape is used to stick them
together and to the rear of the housing.  Start prying at the top, alternating between
left and right sides, as the adhesive slowly gives way.  Don't use a metal tool use a
plastic stick if possible to avoid damaging the batteries.  I wasn't interested in re-
using them, but I wanted to avoid a leak or a fire.  LiPo don't react well to physical
damage.  You should probably fully discharge your battery pack (to its low voltage point)
before attempting disassembly to reduce the raction in case there's an accident.

Here I made my only serious mistake.  I had just finished unsoldering the tabbing wires
to the battery and the red/black wires between the rear contacts and the board.  I was
assuming the remaining contacts at the top were also soldered, and so I tried to unsolder
them.  Mistake!  They are actually spot-welded, and for good reason.  The contacts are
just kind of press fit into the back, where the plastic is thin and melts easily.  I
quickly dislocated one of the contacts.  By some miracle I was able to get it settled
back more-or-less in place.  Tabbing wires were cut short and adhesive tape removed.

The shell halves still fit together pretty well.  I think next time I do this I will only
dremenl the sides, to avoid the battery board and its tabbing wires to the top.  The
remaining work of installing a wire is pretty simple so I won't go into that here.
I DO intend on dumping a good amount of hot glue behind the top contacts though to help
reinforce them.  Not only because of the melting I did earlier, but also since there
won't be any battery cells directly behind them to help prevent them from getting
pressed in by the radio's contacts.

- Nathan