[shunt]

While at the Applestore recently having a weak battery checked out, one of the guys looked at the numbers below the barcode and said he knew how old it was...told me the year , etc.

When asked how he did it, he quickly ran out back into one of the "mysterious black doors".

Anyone know how to decipher these codes?

Was he pulling my leg?

(googling anything with powerbook and batteries brings me around the world and back where I started...nowhere)

[SpaceRockness]

There is a public site in german which you type in the bar code or SN of any Apple product and it'll decode those numbers into a readable format.
When CompUSA sold me a dead battery, the proof I used was from such a site by matching the battery and box barcode.

[brokenjago]

That sounds really interesting.
Anyone have a link for that?

[iBorg]

Originally Posted by SpaceRockness

There is a public site in german which you type in the bar code or SN of any Apple product and it'll decode those numbers into a readable format.
When CompUSA sold me a dead battery, the proof I used was from such a site by matching the battery and box barcode.

Here is the link to the site, which states:

"If you would like to have more information on your Macintosh (model, date of production, etc) then enter your serial number here. All the information that we can wring from the serial number will be shown to you. We support all Apple products including computers, laptops, monitors, printers and batteries."



iBorg

[shunt]

Thank you iBorg.

And after just checking, the Apple genius was right about the year of the battery...he must know what key letters to look for because he did it off the top of his head.

EDIT:

I think I've figured part of it out, first two letters are factory, then I've color coded the next number red is the year, and next two green are the week (out of 52).

Here's an example Pismo battery: LW0311FNHQ4

Results from site-

Serial number: LW0311FNHQ4
Model: M7385 Battery for PowerBook G3
Factory: LW (Taiwan)code_to_number: 1FN - UV42414QPLX

Production year: 2000
Production week: 31 (August)
Production number: 1688 (within this week)

Seems consistent compared with a Tibook battery: ZZ15203RL8VB

Results from site-

Serial number: ZZ15203RL8VB
Model: M8511 Battery for PowerBook G4 (please tell us the family number)
Factory: ZZ (Taiwan)code_to_number: 03RL - W8434158QHY

Production year: 2001
Production week: 52 (December)
Production number: 4338 (within this week)

The rest of the codes aren't as obvious, thugh.