Nikon Battery Repair Attempt (EN EL15 No Power, Not Charging)
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- Опубліковано 30 лип 2024
- My attempt troubleshooting and repairing a defective Nikon EN-EL15 battery that will not charge and won't power up Nikon D7100. Dismantle procedure and voltage tests included in this tutorial, and possible repair if only I had the spare replacement circuit board.
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Is there a way to diagnose what is wrong with the charging circuit? Could it be a bad solder joint or corrosion under a component pad? My soldering iron is itching to find out!
The only way to find out is to dismantle the pack and do some connectivity tests. You must be familiar with the circuit though and the test points to measure the correct voltages and resistance. Other than that, just find a working donor circuit board from scrap battery packs, it's easier.
What is the cell number for en el15? My cells are dead, the contacts and circuits are good.
On one of the Phottix third party brand EN EL15 that I dismantled, the cells are marked MH47501 HQ20121120. Not sure which is the model number and which is the serial number though. Numbers may vary per cell per brand.
Hi, great video. Did you measure the dimensions of the battery cells? It looks like something like 18 by 50mm or 18 by 49, I guess?
No I didn't. But I suppose Nikon battery that size is standard as they are the same size cells used in the old Nikon EN-EL3e for Nikon D90/ Nikon D300.
li ion 18500
Hi Manny. How is the replacement EN EL 15 battery holding up? The orig. Nikon battery is rated at 1900mAh. 18500 batteries are now a lot more powerful. Is it safe to put much higher capacity 18500 cells as replacement? How high a capacity is safe to use? And what battery brands and cpacity are ideal--best bang for the buck?
At the beginning of this video I have shown a repacked and repaired Phottix brand battery pack replaced with working charging protection circuit board coming from an orig Nikon EN EL15 battery pack. It worked for about a year more before the charging cycle starts wearing down. Reaching 18 months of use the cells starts to die one by one shortening it's use per charge, until the pack couldn't hold a charge anymore. In my experience repacking batteries, while non-branded cells have higher current capacity, orig cells from legit Nikon packs were more durable and last longer. This is true when using orig legit brands compared to third party brands battery, so your issue here is longer usage time vs longer life charging cycle (durability). If you could get legit brands such as Toshiba, Sanyo, Sony, Panasonic, GP, etc. cells of the same type those must be your best choice if you want your repaired packs to last a long time. Now on with your question about higher capacity cells - If you have a working charging protection board, changing to higher current capacity cells won't hurt your camera as long as they are same voltage rating. In battery sense, higher capacity and longer discharge time means that current capacity is only altered giving higher mAh but the measured voltage when fully charged should be the same (or slightly tolerant in few hundred millivolts). So yes it is perfectly safe to change to higher current capacity cells as long as they are same voltage to the one you are replacing. A rated 7.2 volts working battery should be fully charged at around 8.4 volts when measured with a digital volt meter but not greater than 8.7 volts. Also when you increase the mAh capacity of the battery, it might also have a longer time charging with the original charger, you might need to buy a quick charger with a higher current rating as well if you want faster charging time with your newly repacked battery.
If the battery cell is 8v does it mean the charger isn’t good and I destroyed the battery?
You mentioned it needs to be around 7v
@@erezsagit 8 volts is a good charge for a 7.2 volt rated battery. at 8.2 vots it is fully charged. At 7 volts it is drained and your camera might shut down already depending on the low battery threshold set by the manufacturer. Below 5 volts the battery is dead and may not power up the charging circuits to start the charging process and bring it to life.
I think it's the 18500 cell (5cm). Hope that I can fix my battery
Hello,
do you know who to hack the chip on a genuine Nikon battery ?
I'm not aware of any firmware/ software hack on a Nikon battery chip. It is only a voltage sensor/ controller chip associated with voltage regulator circuit(s). There's no rom chip in it to be programmed. But you could always swap a chip from an orig Nikon battery to replace a damaged chip on a damaged Nikon battery pack and vice versa if you have stocks of working boards and parts.
I have a spare Nikon EL15, which I didn't touch for a year. After recharging, the camera shows only one bar and (in menu -> battery info -> battery age) I get a 4 (=garbage).
I guess, during storage the voltage droped below a certain point and the battery management chip stored this issue. I would like to get rid of this flag / bit.
Lithium Ion batteries when left alone unused for a certain long period of time is said to lose their charge. That's why they say if you need to keep the battery unused always make a practice to charge them full before storing them. The full charge voltage of an EN-EL15 battery is about 8.2 volts when measured with a volt meter. It is discharged at 7 volts. The battery is depleted at 6.5 volts. The safest low level voltage is 6 volts. At around 5 volts the battery won't be able to activate the charging chip and associated circuitry unless the cells were kick started with a high voltage spike to dislodge a stuck crystallized cell. At below 2 volts below, the battery is damaged and you can no longer do anything but to replace the cells thus repacking the battery pack. So you see, it's not the chip which is faulty at that point but the battery cells themselves. The chip can only be destroyed by static damage or overvoltage or some internal shorts like for example when you dropped the battery pack or when used with a faulty charger.
@@dorfschmidt4833 I heard that storing lithium ion batteries fully charged is not good for them. If someone made a safe storage device that brought them to half charge, or "optimum charge" for storage, they'd save a lot of battery capacity and make a lot of money.
I faced similar issue and unable to charge my totally discharged nikon 15b battery with nikon charger (flashing red led rapidly) too. Then i tried to charge it with my z7 built-in charger for minutes and hopefully it will unlock internal charging circuitry of the battery. It really works and the charger will charge the battery again with normal flashing led. I can power up my z7 with that battery too.
Any charger will work as long as it outputs the correct voltage needed to charge specific battery packs. If your charger won't charge you Nikon battery, then probably your charger is faulty. However, when Lithium Ion battery voltage drops near zero volt when measured with a tester, then that is destructive and has 50/50 chance it will be back to normal charging. The cells need to be zap with higher voltage to force it to charge with minimum levels to power up and activate the BMS (battery management system) circuit in the battery pack.
Can't the battery BMS be tested with the multimeter for a failed part? Maybe the board can be repaired?
If you know how to test multi legged MOSFET's you can repair it with replacement of the same type. But unless you can identify the main chips using circuit diagrams it is almost impossible to test voltages and resistance of those important parts. Unavailability of components is another thing since you cannot buy these tiny surface mount chips from your local stores. You can source them from China if you know where to buy. But remember we are dealing with accurate voltages and polarities here. If you mistakenly replace parts with different types and values Lithium Ion battery cells may overheat and get damaged, or may even explode or burst into flame when reversed polarity or subjected to over-voltage higher than specified by the manufacturer. That's why there's a lot of precautions and disclaimer when repacking and restoring old battery packs because of these dangers when you don't know what you are doing. This is the reason why I strongly suggest replacing the whole BMS board with a working one salvaged from a used battery pack of similar type and not tinker with the electronics, especially if you don't have the necessary circuit diagrams and test procedures/ service manual. Most people will even tell you to buy new batteries rather than tediously repair damaged battery packs.
how to discharge the battery ? i am not prefer to discharge with camera, can your charger ( in the video ) be modified to become a discharger ? can you provide the detail for the charger in the video ?
Sorry there's no easy way to discharge high capacity Lithium-Ion cells as simply shorting it would either destroy the cells or the BMS circuit. Even doing it the wrong way would cause the cells to either explode or catch on fire. It's not like a capacitor which you can discharge easily by shorting a resistor between the + and - terminal. Voltages are monitored regularly by the battery management system when Lithium Ion cells are being discharged. Lowest discharge voltage for each 3.7 volts cell should not be lower than 2.5 volts. Drop voltage by less than 1 volt and it may not charge again to full capacity or it would not regain charge at all. A 7.2 volt Nikon battery pack should have at least 6 volt remaining voltage to power the BMS circuit to drive the charging circuit to work. So, sorry to say but no you cannot just use the charger that I use in the video to be used as a discharger because it does not have the circuitry to do so. You must put a proper load to the battery to discharge it, with proper voltage level sensing circuitry to cut off discharging when the lowest allowable voltage was reached
Thanks
Problem BMS
sir what is the replacement ng battery of en el 15
There are no replacement for the model number EN EL15 because battery pack is specific for each Nikon camera body. You must be referring to generic brand replacement, in that case there are several third party brands such as Phottix, Wasabi and Ravpower battery manufacturers.
to disassemble a battery just apply some benzol all around the jonction area. give it few minutes. it's magic.
Sir, what's exactly name of the chemical?
@@musiclibraryforcreators8094
ٍSir. It's the benzene.
You don't have an utility knife or anything smaller and sharper ? haha
You cannot use a small utility knife on a thick plastic that was bonded hard with epoxy. It won't work cutting around the edges with your bare hands you only risk cutting and hurting yourself. Or the small knife will just break The only way to go is a strong force with a hammer and a heavy duty knife, in this case I got no other option but a bolo knife.