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| Re-celling an EN-EL4 battery - Page 1 | |
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| Posted: Tue Jan 2nd, 2018 02:45 |
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1st Post |
Robert
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This continues a post in the 'Wanted' section. The cells from the original Nikon EN-EL4 battery are 18.4mm Dia. and 65mm long depending where you measure them. In general working terms I would call them 18650 cells. The cells which were in my D1 EN-4 battery pack which I fitted at least 8 years ago measure 17.8mm Dia. and are 65mm long. I checked the Voltage both packs I have and they were 7.8 Volts and 7.3 Volts respectively. Given it's at least a year since I charged them and they have sat unused in my cabinet they must still be in good condition. The EN-EL4 pack split quite easily but the cells were stuck in the top half of the housing with very sticky double sided tape and were quite tough to remove without damaging the connections or the small PCB. I plan to install the Samsung 18650 cells from my EN-4 pack into the EN-EL4 case. I am expecting it to be a tricky operation because the solder tags on the Samsung cells have been already clipped to fit the EN-4 housing but I have a large hammer and crowbar so I can make them whatever I wish! I have only nicked myself once with my Stanley knife so far, so it's going well!!!  Sorry about the image, I thought the iPhone would have made a better attempt. Attachment: Nikon battery cells.jpg (Downloaded 41 times)
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Tue Jan 2nd, 2018 04:08 |
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2nd Post |
jk
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The red cells are the original Nikon ones? What are I think this looks easy especially after my original exploits with the D1, D2X batteries. I think that the two options with tagged cells or free cells needs to be driven by how you want to charge the cells. The options are to treat the 18650 cells like an large AA battery where you treat the original EN-EL4 case as a holder. The other option is to use tagged cells and rebuild the battery with new cells.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
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| Posted: Tue Jan 2nd, 2018 04:59 |
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3rd Post |
Robert
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My opinion hasn't changed since I did the D1 EN-4 project. Soldered in and seal the unit. Charging is no longer an issue, charging the cells was the main reason for having to be able to pull the cells out, unless you did my trick of improvising a special 7.2 Volt two cell charger which plugged into the pack like the original charger did. Yes, the red cells are the original Nikon cells from the EN-EL4 pack. Agreed, it's a dead easy project in comparison with the D1 EL-4 project which involved cutting a large hole in the casing due to very tight clearances. I got these (green) Samsung cells from CPC Farnell's at Preston. They in two pack, shrink wrapped pairs which had overheat sensors between the cells. I stripped that to the bare cells and re-built using the original Nikon PCB. This is much easier because I can recharge using the normal MH-21 charger, I had to buy and improvise a special charger for the Samsung cells. That will still charge my UV lamp unit but I may cannibalise the UV lamp unit and revise the batteries for that. Cross that bridge when I come to it... Possibly a small 12 Volt lead acid battery would do for that. Which is another possibility for the large external power pack, to get ten volts, drill into a car battery where the cell link is between the fifth and sixth cells and tap off 11.5 volts for the camera. These EN-EL4 packs are showing over 12 Volts at the battery to camera contacts, therefore the camera must be able to tolerate at least 12 volts. The battery can still be charged normally but cell six won't get used. It's a trick often used with trucks, they are usually 24 Volt but CB radios are usually 12 Volt, so they just use half of the 24 Volt battery. Works perfectly well.
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Tue Jan 2nd, 2018 08:10 |
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4th Post |
jk
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Yes there can be issues with seating and gettng good connections with the unsoldered cells.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
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| Posted: Tue Jan 2nd, 2018 09:43 |
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5th Post |
Robert
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There has to be a substantial electrical connection, it needs to pass, without resistance, at least 4 amps @ 10 Volts without delay, the shutter capacitors depend on it. That's why the D1 used to fail to fire the shutter unless it got all the juice it needed, immediately. I assembled my first D1 EN4 battery with smaller gauge wire and it didn't work, I replaced the smaller gauge wire with something larger and it worked perfectly. I would get over 1200 exposures from those batteries on the D1 and D1X. That was unheard of, A good, new battery was usually around 300 exposures per charge, from memory. I think any external battery will need to have a short lead to the camera, since at that voltage and with DC, the voltage drop will be a factor. In fact it may need all six cells of a 12 Volt lead acid battery to get a good response, and perhaps it might be a good idea to have cells in the camera, continuously replenished by the lead acid battery. Although, perhaps that may bring issues with 'over charging'... One of the links I posted contained the full technical specifications of the 18650 cell and it stated it could produce 30 Amps full load, not sure how long for...
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Tue Jan 2nd, 2018 10:42 |
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6th Post |
Robert
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This is an interesting link... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ceos88VO6p4 Very polished. However, there are many alternative and much cheaper options alongside that offering. I think that will be the way I will go, spot welding the tags on myself will be much better. I have single sided spot welded 316 stainless steel 1.2mm sheet, many times. It's an easy, quick process requiring very little gear. I realise this is a different scale but the principle is the same.
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Mon Jan 8th, 2018 15:08 |
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7th Post |
Robert
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This evening as the Christmas hubbub fades away I got back to my task of re-celling the only dubious battery I have, a genuine Nikon EN-EL4 D3 battery which was on 'life 4' according to the camera battery meter. It was very quick to recharge which made me suspicious about it's capacity. I removed the PCB from the original cells by cutting the links close to the cells to give myself something to work with to re-solder them to the cells I salvaged from my D1 battery. I have partly re-connected the 'new' cells to the PCB but it's a somewhat floppy assembly and not wanting to get a short circuit or other silliness I have applied some "Gorilla Glue" to the areas where the cells touch. That should make it a more stable assembly so I can complete the second set of soldered connections on the other side of the battery. That should only take a few minutes in the morning. The most difficult bit was linking the two cells under the PCB, it might have been better to have linked them at the non PCB end, there isn't as much room, but it might have been easier, next time...
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Mon Jan 8th, 2018 16:31 |
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8th Post |
jk
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Keep going Robert. Please post some photos. I am travelling to UK tomorrow. I will be stuck on Seaton, Devon until 21st when I return to Spain.
____________________ Still learning after all these years! https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none |
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| Posted: Tue Jan 9th, 2018 03:22 |
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9th Post |
Robert
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Thanks JK, it was a battle royal last night. Re-using the D1 battery cells wasn't the brightest of ideas I have had recently. The tabs on the cells were trimmed when I first utilised them, now I am having to extend the tabs and tag bits of wire in to make connections. Not pretty or particularly easy considering the very limited space available. I ought to get some nickel plated strips but that's a pain so I am going to plod on and patch this for now. Not very satisfactory but will do a better job with the next one, if I can get another EN-EL4 to cannibalise together with new tagged cells. Will try to get some pix but this is really just one sticky mess! If I can tidy it up some then I will. The key to this is fresh cells with nice clean tags, have thought about a spot welder but unless I am going to make a lot of battery packs up it isn't worth it. There is no way I would do this to sell them on as cheap units. Way too risky if one caught fire. A crude unregulated welder isn't going to make reliable welds so that's a non starter. Even making my own, regulated welder would be quite expensive, well over a hundred quid. Then there would still be some risk of spoiling some cells setting it up. The difference between a good weld and a poor weld is not much with such thin metal.
____________________ Robert. |
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| Posted: Tue Jan 9th, 2018 04:11 |
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10th Post |
Robert
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Mmmm... A tag has just broken off a cell, wasn't welded on properly... (What chance do I stand!) Will order three new cells with tags, start again. The tags are 0.15mm thick by 5mm wide, which gives a cross sectional area of 0.75 square mm (Can't do superscript here I don't think?) The material is nickel plated steel, higher resistance than copper. 1 square mm copper wire should be well able to handle the current, yet be pliable and small enough to install. Can't solder directly to the cells because it will melt the plastic internals and possibly cause an explosion and fire.
____________________ Robert. |
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| This is topic ID = 1496 Current time is 07:52 | Page: 1 2 3 | |
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