Bowmar 901D / TEN Inside View

The Bowmar 901D case consists of two shells. The top half contains the keyboard and PCB, whilst the lower half contains the rechargeable batteries. The first feature of interest was the Printed Circuit Board (PCB). It has lovely artwork mastered by hand and duplicated for mass production.

Vintage Battery Pack

The original battery pack consisted of six nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries, which had been in use since 1971. Many of the batteries had leaked electrolyte and there was a white residue on them that had dried.

Many of these old batteries contain mercury, which dries into a white powder form; hence, the pack is best disposed of at the recycling centre.

Rebuilding a new battery pack

As you can see, the batteries had disintegrated due to age. Just out of interest to see if it was feasible, I decided to build another battery pack using new rechargeable batteries, and it worked!

Bowmar Power Pack Rebuild

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