Anyone ever try an external battery?

I'm thinking about buying an external universal notebook battery for my X61.

The one I'm looking at is the APC model number UPB70.

Where I'm confused is at the output selection. In looking at the documentation, I'm confused as to which output setting to select. APC recommends on paper to setting the output at 19V 3.9A Max for X60 series without discrete graphics. BUT at the same time, it states to look at the power block for guidance on output selection.

My power block is the 65W one and it outputs 20V 3.25A.

Should I select 19V 3.9A Max or 20V 3.7A Max? OR Avoid the external battery out right?

Thanks for any and all help.

 

In case it's of some use, here's my experience:

I have a UPB60 universal laptop battery, and a R61 Thinkpad, not an X61. The documentation for my UPB60 lists the ThinkPad under IBM, and gives the wrong info for the Lenovo R61. Apparently the IBM R series and the Lenovo R series have different specs. The documentation says the R series takes B/b tips, but those don't fit the R61. I emailed to APC, and they replied *very* rapidly and were very helpful. They said they couldn't guarantee that it would work, but they would be willing to mail me M/m tips. I agreed, and tried the M/m tips, and they worked on the R61. Their documentation listed the R series ThinkPad as 19 volts, when it is actually 20 volts. I *presume* (I'm *not* an expert) that I should set the APC battery to the 20 volts, and that's what I'm doing. So far, so good -- the battery seems to work well with the R61. However, since I don't have an X61, I don't know whether it takes the same universal battery tips as the R61.

 

Follow the details on your AC adaptor. If in doubt, buy a cheap multimeter and stick the plugs in to check both the original power block and the external battery.

I would stick to 20V.

 

Hmm, on rereading it, I see that my former comment wasn't written very well, so let me try to clarify a few things.

The UPB60 documentation that came with the battery I bought doesn't give wrong info for *Lenovo* Thinkpads. Rather, it *doesn't* give info for Lenovo ThinkPads at all. Instead, it only gives info for the *IBM* ThinkPads, such as the R and X series ThinkPads, while the Lenovo R and X series Thinkpads require their own distinct settings. R series settings differ for IBM and Lenovo ThinkPads, and presumably X series settings will probably differ too.

The APC documentation says that "Notebook voltage ratings are usually indicated in one of two locations: at the back of the notebook on the system label or on the notebook AC-to-DC power adapter label."

I'm happy with the APC external battery. But for it to work at all, you need the right adapter tips. The B/b tips that worked with *IBM* R and X series ThinkPads don't work with the Lenovo R61. But APC support was *very* friendly, and sent me M/m tips that fit exactly with my R61. But I don't know whether the tips needed for the X series are the same as those for the R61.