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Anatomy of the NP1


Wyatt Tuzo

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I picked up some consigned NP-L7S's recently, and one turned out to be faulty. Since they were used, I had no real choice but look into re-celling. I figured that either way it would be a learning experience.

First, they make these things NOT to be opened! I was able to eventually get in, but it required a combination of finesse and brute-force.

First, I removed both of the stickers from the outside of the case. I wish I had heated these up first, as I had a bit of cleanup on my hands afterward:

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Next, I removed the four screws from the top and bottom of the battery case:

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Once the screws were removed, the case was still glued shut. I heated the perimeter of the under-side of the battery with a hair drier long enough for the glue to loosen (this took a while). I was eventually able to crack the case enough to get a flat-head screwdriver in to work it off the rest of the way:

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Here is the battery side of things. You can see a bit in this photo that in order to further ensure that people don't go poking around, they also glue the battery side to the casing... lovely:

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Here is the top portion of the internal circuit board. You can see the surface-mount LED's for the charge indicator:

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...And here is the terminal end of the circuit board. I was honestly surprised to see such complex circuitry inside this battery. My assumption is that its basically input and output voltage regulators, LED drivers, and the over-drain protection circuit. There are plenty of unpopulated areas of this board, which are presumably for the brains of the more expensive NP-L7. Either way, It made me feel a little better about shelling out what we do for these battery packs:

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I was expecting the batteries to just be wired in series, but they're not! More of a series-parallel configuration:

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Thats about all I have for right now. I found a source for replacement Lithium-ion cells, but at $7 or so per battery, I just don't know whether its worth the trouble and expense for me to replace them all. There is still a chance that something is malfunctioning on the circuit board and the batts are fine. I may just chalk this one up to "seeing how this thing ticks".

Anybody have any further insight or experience?

-Wyatt

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Wyatt,

Thanks for posting this. Always interesting to see the guts of stuff like this. I still remember when, at a young age, I tore apart a 9-volt battery and was surprised to find 6 AAA batteries inside. I've been told that the inside of a Phase-Right antenna is a wire surrounded by good luck charms and 4-leaf clovers but I haven't looked inside mine yet.

Anyway, next dissection of gear I do, I think I'll photo-document it too. Could be a handy resource.

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All that glue inside isn't to keep you from messing around with it.  It's to keep the cells from wiggling around and eventually breaking loose from their solid connections.  If the cells and other components were not glued solid, one good drop, or a couple weeks of shaking in your bag could break their connections and render them useless.

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I've been told that the inside of a Phase-Right antenna is a wire surrounded by good luck charms and 4-leaf clovers...

HAHA. I hear that the air inside that chamber is...special air.

All that glue inside isn't to keep you from messing around with it.  It's to keep the cells from wiggling around and eventually breaking loose from their solid connections.  If the cells and other components were not glued solid, one good drop, or a couple weeks of shaking in your bag could break their connections and render them useless.

I was kidding.

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Thanks Wyatt. Great pictures and info.

Since Bob brought up the 9V, I've had one sitting on my desk for a few years. It got thrown in with my gear at the end of a day, made contact, and puffed up enough so that the bottom just popped off. Didn't even have to take it apart.

Procell.jpg

And as John said, AAAAs, just a bit smaller than AAAs.

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I had an alkaline 9v in my follow cart drawer, came in contact with front of drawer, and next time I opened the drawer I found once cell had completely exploded and sprayed battery acid dust all over the stuff inside the drawer.  All other cells were intact (as far as I could tell).  Cardboard bottom popped off like Andre's photo.

Here's a photo a posted a while ago of an iPower.

post-485-130815093591_thumb.jpg

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