The anatomy of a £300 camera battery.....

dougdarter

dougdarter

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Douglas
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I smelled smoke when I was charging my oldest Canon NP-E3 battery this morning - just as well I was sitting next to it. This battery must be all of 10 years old, and was still good for 100 captures or so.

I decided that as it was jiggered, I'd open the case. Look what I found. The list for a new one is close to £300. This is a rip off!!

DSCN9457_zps01cc1253.jpg
 
But wait..... it has a Canon name on it, must be worth £300 at least.
 
I'd go down to Maplins and but some new bits for a tenner. Do you have a soldering iron?

Unless you want an original of course :)
 
kendo1 said:
I'd go down to Maplins and but some new bits for a tenner. Do you have a soldering iron?

Unless you want an original of course :)
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If the bits needed are a tenner in Maplin, they'll be £2.99 from someone with a more sensible pricing policy.

This is pretty standard construction for a battery pack. Sometimes it's complete batteries like this, other times it's just the component cells.

Got to be worth trying replacing the cells. As long as you didn't completely bugger up the case getting it open.


(it also suggests that buying up "dead" NP-E3 batteries could be the basis for refurbishing to increased capacity)
 
Ooh! Someone has something against a retailer! :)
Personally, I've never had a problem with them and found them very helpful.
It's not always easy to figure out what you need online.

I was meaning 'approx'.
 
assuming the electronic bits are o.k replacing the batteries with modern ones should not be a problem ,but what bothers me is why the one on bottom right is showing signs of burning and could point to something other than the batteries ,if you can find a good sparky that can check out the other components to it might be worthwhile
 
Because people are willing to pay it! I am not surprised at all, as they obviously don't make them out of gilded unicorn droppings, but your pic really hammers it home...!
 
the black fox said:
assuming the electronic bits are o.k replacing the batteries with modern ones should not be a problem ,but what bothers me is why the one on bottom right is showing signs of burning and could point to something other than the batteries ,if you can find a good sparky that can check out the other components to it might be worthwhile
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It was indeed smouldering when I unplugged the charger. and when i opened the case, it was still too hot to touch. I've tried charging two other batteries, with two different chargers and two cameras. All appear to be working correctly. I think I've already decided to go with the 7 day shop alternative. Everything I've had from them in the past has been perfect.
 
the ones i would go for personally are vapex 2900mah ones ,they are deemed to be the best available for charge holding and power output .but its your choice and as musicman said beware of actual size of the cells as canon may well have had these specially made to fit the holder and thereby justifying the price ,i know from past experience with nicads and nimhs that they DO vary in size quiet a bit .it might be worthwhile extracting one entirely and taking it to a shop (marlins etc) and making 100% sure the replacements are the right size .
if the batteries are going to be soldered in series as well clean both ends with fine emery cloth and apply meths to de-grease before attempting to solder also try to get lead based solder as the new lead free stuff is shiite.

just take care with what your doing i remember many years ago when i worked for the remington corporation on developing rechargeables for there electric shavers ,we had a return one day where the unit had got that hot it melted its way through some furniture and burnt into the carpet below
 
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Just be careful if attempting to solder to batteries. I'm not 100% sure of the technique required, but I think it goes along the lines of high temperature and short contact time - please research properly before attempting.

As for £300 for a battery - I'm utterly gob smacked. I used to work in I.T. and that would be expensive for laptop battery. The most expensive thing in some of these batteries is probably the chip that prevents you using aftermarket batteries. I don't know if this applies to these specific batteries, but it's an often used trick.
 
I busted open my original Macbook battery and it was something similar, more recent ones have sachet like cells inside, I guess for the money nobody expects to see standard rechargable AA cells, I would be tempted to replace them myself but hey that's me...
 
ilikebowens said:
Have you thought of sending the picture to Canon and asking how they feel about the price?
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Blooming great would be my guess :LOL: chuckling all the way to the bank ;)
 
I have built about five of these batteries for my 1d mk2n ,1ds mk2 and my eos 3 battery grip. Dead easy to replace the battery cells I use gp recyko it helps if you remove the battery covers with all the details of the battery on . They peal of dead easy.
 
A lot of batteries are like this internally. I should know because I used to solder them together as a part time job on a conveyor belt for several major manufacturers. It's not just AA batteries but a whole host of them. The amount of clothes I went through when one exploded due to a misplaced solder. You should be able to repair this yourself with a soldering iron.
 
Cheery sod, aren't you? ^ :)

I can just see you on the hand grenade line...
 
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