Rolleiflex 6008 battery dying

Marc Leest · Feb 9, 2010

The battery of my Rolleiflex has had it's best time.
I can't find any new batteries (as Rollei brand anyway) and used ones are not an option (for obvious reasons)
So what can I do to have better a power option ?

thx Marc

jfdupuis · Feb 9, 2010

The battery is made of standard sized cell. Therefore, you can find replacement in most electronic supplier. You can use this opportunity to change your old NiCad cell for modern NiMH one. They will give you much more battery life. However, you'll need a new charger. There is a lot of information about it on the net, notably on photo.net.

Jeff

deisenlord · Feb 9, 2010

You can find the cells on the internet pre-soldered and shrink-wrapped. You just have to disassemble the pack, slide in the new batteries, and solder the wires. Also people sell the shrink wrapped packs on ebay.

Rollie made a battery adapter that that took an arbitrary DC 10-18V supply. They are difficult to find and not cheap ~$300. I found one and its handy.

Tony-S · Feb 9, 2010

My experience is that you cannot easily solder batteries. I had my Canon Motor Drive MA NiCd pack rebuild with 12 N-sized NiMH batteries and they were spot-welded by Batteries Plus for US$16.

deisenlord · Feb 9, 2010

Here's where I purchased pre-soldered, pre-shrink wrapped packs.

http://www.batterystore.com/

ic-racer · Feb 9, 2010

Last one I rebuilt was fitted with fresh Sanyo KR-1500SC cells. You can get these from a number of suppliers.

whlogan · Apr 6, 2010

Just spoke with Dave @ Battery Specialties in Costa Mesa who seems to think rebuilding them is no big deal. When I get back from the up coming trip to Magnolia Gardens in SC I will send off the old battery and we will see what happens. Thanks for the lead, guys.... I knew APUGers would come thru as always with the right answer...

Battery Specialties in Costa Mesa 1-800-854-5759

Logan

Talisker · Aug 7, 2013

Marc,

you will get new batteries or old cells replaced from the successor of Rollei DHW Fototechnik in Germany for e.g.. Today they use NiMH instead of NiCad cells which is a good things as this doubles the capacity and there is no more memory effect to the cells. Existing chargers can be still used.

fatboy22 · Aug 8, 2013

Marc,

I have rebuilt 4 batteries with the NiMH battery cells sold on eBay from Chinese vender. Conversion was easy. I thought I had to buy a new charger and did. Later on I found out I could use the old N style charger. You just have to lift battery out after charge is complete and then reinsert and let it charge another cycle. New batteries have much more capacity there fore take more charging cycles with old charger. I did not think it would work at first but it does. You can shoot for hours and not run these new cells out. I have used them in my 6008I2, my 6003 and my 6006 with no problems. Just have to take it slow when you disassemble old pack and make sure you solider the correct battery leads back in place on new cells. Replacement cell packs are $35. The only bad thing is waiting for them to arrive from China, very slow shipping.

Tony-S · Aug 9, 2013

Talisker said:
Marc,

you will get new batteries or old cells replaced from the successor of Rollei DHW Fototechnik in Germany for e.g.. Today they use NiMH instead of NiCad cells which is a good things as this doubles the capacity and there is no more memory effect to the cells. Existing chargers can be still used.

I replaced my SLX's NiCd cells with NiMH cells and within 10 minutes the battery pack was really, really hot. Disconnected it and I now use a Tenergy Smart Charger for charging the pack with the NiMH cells. I really don't trust the Rollei charger with NiMH cells.

Noble · Aug 11, 2013

fatboy22 said:
Marc,

I have rebuilt 4 batteries with the NiMH battery cells sold on eBay from Chinese vender. Conversion was easy. I thought I had to buy a new charger and did. Later on I found out I could use the old N style charger. You just have to lift battery out after charge is complete and then reinsert and let it charge another cycle. New batteries have much more capacity there fore take more charging cycles with old charger. I did not think it would work at first but it does. You can shoot for hours and not run these new cells out. I have used them in my 6008I2, my 6003 and my 6006 with no problems. Just have to take it slow when you disassemble old pack and make sure you solider the correct battery leads back in place on new cells. Replacement cell packs are $35. The only bad thing is waiting for them to arrive from China, very slow shipping.

I would avoid doing the ebay packs. They are expensive and you have to wait around. And even once you get them you must install them yourself. I would simply order some 2/3a NiMH cells off the internet from a battery story and then take them to a local hobby story and have the technician SPOT WELD them together to make a new battery. The cells are spot welded together to form the battery not soldered. You then solder the battery into the casing.

I used Tenergy NiMh 2/3A 1600mAh cells. I paid my local battery plus store $10 a pop to rebuild my batteries. It's cheaper than the ebay/China option and you don't have to do any of the work.

Also I bought a third party charger. I'll have to look it up if anyone wants to know which one it is. I rarely use it. The rebuilt batteries hold a charge for months. Someone mentioned a DC power supply adapter. Considering under normal amateur usage the batteries last months on a single charge I don't see the utility of the DC Power supply. I charge up a couple of batteries and go on vacation. I don't even take the charger with me.

Tony-S · Aug 11, 2013

Noble said:
Also I bought a third party charger. I'll have to look it up if anyone wants to know which one it is.

Was it also from Tenergy?

Tenergy Smart Charger

Tenergy Smart Charger - US$22

Noble · Aug 11, 2013

No. It is a Cellpro Multi4 Charger from Revo. I got the bundle with the charger, wall plug, and USB module. You can connect it to your computer, modify, and load different charging regimens. It also outputs data and graphs as it charges so you know exactly how much charge was put into your batteries and at what voltage charging ceased. It's better than the literal black box Rollei gives you. You select different types of chemistry and it implements different charging regimens. It does not utilize the heat sensor though. It cuts off charging using voltage fallback. In my experience it works perfectly. Currently it is $85.

The only thing that sucks about these chargers is connecting the charger to the battery. I had to get some small nails to put in the holes in the battery and then solder alligator clips to the wires from the charger. Luckily I had a soldering iron and solder from another photography DYI project.

erikg · Aug 11, 2013

I had a 3003 with two battery packs that no longer held a full charge. I traded it back to KEH, but this would've been a good solution. It looks like they used similar packs. Maybe the same.

Tony-S · Aug 11, 2013

If I leave the pack in the camera it runs down in two weeks whether I use it or not. If I take it out, 6 months later it has a charge. There's clearly a design issue in the SLX.

FL Guy · Aug 15, 2013

I have had success with................

Take your battery pack to a "Battery +" (is this correct?) location. The internals of a Rollei MF SLR battery pack are a combination of NiCad cells (or the upgrades by type of cell), small as they may be, but generic and replaceable with commonly found components in the battery industry.

You can DIY, or pay for a Battery + service (with warranty) for about the same amount. The repair is a series of 1.2V batteries , and I know that Battery + has done this repair in multiple geographic locations, I have had a great result. If they are available to you, give it a try!

Stay Safe!

FL Guy

Rolleiflex 6008 battery dying

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