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a successful adapted 6400 mh battery pack for fuji x system ILC`s


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obviously cells need to be changed  eventually ....

 

but  assignment to assignment  ... or day to day   this  extended battery base  has the potential to allow   , any  shoot , assignment ,or  just a full day out just doing your thing,  to proceed uninterrupted , without the concern  or hassle of losing power or keeping multiple np126s topped off and ready

 

thats really all the concern i have ... i feel acutely ,the sense that my np126s both my 3 fujis and many aftermarkets die way to soon in my x pro 2 ... it is a real and present issue for me , hence my experiment 

 

Agreed. What is being improved here is the frequency of swapping the battery. Instead of swapping battery, I could use that time to take pictures. not sure why anyone would be against that.  :lol:  

 

If one could shoot thousands of images using a single battery, there's less chance of missing those moments. If, for the same amount of images, I need to swap batteries a couple of times in between, I'd increase the likelihood of missing a few moments. It's just basic probabilities, really. No rocket science.  :rolleyes:

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Agreed. What is being improved here is the frequency of swapping the battery. Instead of swapping battery, I could use that time to take pictures. not sure why anyone would be against that.  :lol:  

 

If one could shoot thousands of images using a single battery, there's less chance of missing those moments. If, for the same amount of images, I need to swap batteries a couple of times in between, I'd increase the likelihood of missing a few moments. It's just basic probabilities, really. No rocket science.  :rolleyes:

agreed .....the battery pack with the 2 nitecore 18650s does that allowing all day shooting possibly 2 day shooting  without battery changing 

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  • 2 weeks later...

when a battery pack offers 10700 shots [500 with flash on a fuji body]   and still retains 83 to 84 percent  battery charge !!!

 

then the possibility of missing a shot during  a battery swap become an almost non issue 

 

the 18650 dual battery pack i made  and tested successfully  offers a performance level commensurate ........ 

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im making 2 different packs now .... a 14500 3.7v [aa sized]   a 4 cell [ 2 in parallel , 2 serial for 7.4 v  3000 mh] for my xe1\2

 

and a 2 cell  186  [ 2 serial giving 7.4v] 50  18mm x 65 mm  sized   for my xpro 2   the profile s of the camera bases  guided my size deciasions

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Doesn't matter how short the swapping time is, really... there are some who would rather use that time to take a picture instead. :P   

 

Can you just imagine how disturbed they would be in the film era? When the roll was done in 24-36 exposures with 35mm or with 8, 10, 12 or 16 with medium format 120 rolls, and they would have to stop and spend minutes changing film? Now with batteries providing 200 to 500 exposures, they lack the foresight to recognise a five-second pause to change batteries. 

 

Hey, you don't have to absolutely exhaust the current battery before you change it! When the indicator shows you are getting low, pick a pause and insert a fresh battery. If you are obsessed by that few second pause, perhaps counselling is in order.

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Can you just imagine how disturbed they would be in the film era? When the roll was done in 24-36 exposures with 35mm or with 8, 10, 12 or 16 with medium format 120 rolls, and they would have to stop and spend minutes changing film? Now with batteries providing 200 to 500 exposures, they lack the foresight to recognise a five-second pause to change batteries. 

 

Hey, you don't have to absolutely exhaust the current battery before you change it! When the indicator shows you are getting low, pick a pause and insert a fresh battery. If you are obsessed by that few second pause, perhaps counselling is in order.

The number of people with this kind of thinking amazes me, really.  :D

 

Just because they could take only a few shots in the past before changing rolls, doesn't mean I would want to subject myself to the same trouble. This is 2016 and I am of the opinion we need to move forward, at least as far as the battery is concerned.

 

This is the same argument with using larger capacity memory cards. One can use 256MB memory cards (or 128MB even) and swap them every few shots (since it would only take a few seconds), but why bother if you could use a 32GB or 64GB instead?

 

Sure, if that's your thing, I won't be judging. But I would rather save myself the hassle.  ;)

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Apart of DIY-enthusiasm (I'm DIYer as well, but at different area), there are some practical points.

Bigger battery is great idea, but it cannot be fitted in existing battery compartment. Hence you need an enclosure for battery with mechanical and electrical connections to the camera.

It is possible to keep battery in pocket and connect it to camera via cable with an adapter, but ... make that mock-up and try to walk and use ...
So, the hardest stage of project will be not a battery at all, but design and making of that "battery grip" with good exterior, reliable connections, comfortable enough and of reasonable weight.

Note the Fuji makes DC couplers and power adapters, for use in studio or similar place:
http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/accessories/batteries/#coupler
there are third-party couplers as well,
that probably can be useful for your project.

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well i know many users of the x pro 2 wish it had a larger capacity  battery than the np 126 ... i certainly do .

 

recently i got the idea to try using off the shelf large capacity batteries designed for high drain applications and decided on the well trusted 18650 which look like a AA battery on steroids  

 

18650  are 18mm diam.    65mm in length  and o shape in cross section  they vary wildly in quality  due to cheap chinese imports and bootlegs ...but a trusted retailer can supply good ones for about 10 - 15 usd each  thy vary in mah from about  2000 to 3400 mah and all output about 3.7 volts [ mine tested 4.14 and 4.19 on 2 cells ] i used new nitecores x2  [3200mh] 

 

my first adapted battery is experimental  ...2 nitecores 18650  in series 3.7v x 2 for 7.4 volts   the plastic shell of an expired aftermarket battery  some speaker wire  and surgical tape [clear]

i purchased a new xa1 on craigslist for 100 dollars  and inserted the battery shell with the proper polarity wires in place it was tight   but it closed up nicely with the wires exiting the compartment at the tabbed corner,,,  the batteries and wire leads boud up together as tightly as possible  both were 100 % charged

 

i didnt want to risk my x pro 2 or xe2... so the guinea pig  was the xa1 with a pentax 50mm 1.7 legacy lens in m mode 

 

the test 

 

i turned on the camera and  was delighted  to see the LCD panel lit and ready  

 

first part  200 shots with flash with pauses for simulated  chimping scrolling enlarging  the 1000  shots 

high speed the some chimping  another 100 flash shots   another 1000 high speed shots ect etc etc also tried various other modes     various bracketing  single  burst multi   and so on . 

 

finall tally 10,070 shots  lots of chimping and reviewing   500 flash shot  and i was tired   2 hours in i decided to see how much juice  remained 

 

the nitecore charger reported the 2 batteries has 83 and 84 percent power remaining  after the test

the xa2 never showed the battery below full.

 

before the test the 2 batteries reported  about 4.14 v after test 3.97..... i estimate the cells could easily 

50,000 to 60,000 shots with many hours of chimping  the camera got a little warm after about 5000 shots   but the batteries remains cool the whole test

 

im very please d with this first test .....thoughts anyone 

 

on to a real battery pack for my x pro 2...........

 

I find this a very interesting idea.

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Hi Cosinaphile,

 

great work so far. let us know how it goes with the ultrafire flat pack.

Would be even easier to buy the AC adapter kit that comes with the fake battery, cable can be modded to include

DC jack, you could still use AC adapter or your own battery pack. No need to mod a used battery and risk

wrong connections or wire shorts.

 

only concern is unprotected ultrafires, is there a protected version just to be on safe side?

 

yeah, I don't know what all the negative talk is about, its the same concept as the T1 and T2 external

battery packs for extended usage, T2 with now cable with 3x batteries.

 

current battery is definitely under powered for sure, made more for like point and shoot

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  • 2 weeks later...

To the original poster ... what an awesome experiment!  Reminds me of when I flew large scale RC model airplanes and how fellows would create different battery packs to give longer lasting power ... or some created dual packs for redundancy.  But most of us made our own battery packs and they kept our $500 - $2500 aircraft going just fine.

 

I'm surprised something doesn't already exist like this on the secondary market for the different mirrorless cameras that suffer from low mah batteries.

 

Keep us posted!

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Changing batteries when you have a break in action is a skill. It just takes practice. It's only a problem if you don't take the time to learn to. With enough practice you'll do it automatically and not even notice that you've done it.

 

I shot with 36 exposure rolls for decades, some of that time as a newspaper reporter. I always got my assigned shots. Maybe that's because I also learned to anticipate the appropriate moment and didn't, and still don't rely on burst mode, most of the time. Another skill that isn't that hard to learn.

 

Yes, my old Nikon could get over 1000 exposures on a battery. I don't miss it. 

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This thread has been interesting to follow. The OP kindly shared his (ingenious) battery modifications and received, in return,several comments that could easily have been construed as negative, most of them extolling the virtues of pre-planning and mocking the perceived issue of changing batteries.

 

What I have to add is that I've been forced to buy multiple chargers and multiple batteries because otherwise I'd spend forever charging four or five batteries sequentially everytime I head away from home on a vacation where I'm liable to shoot heavily all day. And that means taking at least three chargers with me. What a waste of time and space and effort. It's one of the things that has me reaching for my Canon DSLR more and more often again. By the time you add the multiple batteries and chargers and power strip ( otherwise I'd be hogging every outlet in the hotel room with chargers), the size and weight advantage from a packing and transport perspective is on the Canon's side.

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Changing batteries when you have a break in action is a skill. It just takes practice. It's only a problem if you don't take the time to learn to. With enough practice you'll do it automatically and not even notice that you've done it.

 

I shot with 36 exposure rolls for decades, some of that time as a newspaper reporter. I always got my assigned shots. Maybe that's because I also learned to anticipate the appropriate moment and didn't, and still don't rely on burst mode, most of the time. Another skill that isn't that hard to learn.

 

Yes, my old Nikon could get over 1000 exposures on a battery. I don't miss it. 

 

It is not just a matter of batteries swaps but also, and more annoyingly in my opinion, battery charging.

 

On a multiple-days trip/holiday, with a camera that typically goes through one or several days on a single battery charge (i.e. not a Fuji X  ;) ), I tend to only have a spare battery in my pocket (just in case), swap them when required or in the evening, and only have to charge at most one battery each night.

 

With a mirrorless camera, I can easily go through 2-3 batteries in a long day (especially if that involves winter weather). I have 3 NP126s but not 3 chargers, and I already encountered the situation where I could not realistically charge all the depleted batteries overnight, starting a new day with less reserves than I wanted.

 

I this respect, the new X-T2 grip that allows to use up to 3 NP126s in total and comes with a built-in charger for the two grip batteries helps a bit, if you're ready to accept the related bulk and expense.

 

And remember, it is not just a matter of exposures: mirrorless cameras consume a fair amount of power just for the always-on live view, a reason why a diminutive Nikon 1 V1 has shorter battery life than a comparatively massive Nikon D800 while using the same battery! Battery life is an inherent relative weakness of mirrorless cameras (not just Fujis). There's no point in negating it, even if many of us can perfectly live with such limitation most of the time.

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A word of caution to cosinaphile.

 

Industrial rechargeable 18650 batteries can deliver a lot of current, and I doubt they are electronically protected the way camera batteries are.

 

Over 20y ago, I made a similar NiCd battery pack for my Nikon N6006 which was otherwise using expensive single-use lithium CRP2 batteries. A soldering point became loose, a short-circuit occured, and a wire actually melted due to the induced heat, halting my battery pack experiments. The camera was safe but for the same price I could have set the house on fire. :o And that was with NiCd batteries - much nastier things can happen with overheating Li-Ions.

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  • 2 months later...

Apart of DIY-enthusiasm (I'm DIYer as well, but at different area), there are some practical points.

Bigger battery is great idea, but it cannot be fitted in existing battery compartment. Hence you need an enclosure for battery with mechanical and electrical connections to the camera.

It is possible to keep battery in pocket and connect it to camera via cable with an adapter, but ... make that mock-up and try to walk and use ...

So, the hardest stage of project will be not a battery at all, but design and making of that "battery grip" with good exterior, reliable connections, comfortable enough and of reasonable weight.

 

Note the Fuji makes DC couplers and power adapters, for use in studio or similar place:

http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/accessories/batteries/#coupler

there are third-party couplers as well,

that probably can be useful for your project.

i see one for my purpose replacing the np 126    , so excellent and thanks for the link

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Hi Cosinaphile,

 

great work so far. let us know how it goes with the ultrafire flat pack.

Would be even easier to buy the AC adapter kit that comes with the fake battery, cable can be modded to include

DC jack, you could still use AC adapter or your own battery pack. No need to mod a used battery and risk

wrong connections or wire shorts.

 

only concern is unprotected ultrafires, is there a protected version just to be on safe side?

 

yeah, I don't know what all the negative talk is about, its the same concept as the T1 and T2 external

battery packs for extended usage, T2 with now cable with 3x batteries.

 

current battery is definitely under powered for sure, made more for like point and shoot

indeed the adapter by fuji is much better ... the homemade dummy cell i use can be temperamental at times ... like a cell with oxidized contacts  

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I had checked.
Camera on neck strap, spare battery in pocket.
6-8 sec for replace, average.
Can do it at 4 sec.

 

i dare say that if a scene is unfolding in front of you  , 4 seconds is an eternity....... id just like mirrorless to have a battery having the prowess of those used in dslrs .... not an unreasonable request

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