If you have an older handheld battery-powered device, you may be fighting a diminishing battery capacity as its lithium-ion cells reach the end of their life. And if you are like [Foxx D’Gamma], whose device is an Alinco DJ-C7 handheld transceiver, you face the complete lack of availability of replacement battery packs. All is not lost though, because as he explains in the video below the break, he noticed that a digital camera battery uses a very similar-sized cell, and was able to graft the camera battery into the shell of the Alinco pack.
Cracking open the Alinco pack, he was rewarded with the rectangular Li-Ion cell and two PCBs, one for the connector and another for the battery management circuitry. By comparison the camera battery had a much smaller battery management PCB, and it fit neatly into the space vacated by the Alinco cell once those covers had been removed. A fiddly soldering job to attach the connector PCB, and he was rewarded with a working Alinco pack and an unexpected bonus when he found out that the transceiver was a dual band model.
Along the way he’s at pains to point out the safety aspects of handling Li-Ion cells, and to ensure that the polarity of the cell is correct. It’s also worth our reminding readers that these packs must always be accompanied by their battery management circuitry. The result though is pleasing: a redundant piece of equipment made obsolete by a proprietary battery, given a new lease on life.
This isn’t the first battery replacement we’ve shown you featuring old devices. But beware, if you try it you could end up as a Fail Of The Week.
Thanks [Corrosive] for the tip.
Foxx should be spelled with two x’s in his name.
Thanks for posting!
yeah, and Canon should be spelled with only one n in the middle and not two lol!
FTFY
Canonlyoneninthemiddleon
The other common Lithium battery failure that happens with equipment that has sat unused for too long, is the cell voltages are so low (less than 1V) that the charge circuitry will not allow it to be recharged. I’ve had success cracking open cases and “boosting” individual Li-Ion cells with a variable voltage and current power supply. The idea is to TRICKLE charge the Lithium cells back to 3.6V per cell. Then they will charge normally again to 4.2V per cell. Might be impaired capacity… not like new… but recovery is possible. Be careful not to fast charge or even use the native charger, until the battery has been substantially trickled back into life. Else they will overheat and …. well… you know…
I’ve done this as well with a high success rate. Those TP4056 modules so popular from China are fantastic for this as they don’t care about under voltage.
I think they do care about undervoltage – in the way that they try to recover the cell with a very low charging current up to 2,5V or something
They don’t. They will output open or short circuit (aka both 0V load) and I’ve revived 0V coin cells with them as well that come with those cheap RTC modules
Thanks! I hadn’t heard about this method.
And being a bottom feeding tightwad, I’m sure I’ll attempt it at least once in the future.
B^)
Here’s something more extreme, a Li-Ion retrofit for old handheld radios:
http://ea4eoz.blogspot.fi/2014/03/using-old-walkies-with-li-ion-batteries.html