M4-2 Winders don't like Lithium-Managanese AA Batteries

[wlaidlaw]

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On my recently acquired M4-P and M4-2 winder, having checked it all worked, I then replaced the assorted alkaline and zinc carbon batteries it arrived with, for 4 x AA Engergizer Lithium-Manganese non-rechargeable batteries, for long life reasons. Now I reasoned that if the Motor-M on my M7 works well with the higher voltage rechargeable lithium ion RCR 123A (around 3.9v fully charged) in place of the regular CR 123A lithium manganese batteries (about 3.3v when new), then the M4-2 Winder would cope equally well with the 1.7v lithium-manganese instead of 1.3v NiMH rechargeable batteries or the 1.2v of NiCad, which Leica recommended in 1982. I was a bit taken aback how violent the M4-2 motor then seemed, with the whole body of the winder perceptibly distorting, when the motor is winding.

 

It then started to misbehave, sometimes working and sometimes the shutter was not releasing properly, with the curtains sticking half way across and no rewind afterwards. The shutter curtains did not stick at all with a regular bottom plate in place of the winder and after a week of use, even 1 second is now working properly every time. When you removed the motor/winder from the camera body, with half activated shutter blinds, the two parts were under very considerable torque loading to each other. I therefore wondered if the lithium batteries were putting such a load into the shutter release mechanism, that it was partially sticking. I charged up a set of 4 NiMH batteries and put them in and crossed fingers. All now seems to work 100% properly and consistently, so it appears that the problem was caused by the extra voltage of the lithium cells. 

 

I would therefore recommend that folks not be tempted to put lithium AA cells in the M4-2 winder, even though it would seem a sensible thing to do, for the long life they offer. I will have to order some more AA NiMH batteries, as I only seem to have three remaining of every different make or capacity. I will buy from Amazon, as their no quibble warranty seems worthwhile compared with Panasonic's blank refusal to honour their warranty on the 20 x AA NiMH Evolta batteries I bought from them, most of which have failed with leakage. None of my other makes (Sony, Varta, Energizer, Duracell, etc) have leaked, so it's not my chargers

 

Wilson

[willeica]

I use ordinary Duracell Alkaline AA batteries in my M4-2 winder and they work well. I will have to keep an eye on them for leakage, of course.

 

William

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[wlaidlaw]

I use ordinary Duracell Alkaline AA batteries in my M4-2 winder and they work well. I will have to keep an eye on them for leakage, of course.

 

William

 

The Scot in me winces over continually throwing away discharged Alkaline batteries  

 

I can live with Lithium-Managese ones in things like cameras/winders/clocks etc, where I don't want to have to keep taking out and recharging NiMH. Until the fairly recent advent of low self discharge NiMH cells (and a lot of them were not nearly as low self-discharge as the makers would have you believe), you would go to something like a flash, which you know has not been used a lot since putting in freshly charged NiMH batteries, only to find they have gone flat in the meantime.

 

The ones that really irritate me are the high voltage (1.6v) rechargeable NiZn batteries, that you have to use in Apple devices like mice, wireless keyboards and track pads, as those devices switch off when the voltage falls to 1.25 v, which is useless for NiMH batteries. The NiZn batteries have a high self-discharge rate and a low cycle count before they are useless. PowerGenix were the only game in town for these but I now see other makers are offering them. I keep hoping that someone reputable like Energizer will offer them.

 

I have ordered 16 AA Eneloop Pro long life NiMh cells from Amazon Prime France, which come with free plastic boxes. 

 

Wilson