1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

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Archive 2009 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

Andrew J
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p.1 #1 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

I realize this mod may not be for every/any one. It uses the protection circuitry built in to the MKIII battery and the MKIII charger. No soldering is done to any Li-ion cells.
Anyone with basic voltmeter and soldering skills can do this in under an hour. So I give it 3/5 wrenches in difficulty.
The mydigitaldiscount.com after-market Li-ion battery was $30 delivered. http://tinyurl.com/ooy6mn

Remove the 4 screws on this plate:

Then these 4:

Lightly score around the battery several times until it pops apart.:

Get any old 1D battery and remove the cells:

Solder the buttons to the correct locations as shown here. Use red for positive and black lead for negative. The smaller of the two buttons is positive.

Charges the same as always, using a Canon or after-market charger:

Weight savings in the ballpark of almost half a pound:

Edited on Jan 24, 2010 at 12:38 AM · View previous versions

May 24, 2009 at 12:14 AM

Norwin Uy
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p.1 #2 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

That looks wicked. Have you tested the battery life?

Thanks for sharing.

May 24, 2009 at 12:22 AM

Andrew J
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p.1 #3 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

I'll have an idea in a few days.

May 24, 2009 at 12:40 AM

rscheffler
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p.1 #4 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

Are you able to close the older 1D battery once the Li-ion pack is installed? Looks interesting though and could be a good solution for the stack of old style 1D batteries I have that are not holding charges very well... and would allow standardizing on one charger when traveling.

May 24, 2009 at 12:49 AM

EB-1
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p.1 #5 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

I considered using 3x18650 Li-Ion cells in 2003, but the lower voltage was a little concern. The cut-out voltage of the 1Ds was too close for comfort. I'm curious how much capacity can be utilized before the battery voltage is too low.

Then the 1Ds MK II with its better battery life appeared. I usually carried two of the bodies, so alternative batteries became unnecessary.

EBH

May 24, 2009 at 12:59 AM

Andrew J
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p.1 #6 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

rscheffler wrote:
Are you able to close the older 1D battery once the Li-ion pack is installed? .................

Not at this point, there's a size issue.

May 24, 2009 at 01:02 AM

Andrew J
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p.1 #7 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

EB-1 wrote:
I considered using 3x18650 Li-Ion cells in 2003, but the lower voltage was a little concern. ...........................

EBH

At full charge and no load the pack is over 12v. About .5v less than the OEM 1D battery.
Under load the camera shows full battery capacity. The Li-ion should stay high output until near the end with a rapid drop. I'll count clicks if we have a nice day this weekend.

May 24, 2009 at 01:08 AM

lexvo
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p.1 #8 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

I assume the standard 1D charger can be used?

May 24, 2009 at 06:51 PM

jleom
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p.1 #9 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

I was hoping to find something like this. I hope this turns out well.
Thank you.

Leo

May 24, 2009 at 06:58 PM

EB-1
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p.1 #10 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

lexvo wrote:
Very interesting, thanks for sharing!

I assume the standard 1D charger can be used?

No. The LP-E4 or similar charger would be needed. I won't go into all the details, but Li-Ion cells have very different charging characteristics.

EBH

May 24, 2009 at 07:05 PM

m3rocket
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p.1 #11 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

Very interesting. Are there any cheaper compatible chargers than the LP-E4? Also, I wonder if there's a way to adapt a pigtail to the charger so that one can simply plug the new Frankensteined Li-Io 1Ds battery to the Frankensteined charger.

May 24, 2009 at 08:27 PM

Andrew J
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p.1 #12 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

m3rocket wrote:
Very interesting. Are there any cheaper compatible chargers than the LP-E4? Also, I wonder if there's a way to adapt a pigtail to the charger so that one can simply plug the new Frankensteined Li-Io 1Ds battery to the Frankensteined charger.

This is an after-market LP-E4 Li-Ion charger with battery for $64 delivered:
http://tinyurl.com/qb2p9r

Yes, I hope to add a dongle for charging. And close up the battery.

EDIT On my first outing turns out I got 307 shots.

That was with writing both RAW and large jpg. They were on the 500/f4L with IS turned on.

I'll try another brand of after-market LP-E4 battery and then even a Canon one if I have to.

Edited on May 25, 2009 at 05:05 PM · View previous versions

May 25, 2009 at 12:41 AM

EB-1
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p.1 #13 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

What did the power level measure in a MK III camera at that point?

EBH

May 25, 2009 at 12:53 AM

Andrew J
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p.1 #14 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

Pretty high. The Canon charger showed it only about 30% depleted.

May 25, 2009 at 12:54 AM

EB-1
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p.1 #15 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

Yeah, that's what I was expecting. It could use a boosted power supply, which is probably not worth the hassle.

EBH

May 25, 2009 at 01:05 AM

rscheffler
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p.1 #16 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

But that is in an original 1D? Considering that a brand new Canon NP-E3 would maybe get 500-600 frames in optimum conditions, it's not too bad. I would want to try this in a couple 1DIINs I still use from time to time as third/fourth cameras or remotes, and considering that they have much better battery performance than the original 1D, this could possibly be a workable solution.

Do you have any experience with that aftermarket LC-E4 charger in terms of reliability? Something like that would be nice for travel because it's much more compact....

Ron

May 25, 2009 at 01:39 AM

400d
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p.1 #17 · 1D Classic Li-ion MOD (beta)

rscheffler wrote:
Do you have any experience with that aftermarket LC-E4 charger in terms of reliability? Something like that would be nice for travel because it's much more compact....

Ron
Try a Li-Ion charger, there are too many knock offs of the original (e-Station Bantam): http://tinyurl.com/oopnlf
I am sure the knock offs work just fine, since they appear to have the same "firmware" of the e-Station's. This kind of charger is like the Mother of All Chargers..cause they charge SLA, NiCD/NiMH, Li-Ion/Li-Po, LiFePO4, they even support parallel charging, I believe the LC-E4 doesn't do that..ok ok, I know, the Li-Ion's PCB is supposed to balance the individual cell's voltage.

May 25, 2009 at 06:43 AM

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