d1x with lithium ion battery.

[anka]

woot. I just made a lithion ion battery pack for D1x. 7.2v with 4350mah.

will do some testing tomorrow

the geez of it. 6x 3.6v 1450mah AA rechargable Li-ion.

[TMC]

you are going to make a number of people very happy if that works

[Cactus jACK]

great idea!!! :thunbsup:

hope it works!!

[Artosoft]

Originally Posted by anka woot. I just made a lithion ion battery pack for D1x. 7.2v with 4350mah. will do some testing tomorrow the geez of it. 6x 3.6v 1450mah AA rechargable Li-ion.

6 x 3.6v = 21.6v, 1450mAH (in series)???
or 3 in parallel ==> 2 x (3 x 3.6v) = 7.2v, 4350mAH???
Li-ION in AA size?

So many things I missed in tech.... .

Regards,
Arto.

[harry t]

look forward to your idea - reminds me of the time when they marketed Li-ion batt packs for the Ericsson GH337

let us know how the test when, the charging method and the efforts to modify. Thinking of getting a D1H myself.

[roygoh]

If you are not really the DIY type you might want to check out this site for ready made Li-ion batter packs. Here's a 7.4V 4000mAH pack for US$27:

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=2455

The charger goes for US$19:

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=1121

To attach external power supply to the D1x you can modify an existing (and probably dead) EN-4 by ripping out the NiMH cells inside but retaining the electrical contacts.

[stinkyfoot17]

Oh ... Please do post your testing results ....

[anka]

battery life is very good. it almost seems like it's forever at full. but when it is nearly empty, it empties very fast.. 1/2 bar is like about 30mins. can do whole day shoot. 500+ raw files.

i am not sure about the 2000mah cylindrical battery.. i didnt try that cause not sure if it's AA size. but i got mine at US$4 per battery. however the PCB is not located in the battery. the PCB is at the charger. I could not find space to squeeze it in. but i doubt D1x would draw more than 4A. so only charging /discharging(which i dont do) is the issue.

only spent $90 -/+ for everything.. at least dont have to bring out 2 batteries.. anyway is a backup camera where i need to hit hit xSYNC. and YAP.. i have tested d1x xsync at 1/16,000. not a problem.

once i go above 1/3200, i start to have light loss.

was thinking about modding D2x.. but not much improvement.. calculated to be only 10.8v at 2800 mah.


oh forgot to mention 1 thing.. full charge is 7.56v abit higher than usual.. full NiMh pack is 7.48v even thou it stated at 7.2v

[roygoh]

Did you use the DC in socket or mod an EL-4 battery to drive the power into your D1X?

I have opened up 2 dead EL-4s, and thinking of buying the ready made pack and charger form the website I quoted above. With shipping included it will cost me around US$50+ and a couple of hours to connect the wires to the EL-4 case.

[anka]

mod the EL-4. there is no extra cables.. noone would know it's a lithium ion powered d1x unless i take out the battery to show. even then the shrink wrap cant really tell.

[TMC]

how to charge the modded batts?

[espn]

Originally Posted by TMC how to charge the modded batts?

Use the supplied charger? Shouldn't be an issue if the i/c chip is there on the modded batteries I guess.

I was more interested in using EN-EL4a for both D1 and D2, that would be a LOT of juice for the D1.

[anka]

if using the same cell and do for d2 series,
the d2 battery would be 10.8 at 2900mah

with that little increment, not worth the effort.

[espn]

The current power for the D2 is good enough, but not for the D1, and the ability to use one battery on TWO systems would be great, D1X is still a nice camera... I don't need to increase the power for D2, but would very much like D1 to use D2's battery system.

The D2 battery lasted me 3 days under near sub-zero to sub-zero weather, that's good enough already.

[arpinkor]

Originally Posted by anka woot. I just made a lithion ion battery pack for D1x. 7.2v with 4350mah. will do some testing tomorrow the geez of it. 6x 3.6v 1450mah AA rechargable Li-ion.

Got some Qs for the TS.
May I know where you got your AA-sized 1450mAh Li-ion batteries from ?
I searched high and low and only found the 14500 (AA) sized Li-ion batteries with capacity at about 800mAh max each. Also, how did you manage to squeeze 6 x AA-sized batteries into the EN-4 casing ? From my measurements, 2 x AA-sized batteries stacked in series (2 x 49mm long) are too long to fit into the EN-4 casing, unless your design doesn't use the original battery cover.
If your batteries are really 800mAh, then the capacity of wiring 3 parallel sets of 2 in series should be 3 x 800 = 2400mAh (at 7.4V), which is the same as what I get with my 2 x 18650 sized ones (mine is based on the ang moh (Jonathan M Knights) one).
Thanks.

[stdfoto]

Does anyone know if any shops in singapore carry such batteries?

[arpinkor]

Which battery are u talking about ?
The EN-4 NiMH replacements or the 18650 Li-ion batteries ?
The former can get from EG, the latter, you can get the Unicell versions from battery.com.sg. I don't know how good are the Unicell versions because mine is LG from batteryspace.com (shipping is damn ex.) but still cheaper than places like allbatteries.com

I dunno whether the parts can be sourced locally (I didn't look very hard). If you want to DIY, you need to get 2 x 18650 Li-ion batteries (about 2400mAh - max is 2600mAh), a small protection PCB (very important for safety, this is the one thing I'm not sure whether locally can get) and also a suitable smart charger (for 7.4V Li-ion).
I thot of doing the brothers here a favour by doing this conversion but cutting the battery case is hard work and also the shipping of the parts is ex so I gave up on the idea.

[stdfoto]

Was wondering why nikon never made AA battery holders for tis case???