Topic: Does anyone still refurb/work on DVD battery's??

[jb63]

Wow.
OK. this is some pretty cool stuff but I don't think I have the balls to crack open my DVD batteries and see what's happening inside. Then try to harvest those batteries into an enclosure and work that into the mix.
But it might be more cost effective than buying new TalentCells and new cables for everything. For me that's 5 new cables or at least 5 that have to be re-tipped.

[taper420]

Some things to consider...
With the enclosures, you don't HAVE to harvest your old cells. You can buy new, higher capacity cells. I have some new Panasonics with 3400 mah, which is 1400 more than the cells in the DVD batts were when new. Those are my first line and then I turn to the older cells for longer runs. Your average deck at your average concert, 6 new cells is more than enough and you wouldn't even need to think about using your backup line unless at a festival. For me, sometimes I will do festivals with video, audio, and streaming from a laptop, so having a large cache of newer and older cells that can power everything is ideal.

The Talentcell has one very big advantage... an on/off switch. I assume this means it can run something even with a very low current without shutting off. The enclosures I use have an auto shut-off when the current drops below a certain threshold. The 6-cell enclosure has a lower threshold... it will run a dr680 (about 200-250mA) without shutting off, but it won't run a small converter box (coaxial > toslink) which draws somewhere around 50mA. The larger 8-cell enclosure will shut off if just running the dr680, but will stay on when running a V3 (around 400-450mA), and also (obviously) if running both a V3 and dr680 simultaneously (around 600mA). Mostly I use the 8-cell enclosure to run my laptop and the 6-cell enclosures to run preamp/recorder/video camera/lights.

A third thing to consider... the 6-cell enclosure has an input and output port and it can be charged at the same time it is used, making it work as a UPS. The 8-cell enclosure has one port for input and output and works sort of the way a lead-acid battery would work, where you can variably charge and discharge from the same connection. This means it can't be used as a UPS and it can't be used as a redundancy (where you have two power sources of the same voltage connected with a parallel cable to a single device).

Oh, also... the 6-cell enclosure has a 5.5mmX2.1mm connector, and the 8-cell has a 5.5mmX2.5mm connector... neither of those are the 4.0mmX1.7mm of the DVD battery output port, so new cables or modding the ones you have would be necessary (I would not recommend using adapters, though they are available).

[taper420]

So I just bought that lot that Ted had for $50 and I gotta say, after testing what I got, I got a great deal. I'm using some as is and I'm cracking some to harvest cells, but one thing I've discovered is that the faulty power meter LEDs should be an easy fix... it is the actual push button that is broken. You can get instantaneous buttons like that for a few cents from China and it looks like a fairly straight-forward solder job, right on the edge of the circuit board. I wouldn't mind taking up the mantle of refurbing these if there is any interest. I might even go ahead and use some of the shells I have to put some refurbs together for sale.

Edit: I just bought 100 pieces of the momentary switch needed to get the meters working again.

[Gutbucket]

^ A great recycle.  Failure of the meters was what killed them for me.  Good to hear you found a fix for that.

[taper420]

Yes, the meter was the primary reason I started moving toward the enclosures. I mean, they all have their pros and cons, it's good to have a couple things to choose from. I took one of the faulty buttons apart to diagnose the cause of failure... it's malachite. That is, oxidized copper. There is a concave, copper plate inside the button and when you press down it bridges the copper contacts inside. Problem is, those contacts had a nice layer of malachite on them. It could technically be scraped off, but taking the button apart is a one-way job. And at about $.02 to replace the part, it shouldn't even be a second thought.

[capnhook]

I flooded a bit of Deoxit around the switch, and that fixed a couple of mine.

[taper420]

After I made the above post, faced with the month it's gonna take to get the parts from China, I did manage to refurb one of the existing buttons. It takes some real care to disassemble in a way that allows reassembly, but I managed to pull it off and got the button working after scraping away the oxidation. A nice proof of concept, but I'm going to save the rest for the new parts.