Battery Contacts?

[Ian Laurie]

So my camera came back the other day with some reported battery problem... I stick the batteries on the charger to see what happens and it doesn't give me the battery failure code but an incompatible battery code... I pulled it of to have a look at the contacts. It looks as though the negative contact has literally melted into the little black box holding the contacts. It also appears that there is some melting and warping of the plastic near the negative terminal as well.... Whats going on? looking at my other battery, it looks to me as if it may be about to face the same fate. Help?

 

[Paul Leeming]

Sent you a PM Ian.

 

[Tony Lorentzen]

Switronix has replacement battery blocks of better quality than the original ones. You just send the batteries to them and they will swap them out for you. You might be able to find more info on their website.

 

[Tuomas Viitakoski]

Ian,
Based on my experience on this matter all I can tell you is:
I have 3 chargers that have melt contacts in charging dock #1. (Never at dock #2)
So far the batteries have been okay. Your battery may have received the heat from melting contacts but I advice you to measure the current with a multimeter to be sure about it before using the battery with your camera.

I contacted to RED support and they told me that if the products are not under warranty, there's nothing you can do about it, they're not going to fix them.
After this I disassembled the charger and noticed that there are serious damages on the cirquit board, but it's all limited to the charging dock #1 so #2 can be still used as normally.

I advice you to screw the v-lock mount off so you can't insert a battery there by mistake.
So far, I don't have info about the electrical issues in the power cirquits - but I certainly believe the contacts cannot be the problem because the #2 charging dock works fine with similar contacts. If someone has further info, please correct this.

 

[Chris Ratledge]

We've noticed this on the feature we're on right now too. Several of the RED bricks have melted and warped plastic around the contacts. Some of them had some of the plastic melted INTO the female pin and we were having batteries fail on the camera inadvertently. Solution was to pry the pins on the camera plates apart and use an awl to dig out the melted plastic from inside the battery pin. So far things are working better.

We're using the chargers on location, mostly outdoors, from generator power. Also in coastal GA, so high humidity abound. Are you saying measure the battery output voltage or the charger output? I would also think this would have to be a charger issue.

 

[Brent Carter]

We can repair out of warranty chargers. But, repairing BRICKS is tricky due to lithium ion content and associated shipping restrictions. Has been discussed here: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44257

BC

 

[Tuomas Viitakoski]

We can repair out of warranty chargers. But, repairing BRICKS is tricky due to lithium ion content and associated shipping restrictions. Has been discussed here: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44257

BC

Brent,

I remember asking this from Sean Ruggeri in August and he said "unfortunately cannot perform repairs on batteries and battery plates".
The USD 195 (for repairing a charger) mentioned in the another thread is correct? Can the repairs be done in Pinewood Studios?

Just want to have this conversation held in a public forum so people with similar issues will know what to do.


-TRN

 

[Tony Lorentzen]

Those that are located in Europe are welcome to send me the batteries (I'm in Denmark). I have some of the Switronix battery-connector blocks and I'm able to change them. This is done as a service to my fellow Redusers at very low cost compared to buying a new battery.

I've opened a lot of batteries (about 80-100 by now) and all of the problems with connectors have been repairable. Sometimes the connector is basically melted so far into the block that it won't connect. In some extreme cases I've seen, the wire for the terminal inside the battery has simply melted the tin off of the terminal causing the connection to break.