johnthegasman Posted February 3, 2019 Share #1 Posted February 3, 2019 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hi everyone, I have an R8 motor drive with a charger and a nearly dead battery. Are there any UK companies who will fit new cells in a Leica rechargeable battery 14423. There are some old threads discussing a DIY change of batteries. Is there a really detailed description of how to do it, here or any where on line? As anyone converted the battery to use ordinary AA rechargeable or normal AA batteries ( Leica should have used this option at the start !!!!! ) Is there anyone out there with a spare Leica battery 14423 dead or working they would sell !!!! please contact me to discuss. Any help or information would be appreciated All the best John. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 3, 2019 Posted February 3, 2019 Hi johnthegasman, Take a look here R8 MOTOR DRIVE, BATTERY RE-FURBISHMENT. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
wlaidlaw Posted February 4, 2019 Share #2 Posted February 4, 2019 John, I assume you have the Motor-Winder R, rather than the smaller and slower Motor-R. I have replaced the rechargeable batteries in a number of devices, shavers, toothbrushes, cameras etc. I first remove the original NiMH/NiCad/Li-Ion batteries and ID the batteries used, either by numbers written on them or by size/shape/capacity/voltage/connections. Take photos before you remove to make sure you replace in the correct voltage orientation. These will normally be solder in, tagged batteries. Then there are various sources for replacements in the UK, CPC Farnell, Small Battery Company, Ali-Express, eBay and so on. While you are doing this, it would be worth checking if there are any electrolytic capacitors in the circuitry in the battery compartment and replacing those as well, given that they are likely to be near the end of their usable lives. The alternative and what I have done for my R9 is to use the somewhat slower (3fps) Motor-R which uses regular CR123A lithium-manganese batteries (do not use RCR123A rechargeables as they are over-voltage). Motor R's fetch comparatively little money on eBay. I have seen them for less than £100. Wilson Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnthegasman Posted February 6, 2019 Author Share #3 Posted February 6, 2019 Hi, thanks for that, I have the the motor winder R which is working OK. It's the motor drive that uses the rechargeable battery pack 14423, that I need to sort out. It has 8 x 1.2volt Ni-mh batteries in it, which I need info on replacing, so your description of how to proceed has been duly noted. thank you John. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wlaidlaw Posted February 7, 2019 Share #4 Posted February 7, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, johnthegasman said: Hi, thanks for that, I have the the motor winder R which is working OK. It's the motor drive that uses the rechargeable battery pack 14423, that I need to sort out. It has 8 x 1.2volt Ni-mh batteries in it, which I need info on replacing, so your description of how to proceed has been duly noted. thank you John. John, If you succeed in replacing the batteries it would be worth checking how much voltage ripple there is from the charger, when actually charging. Various components may have deteriorated in the charger. By when they were made, I would guess the charger will be a conventional transformer, rectifier, voltage regulator and smoothing capacitors, rather than the more modern fast switching type of charger. Any or all of the last three components may have deteriorated in the 20 odd years since it was made. There is a thought that excessive ripple in the charging current, dramatically shortens the life of dry metal rechargeable batteries by causing what is called whiskering or microscopic threads of metal between the anode and cathode in the battery. These increase self discharge rates and eventually lead to battery failure. You will need to access an oscilloscope to check for ripple. Ideally ripple should be no more than 1% of charging voltage but up to about 3% is probably acceptable. Wilson Edited February 7, 2019 by wlaidlaw Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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