SYCHRO COMPUR ELECTRIC

[AgX]

Varta, which appears to be a European battery manufacturer, does have a V21PX in their inventory, and it appears to be a 4.5V 600 mAh battery.

Yes, Varta once was a major, if not the major, manufacturer of cells and batteries in Europe, but production meanwhile has been split up.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

Yes, Varta once was a major, if not the major, manufacturer of cells and batteries in Europe, but production meanwhile has been split up.

Varta, Tudor, Sonnenschein... where are thou?

 

[wiltw]

Varta, Tudor, Sonnenschein... where are thou?

Wikipedia explains, Varta essentially had change of corporate ownership, being split in the process.

"In 1977, VARTA AG's businesses were split up by Herbert Quandt; battery and plastics operations were retained in VARTA AG, but the pharmaceuticals and specialty chemical businesses were transferred to a new company called Altana, and the electrical business was spun off into a company called CEAG. Herbert Quandt left the company's shares to his children.

In 2002, the consumer battery activities (excluding button cells) were sold to Rayovac. The automotive battery business was acquired by Johnson Controls. The button cell and home energy storage businesses were acquired by Montana Tech Components."​

I suspect the A21PX is a victim of form factor obsolecense, with too low volume of sales to bother with. There is a 4.5V alkaline that Varta does offer, but its form factor resembles a square, like three AA 1.5V wrapped together side by side.
Form factor obsolescence, not unlike the 15V battery for BC flash units for flashbulbs.

 

[BobD]

Why not just use the 3X 1.5v button cells plus some foil to take up the empty space?

 

[AgX]

Why not just use the 3X 1.5v button cells plus some foil to take up the empty space?

see post #2

But I see the point behind using type AA or :
no problem with acqusition, much larger capacity, which may be benefitial when only doing extreme long exposures

 

[reddesert]

Don't connect batteries in reverse. The 6V battery will effectively be trying to charge the 1.5v battery that is reverse connected. Charging a battery that is not designed to be charged and/or at the wrong voltage, can result in failure, leakage, or bursting, and damage to the device. You may never experience this, but if you do you'll be unhappy.

Here's a little blurb from Energizer on reverse polarity protection, related to devices such as boomboxes (remember boomboxes?) that ran on many batteries in series, where I guess consumers inserting one backwards was an issue worth trying to address: https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/revprotection.pdf

 

[blee1996]

I recently got a beautiful Heliar 21cm f/4.5 in Compur Electronic 3 shutter, albeit without any battery holder. Thanks to Philippe-Georges, I now have a working solution just like his. The lens is from 1970/1971, so the shutter must have been of similar vintage. And it seems to work very well.