So the upgrade/refresh is complete and it works. The steps to finish the job?
First the tools: You will need wire cutters, a wire stripper, a soldering iron, solder (not acid core) good for electronic connections, electrical tape (belt and suspenders approach, possibly some Krazy glue, needle nose pliers, and a small philips screw driver. In the event you are missing the last screw driver you can find these at Micro Mark (
https://www.micromark.com/Six-piece-Phillips-Head-Screwdriver-Set ) and probably any of the others as well for a lot less than you think!
1) Work on a soft surface with protection for the surface and materials. I'm using an Op/Tech Neotch cloth which will catch just about anything and keep it from rolling away. The screws are tiny! so this is a good idea if you don't want to chase parts across the basement floor.
2) I protected that with a paper towel.
3) Get yourself a very small phillips screw driver. Wish I knew the size, but if you're like me, you have a set, but work by trial and error. Same here. Not helpful in terms of determining the screw size. Note that these are tiny screws (said that before) machined and easy to loose. Hard to find and buy in precise quantity and size. So don't lose the two you'll remove 'cause they need to be replaced.
4) After removing the old battery, and in order to do so, I cut the metal strips making sure to leave a little flash to resolder the new connections to.
5) PC board strip: This fell out randomly in both batteries. I bought some Krazy glue to apply on the ends where the connector yokes are. The strip is used to retain the yokes for making the electrical connection to the camera. Dab a little glue on the plastic between the yoke holes (this will be obvious) but keep it away from the holes as the glue is an insulator. You'll need no more than a pin head size amount of glue so go very lightly. Test fit the strip before hand to make sure you know exactly where it fits... because, yet, it fits into a slot.
6) Use the soldering iron to remove the two black grounding wires that will have been attached to the sides of the old batteries. You won't need these, but save them.
7) Wire the battery connector black-to-blue (flashing attached to a blue wire in the battery), and red-to-red (red wire attached to flashing). You will want to tin the wire connectors with solder first so that the final solder is a momentary application of heat. I used a heat clamp to hold the wire in place with a good pressure connection while soldering, but you could use almost anything that will apply pressure and not prove painful to heat.
8) I taped the connection with a small strip of electrical tape about 1/8th of an inch just to assure that there would be no stray short circuits
9) I wrapped the battery in a papertowel cut to size and taped it to stay.
10) Attached the battery to the wire, shoved it in the battery casing and shoved the wires down into the end
11) Closed the lid and re-screwed the screws back in to the face plate to hold it all together.
12) Tested the battery in the camera and I AM BACK in BUSINESS! You will be too if you're following the same steps. Total time: About 30 minutes if you're slow, careful, and clean... and don't want to break something. The replacement battery and wire connectors are both available from Hobby King (see above). I am looking forward to some new shots!
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