Put new cells in my Motor Drive R8/9

[rick_dykstra]

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In anticipation of getting my R8 and 180/2 Summicron back from Solms after six months away I pulled the motor drive out, to find the battery completely dead. After charging it would light up only one red light. Tried a couple of discharge/charge cycles - no good.

 

So, my neighbour and I dissected the battery pack on his kitchen table, to find that it was definitely repairable, though some pretty nifty soldering would be needed. A label inside described the cells as 1500mAH. A trip to a good electronics store saw me equipped with 8 new 2000mAH cells and a size 00 Philips screwdriver for the screws.

 

An hour and a half of fiddling and soldering and I had the new cells installed, the pack reassembled and on the charger. It took about 50% longer than usual to charge up, but it'll hold more charge too. It all works fine, after tests with another R8.

 

A trick - I used the old pack of cells as a rest along side the new ones when stacking and soldering the top layer of new cells in place. This helped get the offset angle of the top layer just right.

 

Total cost - about a sixth (or less) of a bought one and better performance too.

[roguewave]

Rick, any photos or schema would be helpful for the uninitiated (me).

[jlancasterd]

In anticipation of getting my R8 and 180/2 Summicron back from Solms after six months away I pulled the motor drive out, to find the battery completely dead. After charging it would light up only one red light. Tried a couple of discharge/charge cycles - no good.

 

So, my neighbour and I dissected the battery pack on his kitchen table, to find that it was definitely repairable, though some pretty nifty soldering would be needed. A label inside described the cells as 1500mAH. A trip to a good electronics store saw me equipped with 8 new 2000mAH cells and a size 00 Philips screwdriver for the screws.

 

An hour and a half of fiddling and soldering and I had the new cells installed, the pack reassembled and on the charger. It took about 50% longer than usual to charge up, but it'll hold more charge too. It all works fine, after tests with another R8.

 

A trick - I used the old pack of cells as a rest along side the new ones when stacking and soldering the top layer of new cells in place. This helped get the offset angle of the top layer just right.

 

Total cost - about a sixth (or less) of a bought one and better performance too.

 

IIRC the motor drive battery is about the same size and shape as that for the DMR. Has anyone tried a similar transplant with a DMR battery?

[rick_dykstra]

Rick, any photos or schema would be helpful for the uninitiated (me).

 

I'll open it up again and take some pics, and write a more detailed step by step guide. Stand by.

[rick_dykstra]

OK, here's some photos to show the innards of the motor drive battery pack.

 

Photo 1 shows the old battery pack after removal. It looks like it was made in Feb 2000. Simply de-solder the two red wires from the positive end of the pack and the black wire from the negative end (shown in Photo 2). Peel the temperature sensor (?) away from between the cells, where it is lightly glued in place by a lacquer that holds the cells together.

 

Photo 3 shows what I believe is a temperature sensor circuit. I think it should actually lie between the cells on top of the pack.

 

Photo 4 shows the new pack in place in the case. I've used some electricians tape to insulate the soldered tabs at the far end. The tape on top is just to keep it steady.

 

Photo 5 shows that it works after charging. I'm about to run it through a dis-charge/charge cycle so that the Ni-MH cells are properly calibrated in the first week of use.

 

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[kkhui]

Sorry, I've to bring this old thread up to top!

 

Have rebuilt the battery pack with eight new Sanyo NiMH 1850mAh cells as the 1500mAh version is not available anywhere here. It takes about an hour or so to have the soldering work done. This was way back in August 08 ...

 

Leica R8/R9 Motor Drive Battery Pack #14423 - Photo.net Leica and Rangefinders Forum

 

Replaced the original pack in the unit and started the charging cycle but hit the 'one LED' problem. Tried numbers of discharges and charges but failed to get all three LED light up!

Could it be the problem of the charger itself, I don't know? As I don't have another battery pack or charger I have no way of eliminating the cause one way or the other.

 

Any thought on the way forward would be highly appreciated!

[leicapages]

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highly informative !

Thanks

[rick_dykstra]

Any thought on the way forward would be highly appreciated!

 

Welcome to the party!

 

Could I suggest you have a read of the two other threads on this topic. The second one goes further down the path to resolving the problem, though I'm not there yet (and am actually going to try what you've already tried).

 

A couple of questions if I may, to help with understanding of how these motor drives tick:

 

a. Is your camera and drive functioning correctly, even though the LEDs are out of whack?

 

b. Please measure the voltage as per the first post in the second thread linked below, and post your results in that thread. Thanks.

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/64710-electronics-advice-pls-r8-motor-drive.html

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/65053-r8-9-motor-drive-please-measure-2.html#post678252

 

Regards, Rick.

 

p.s. I've just noticed this is your first post here kk. Welcome to the board too, as well as the motor drive party. Hopefully you'll join in and share your experience.

[kkhui]

... a. Is your camera and drive functioning correctly, even though the LEDs are out of whack?

b. Please measure the voltage as per the first post in the second thread linked below, and post your results in that thread ...

 

Thanks, Rick!

 

Indeed you've gone through a lot of study and trail. For your questions ...

 

a) Yes, even with just one LED working the battery pack powers up the MD and camera faultlessly. The drive speed(s) is correct and the rear LCD of the camera shows full battery charge. I just could not get all the three LCD to light even after numerous discharge/ charge cycles.

 

I took apart the battery pack and made the following measurements you requested.

Red to Black (terminal 2 to 4) - 10.2 v

Red to Yellow (terminal 2 to 3) - 10.2 v

Red to Blue (terminal 2 to 1) - 10.2 v

As I'm using an analog meter, the above readings are approximate only.

[rick_dykstra]

Right. Thanks for making those measurements. Now put it back together and don't probe around with the multi-meter or I'll get in trouble for encouraging you. See the other thread where Mark Norton is helping me figure out what's wrong with my battery.

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/65053-r8-9-motor-drive-please-measure.html

[TomM]

I have read some of the comments about repairing Motor Drive battery packs. I have just had mine rebuilt by Excell Battery Company in Calgary, Alberta. Excell are the Panasonic representatives here and so replaced the existing 8 cells with similar items which they had to order from Panasonic. They claim that they welded the cells together which should be less problematic than soldering. Total cost of work and parts was $55.36. They recommended that I charge, discharge and recharge the pack before use. I did that, but only one light glows. Tried two more times with the same result. Perhaps the batteries are properly charged?

Measured the contacts and find that between 2 and 3 the voltage is about 9.3 and between 2 and 4 the voltage is about 11. Can anyone comment?

[anabasis]

Perhaps I am missing something here. Is everyone using the standard Leica charger for their re-celled packs?

 

Unless I am mistaken, the original cells are NiCd batteries and everyone seems to be recelling with NiMH cells. Is the Leica charger rated for the different kinds of batteries? I know that I had to buy a new battery charger for my AA cells when I started switching over from NiCd to NiMH.

 

I have two packs with original cells and I usually have to run the batteries through two cycles for full charge.

 

JCA

[TomM]

In my case the cells were replaced with similar to the original NiMH cells and I have used the Leica charger.

[Nicoleica]

Could it be that the higher capacity Ni-MH cells are getting a little warmer than the original cells, and this is causing the charger to stop charging prematurely? Perhaps repositioning the temperature sensor slightly might help?

[wlaidlaw]

You can buy from various web sources, rechargeable AA sized cells with solder tags. NiCad are getting difficult to find. I bought 4 NiCad's a couple of years to replace the cells in a Mecablitz rechargeable pack for a MZ-45CL4 hammerhead flash. I was advised not to use NiMH cells due to their higher internal resistance. As Nicole remarked, NiMH do get quite hot when being recharged and this could be upsetting any thermal sensors. For the time being, NiCad's are available here: NiCad AA 1000mAh Rechargeable Battery, with Solder Tabs

 

Wilson

[TomM]

The Leica Motor-Drive R8 was described in Leica Fotografie International in Issue 6/99 of September 1999. The article by Oliver Richter clearly states that this drive employs an accumulator with high-performance NiMH cells. It is therefore unlikely that their characteristics have anything directly to do with the repeated problems of the three lights not being illuminated after the charger has completed its charge cycle. I am still wondering whether the accumulator is fully charged even with only one light showing. I suppose that time will tell.

[roguewave]

I have found that if the battery pack drained to far and on the first insert, that all 3 lights don't come on, all I do is to reinsert for a short time & all 3 will illuminate.