Battery Repair

[CameronD]

Hey, I have a couple of RED bricks that have gone down. Having learned that RED wont touch the things (due to lithium ion and what not...new policy), I am now wondering where I am supposed to get them repaired. Any ideas?

[Nick Gardner]

Pretty much no one is going to recell Lion batts. I believe there is a very expensive federal license required to do so because of the fire hazards, and as a result of that, very few if any battery shops purchased the license.

It drives me nuts that you have a $500-$1000 disposable battery that is only going to last a few hundred cycles. I have over twenty Anton Bauer batteries sitting on chargers that I never use anymore, because I have discovered cheap ($180-$200) no Name batts. They out perform any battery I have ever owned.

Cheers,

Nick

[Martin Weiss]

Nick,

Are those GMP by any chance? Otherwise, could you fill us in?

[Nick Gardner]

The batts I use are made in china, with japanese cells. They charge on any varizoom, or swit type charger, I doubt they would charge on an anton bauer charger, but I may be wrong. They have auto cut off for too many amps in and out, auto shutoff for over charge and short. Basically they put all the smart stuff in the batts instead of the charger.

The magic number is

VSN092

Google that to find the best price.

or VSN090 for the dionic 90 size (around $100 US)

I use the AB gold mount system, but they are available in V-lock. You have to do your own interwebular legwork for those though.

Here's a few web sites, USA, UK, And Australia. Whats the exchange rate with Australia? I think the ones from there are free ;-)

http://www.batteries-store.com/camco...ony/vsn092.htm

http://www.aussie-battery.com/camcor...uer/vsn092.htm

http://www.exceldigital.org.uk/searc...eywords=VSN092

I have ten of these and they are really great.

Cheers,

Nick

[Martin Weiss]

Nice find!

I love the GMP for their huge capacity, but those batteries you found (let's call them NONAME) get even more bang for the buck, or rather Ah per dollar:

GMP has 190Wh and costs 336 USD, thus 1 Wh costs 1.76 USD. Those I use, because they last so long.
GMP has also 160Wh batteries for 255 USD, 1 Wh ist down to 1.59 USD.
NONAME has 8.8 Ah, with 14.4V, meaning they have 126Wh, at 184 USD. 1 Wh here costs 1.46 USD.
NONAME also has some higher capacity batteries, at 132.5 Wh, but they are 2.12 per Wh.

GMP also offers a discount if you order for more than 1500 USD - and that is not tied to a single order, but over time.

So, from these calculations I would either go for the NONAME 8.8Ah if I was concerned about the total weight of my package - or running off a dual battery mount. Else I'd go for those beefy 190Wh from Global Media Pro :)

Now, it would be fun to compare actual running times on a R1, to see which really gives most usage per dollar, as producers tend to be a bit optimistic when handing out technical data.

[Steve Freebairn]

I've currently got 3 RED Bricks at Nebtek, they're trying to work their magic.

[Martin Weiss]

And coming back to the original question, in the U.K. you can contact Westgate Power about re-celling LiIon batteries: http://www.westgatepower.com/id11.html

And also the US seems to have places that re-cells Anton Bauer (and thus likely also other) LiIon batteries: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=re-celling+USA+lIion+anton+bauer

[Curran Giddens]

I've currently got 3 RED Bricks at Nebtek, they're trying to work their magic.

Let us know how it works out. I've only got one brick down so far.

[david farland]

Cheers for the battery tip Nick.

Whats the exchange rate with Australia? I think the ones from there are free ;-)

....yeah before it was free, which we felt was taking the piss, nowdays we insist on an oatmeal biscuit....
Dave

[Steve Freebairn]

Let us know how it works out. I've only got one brick down so far.

So, the bad news is that the RED Bricks are not able to be repaired. The good news is that RED is working on a new battery system :)