14 replies to this topic

[Fisheyedave]

One of my Nikon battery packs has stopped taking a charge from the
SH104 quick charger, so I cut it in half.( well its more fun than watching TV) There is no electronic stuff inside except 6 wired in NiCad batteries slightly smaller than C cells .
I can easily get 6 AA cells inside, it would be nice to use 2500NiMh which probably have as much juice as the NiCads.

My question to anyone in the know is , can I use the sophisticated SH104 NiCad quick charger to charge NiMh cells or am I asking for trouble ?!

Dave

[UWPhotoTech]

We've been rebuilding these SB-104 battery packs with Ni-MH cells, however we have not tried AA cells. They cells we're using work fine with the SH-104 charger, just takes a little longer to charge.

[Fisheyedave]

We've been rebuilding these SB-104 battery packs with Ni-MH cells, however we have not tried AA cells. They cells we're using work fine with the SH-104 charger, just takes a little longer to charge.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Many thanks UWPhotoTech, glad to hear someone rebuilds these packs.
I have now tried the AA's , yes it takes about 1/2hour extra to charge,( i used 2300 NiMh) the recycle time of a full flash goes up to 7-8 secs. I gave up after 80 flashes trying to see how many flashes on full I would get. Still I am very happy as now I can just top up the pack without memory worries.

Dave

[Marc Furth]

I have the same problem with one of my SB 104 batteries.

I’m interested in you battery conversion, does the conversion to NiMh batteries have the same amperage rating as the original battery pack ? Do you know what the original 104 battery pack is rated at ?

Dave, I’m very interested in the home made housing you built, could you post a picture and tell us about it ? I'm interested because I to make my own housings.

Marc

[Marc Furth]

Dave,
After my post I took out my Sb 104 and laid 12 AA batteries in a pyramid style in the flash compartment. Looks like I could glue them all together and solder the batteries together in series parallel to make the necessary 7.2 volts. Did you use 6 or 12 batteries in your conversion ?

Marc

[Fisheyedave]

, does the conversion to NiMh batteries have the same amperage rating as the original battery pack ? Do you know what the original 104 battery pack is rated at ?
Marc

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Marc,
I think the original NiCad cells are a specialist size called Cs, they are available as 2000mAh tagged. I have seen the Cs cells in NiMh up to 3000mah tagged so if you can get them it would be easy to do a direct replacement. I used AA cells in a battery box, 6 x1.2v = 7.2V (because I wanted the option of charging them or repacing them as necessary). I had to cut out the internal guides and glue in a couple of plastic posts so the top could be screwed down, although some electrical tape would do the job. I only get around 100 full flashes from the 2300 mAh AA's and also the recycle time went up.

Dave
ps have a look here http://www.fisheyeda.../equipment.html for my housing details, its made from Perspex, some sections are heat moulded and all glued together with Tensol 70, not that I would recommend anyone make one, takes too much time --- Doh!

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[glouglou]

Well, but ..... how did you open the battery pack?

Bernard (Versailles / France)

[Fisheyedave]

Hi Bernard

I used a thin Dremel cutter, but a thin Junior hacksaw would do the job - just cut around where the two halfs are glued together, its thin plastic so be careful.
Dave

[james]

Dave, you housing is beautiful! I am impressed. Do you mind posting the photo of your housing here?

So, are you going to make one for the D2x now? :-)

Cheers
James

[PRC]

Dave,
After my post I took out my Sb 104 and laid 12 AA batteries in a pyramid style in the flash compartment. Looks like I could glue them all together and solder the batteries together in  series parallel to make the necessary 7.2 volts. Did you use 6 or 12 batteries in your  conversion ?

Marc

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[PRC]

Hi Marc,

I will get the hang of this eventually I tried to quote your post but the wheels fell off....

Don't try to parallel up rechargable cells, they do not like it at all. About the only way that you can get away with it is to keep the stacks seperate until just before use.

You also need to charge them as two seperate stacks.

All in all it is not worth the bother.

[Fisheyedave]

[So, are you going to make one for the D2x now? :-)
]

Thanks James, my S2 is doing me just fine, I shall see how the digital D3x etc
work out before I go through another few months of DIY housing fun and games

Dave

[fabbs]

Hi,
My first post here, very informative thread.
I would be interested in hearing if someone has tried connecting the AA or C size NMH batteries directly to the strobe, i.e., without inserting them in teh original nikon case. I can't seem to find the original Nikon battery anywhere, and mistakenly bought a strobe without one.
Fabrizio

Hi Marc,
I think the original NiCad cells are a specialist size called Cs, they are available as 2000mAh tagged. I have seen the Cs cells in NiMh up to 3000mah tagged so if you can get them it would be easy to do a direct replacement. I used AA cells in a battery box, 6 x1.2v = 7.2V (because I wanted the option of charging them or repacing them as necessary). I had to cut out the internal guides and glue in a couple of plastic posts so the top could be screwed down, although some electrical tape would do the job. I only get around 100 full flashes from the 2300 mAh AA's and also the recycle time went up.

Dave
ps have a look here http://www.fisheyeda.../equipment.html for my housing details, its made from Perspex, some sections are heat moulded and all glued together with Tensol 70, not that I would recommend anyone make one, takes too much time --- Doh!

[rektek]

Hi,
My first post here, very informative thread.
I would be interested in hearing if someone has tried connecting the AA or C size NMH batteries directly to the strobe, i.e., without inserting them in teh original nikon case. I can't seem to find the original Nikon battery anywhere, and mistakenly bought a strobe without one.
Fabrizio

you replied to a 3 year old post

[Chuck Tribolet]

One of my Nikon battery packs has stopped taking a charge from the
SH104 quick charger, so I cut it in half.( well its more fun than watching TV) There is no electronic stuff inside except 6 wired in NiCad batteries slightly smaller than C cells .
I can easily get 6 AA cells inside, it would be nice to use 2500NiMh which probably have as much juice as the NiCads.

My question to anyone in the know is , can I use the sophisticated SH104 NiCad quick charger to charge NiMh cells or am I asking for trouble ?!

Dave

I've been accursed of nuking the nudibranchs shooting macro with two SB-104s.

There is a little electronics in the Nikon SN-104 battery packs. The charging port has a diode, and there's a thermal fuse in between the two groups
of three cells. The cells are "sub-C" size. I've rebuilt several packs with 3800 mAH sub-C cells. The SH-104 charger does fine, though the packs
seem to get tired sooner than with the Nikon NiCd cells (which are reputed to be 1600-2000 mAH). I've got a webpage that documents what I did.
http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/sb104/