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Regenerating your dead Hasselblad H battery grips

ChrisLivsey

New member
Can anyone suggest some good rechargeable battery CR123A for my Hasselblad H3dD grip?
I have noticed that there are a lot of them but they are 3,7V rather than 3V.
Is anyone using rechargeable 3,7v battery?
Do they work fine without damage the camera?
As far as I know I know the battery should be 3v.
PLEASE HELP!!!!

ADAMO.
If you google Nikon F6 and CR123 you will find a lot of angst on the same subject. The F6 eats CR 123, well for a film camera it does, 15/18 rolls a set is common some get 30 but they may be shooting manual lenses and rewinding manually !!
Many have tried rechargeables in the F6 with no issues on compatibility, I see no reason why this would not translate to Hasselblad.
The problem is not the voltage it is the capacity. Standard disposable CR123 are 1400mAh, you will find that most CR123 rechargeables advertised are 400mAh rated. Panasonic had some 800mAh and some others advertise as rated more, rated being the word, they do not perform to that level in real life.
 

citizin

Active member
Have you managed to replace the battery and tested the grip?
What has been the result?
Cheers.
Not yet, the ebay ones are estimated to arrive between next tuesday till april the 14th. I will be installing the new cells if the past fit test the day they arrive. I have two batteries that give about 50 shots before they go into slow mode, then 20 more before the camera shuts down.
 

djsprat

New member
Thanks for the thoughts on power for H series cameras. These batteries are rated at 2000mah (http://www.amazon.com/2000mah-16340...psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00) , so I am hoping that they will work in the reserve grip to avoid anything involving a soldering iron. Has anyone had success using the CR123s? My used H3Dii came with only one battery and the reserve battery. Not ready to blow another $250 on a spare, so I am looking for ongoing solutions. Particularly ones that don't pose a risk of frying the electronics.
 

citizin

Active member
Funny, I'm still working in this.
The batteries I've ordered off ebay failed to get delivered.

No more than ten min ago I was talking with the manufacturer of the original battery. unfortunatly i have have to have a " MOQ is at least 2K "

I've ordered a similar battery that should have the same cell in it, it arrives tomorrow. If not I have some 14500 coming, and I'll just end up building the cell myself.


Update:

Received a battery that I suspected would work. I replaced the cells with some out of a Casio NP-100. It'll say it's charging, and will power on the camera. Now giving it a full charge to see how it goes.
 
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Mr.Gale

Member
Update:

Received a battery that I suspected would work. I replaced the cells with some out of a Casio NP-100. It'll say it's charging, and will power on the camera. Now giving it a full charge to see how it goes.[/QUOTE]

Does it work?
Thanks,
Mr.Gale
 

citizin

Active member
Update:

Received a battery that I suspected would work. I replaced the cells with some out of a Casio NP-100. It'll say it's charging, and will power on the camera. Now giving it a full charge to see how it goes.
Does it work?
Thanks,
Mr.Gale[/QUOTE]

Yeah, can't comment on longevity of battery yet. It's been working better than the initial cells that were in the original battery at time of replacing.
 

Mr.Gale

Member
That sounds good! I'll pick one up and give it a try.
Another question; can you read the amount of charge remaining on the grip LCD screen?
Thanks again,
Gale
 

citizin

Active member
That sounds good! I'll pick one up and give it a try.
Another question; can you read the amount of charge remaining on the grip LCD screen?
Thanks again,
Gale
You will have to take the cells out and replace the ones in grip. Not too challenging if you know how to solder.

After the initial charge, ~16hours, I did a battery grip reset "menu + flash" and the charge would display on the camera as a normal battery.
 

Mr.Gale

Member
I ordered a couple of batteries and will be here next week. Any tips of how to remove the cells from the case? Utility knife, big hammer? :)
 

citizin

Active member
I ordered a couple of batteries and will be here next week. Any tips of how to remove the cells from the case? Utility knife, big hammer? :)
I used a utility knife and some spudgers for taking apart cell phones and other electronics. The cells are wrapped pretty well, so there isn't a lot to worry about as long as you're careful.

FInally gave it some real gusto yesterday photographing part of a wedding with it. ~320exp, higher than normal screen on time, with a 12-15 10sec exposures and ended with 40% still remaining. (based on camera body readings)

I'm excited to build my own pack now with the 14500's if I can figure out how to fit them and the board into the grip.
 

citizin

Active member
This is probably be my last update on this.
I ended up looking more into this. I was always iffy on using off-brand cells, even though the generic battery out of this worked.

It was easier to re-cell with it then I thought so I took this advice ...


Even if you cannot find the battery pack with the two cells, you can probably find the individual cells: Panasonic 103450. Then, you will need to open the 2 cells pack in the grip and rebuild it with the new cells. It is more involved, but still considerably cheaper than buying a new grip. Then you keep the golden "bolt", of course.

Alternatively, you can ask someone from Europe to order a pack for you and mail it.
... and ordered These 103450 cells.

Just rebuilt them using the old dead battery out of the previous grip as a guide. Tested every joint and wire with a multimeter along the way. The first one is charging now, everything went as easy as before.
 

TRixxY

New member
Hello all!

Thank you Max for sharing this information.
As I run into a used Hasselblad H3D and was not sure about the battery, I opened it up and found (probably I have the new grip with 3.100mAh) 2 18650 Li-Ion cells.
So I looked at the electronics and saw, that the loading logics are in the grip itself, it's a standard loading chip that takes up to 12V and shuts down the loading process when the batteries reach 8.4V (2 x 4.2V).
From my RC carreer background I know that often the 2 cells drift apart from each other, one getting weaker and weaker with every loading.
So happened to the vac cleaner of my mum, I opened recently, loaded every single cell separately and reassembled (like new)... it's using 18650 cells too, like in the grip of my Hasselbald.
Reading thriugh the comments, I should get some 350-450 shots with some long exposures.
As my battery seems to be quite new, I'll have no issues going to Paris for 3 days next weekend...

If anyone is in need of getting batteries replaced in the grip, don't hesitate to contact me!
Should end up beeing less than 70€ to replace with high capacity Samsung cells and 3.400mAh


I have built up some seriuos skills in electronics as I recently opened my Sigma APO 500/4.5D HSM and some cables broke... :lecture:

Will post some pictures of the inside of the new grip and possible replacements, even thinking about building up a spare 2cell and just swap it, when the grip goes down...

BR Mike
 

P. Chong

Well-known member
Great thread. I wonder if anyone tried to modify the CR123 holder with LiIon batteries to make a regular one? Is this possible?

The aging battery on my H3D runs out very quickly with the digital back, though when shooting film, it will shoot a few rolls. Interested in a low cost solution, preferably without having to cut open the H grip, and as I have the CR123 grip which is unused, was thinking of using it as a donor grip.
 

TRixxY

New member
I took a look to the CR123 possibilities first before opening my H3 grip.
Forget it, if you want to have high capacity you can't go with CR123 rechargable ones.
Open the grip and replace with high quality LiIon 3x00mAh
 

P. Chong

Well-known member
I took a look to the CR123 possibilities first before opening my H3 grip.
Forget it, if you want to have high capacity you can't go with CR123 rechargable ones.
Open the grip and replace with high quality LiIon 3x00mAh
Thanks, what I meant was use the CR123 grip as the donor chasis to put in the LiIon replacement battery so I don't have to cut up the original battery, and I have an unused CR123 grip.
 

TRixxY

New member
No, that wont work ... theres some electronic in the grip for charging and communication, without that I guess the cam will not power on ... but I'll give it a try, probably you wont be able to use the original charger and the camera wont show battery levels ... btw Im missing thit info on the top screen, need to check if this shows only when empty.

Will upload some pictures today of the inside of my grip, a newer generation with more mAh than stated in the description.
 
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