Hasselblad 553 ELX hot battery syndrome

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bdial

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First the saga;
I bought a 553 ELX in an auction a couple of weeks ago. At first it seemed to work ok for the initial test roll using batteries that were in it, but they died quickly. Didn't think much about it, as I didn't know the history.
I put some fresh AA lithiums in it made a couple of exposures and put it away for a few days. Pull it out, and it won't fire, battery check shows no life.
I put the camera back it's bag and headed home. Pull it out to investigate/switch batteries and the camera is warm. I open the battery compartment and one battery is hot.
I read through the manual and discover that lithium batteries are not recommended as the voltage is high. I put in some alkalines, battery check looks good at first, then goes from two lights to one, I open the battery case and the lower battery is too hot to touch!

I do some research and find this thread in camera-info-com; http://www.forums.camera-info.com/threads/dont-leave-batteries-in-your-aa-equipped-el.8525/

What I learned is that the negative contact in the battery cover is known short short out causing the lower battery to overheat and sometimes split or leak.

I verified with my multimeter that the contact was shorting out on my camera.

My fix,
Using a small screwdriver I lifted the end of the contact clear of the black insulating foam and using some sand paper I blunted the end to make it less likely to poke through any insulating layer.
Next I cut a circle from an event badge holder with a hole punch and after some trimming fit it under the end of the contact. I did the same with the other negative contacts in the cover. I suppose the badge holder is some kind of vinyl, but any slightly flexible plastic would work.
I tested with the meter, no more short, tested with the camera and it works fine, no fading battery check and no overheated batteries.

I'll post some pictures when I get a chance. According to the hits I found it's a common problem for the cameras using AA batteries, so it seemed a warning here would be helpful.
 

Theo Sulphate

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Excellent. Thank you for sharing that information.
 

Sirius Glass

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I am glad that you solved your problem. The only circuit more reliable than a short circuit is an open circuit.
 

NB23

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Good that you fixed it.

But what is an event badge holder?
 

Slixtiesix

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Thank you for this detailed solution! Also good to know that Lithium batteries are not recommended. I always wanted to try them because they are lighter than Alkalines but now I´ll stay away from them.
 
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bdial

bdial

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What I mean by an event badge holder is a clear vinyl pocket with a thin neck strap that holds a name tag for conventions and similar events.

Yes, that the lithiums are lighter is one of the reasons I installed them, that and the longer life. At first I thought the problem may have been caused by too much voltage from them, but it was a red herring. But on thinking about it, only one battery was hot and the fuse should have protected the circuitry otherwise, and so I searched for cases of shorted batteries on 553 ELX's.
In addition to the info in the regular user's manual, I found a repair manual on-line which has specs for the allowable total voltage range, and it's slightly lower than what would be produced by 5 lithium AA's.
 
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bdial

bdial

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That was certainly a RTFM mistake on my part, though I've used lithium cells interchangeably in other applications, including other cameras with no problems.
Using the lithiums had no bearing on the short however.
 

Chris Livsey

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It does seem odd, the Nikon F100 is an example of where much pondering was done on could you use Lithium as Nikon were silent on the issue, apparently you can, well I and others I know of do. It could be the voltage regulation in the Hasselblad was not designed with as large a range in mind it was after all when battery technology was a lot less developed.
Still as you say we wander OT but it allows me to add my thanks for posting the short fix, very inventive and elegant.
 

ubbelohed

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I just bought a 553 ELX, and I found this problem too
that is how I fixed this short problem: cut a little pice of paper, and but it under the battery negative contact
that's work very well, and camera doesn't get hot anymore. IMG_20191120_141005.jpg
 

John Wiegerink

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I just bought a 553 ELX, and I found this problem too
that is how I fixed this short problem: cut a little pice of paper, and but it under the battery negative contact
that's work very well, and camera doesn't get hot anymore. View attachment 234981
It sure is nice to have such a simple fix. My 553ELX will never suffer from this "simple to fix" problem. Why? Well, it seems all my camera malfunctions are always major and require at least some disassembly to fix. Just my luck I guess.
 

alentine

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Thank you very much bdial.
 
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