L&M Sunray Mini Li-ion Battery repacking

Has anyone done that before and how reliable is it?

Regards

Peter

[Edited by Moderator for content]

... I do however think that L&M do not stock old parts in an attempt to force you to buy their newer gear which is annoying. ...

Just got whacked with the same issue with L&M myself.

Tried to order a new pair of the Li-ion batteries for the Sunray Mini HID lights. The light are only a couple of years old. Just late last year L&M serviced the lights and replaced the heads. But now the first pair of batteries that I bought a couple of years ago will only hold about 30 minutes of charge. The pair I bought last year are still lasting 45 to 50 minutes. But I wanted a new pair so I could get another year or two use out of these lights.

Response from L&M: "We no longer support the Li-ion battery that you are looking for. So there are no 824-0164 11.1 volt Li-ion batteries available. And I don't believe that any of our dealers have any of the mini Li-ion batteries left in stock." The email goes on to advocate the features of the new LED lights....

I am not too happy.

My last 3 housings and light systems have been L&M. Might cast my net a bit wider next time.

Regards

Peter

PS. Any tips for extending the life of declining Li-ion batteries? I always look after them well and always store them fully charged. They are used at least once a month and often intensively during week-long live-aboard trips.

Peter,

There will be someone in Bangkok/Singapore etc who can rebuild those batteries for you at a smaller cost than the originals i should think. I managed to find a company to do that for a Sea and Sea battery pack in Taiwan. I would normally do it myself but the battery sizes and types were funky.

Good luck!

Why not have your old dead Li-ion packs rebuilt with new cells?

(There are places here in the United States that do that.

11.1 V = three 3.7V Li-ion cells in series.

How many mA-hrs are the battery packs? [that info would narrow down which cell type are in the packs; maybe, http://www.megabatteries.com/item_details....0&cat_id=51]

You also need to know how much current the Lights draw while powered up.

Maybe, someone on this list could add links to them.

Or

Ask L&M if they can rebuild the packs)

Take Care,

ChrisS

Why not have your old dead Li-ion packs rebuilt with new cells?

(There are places here in the United States that do that.

11.1 V = three 3.7V Li-ion cells in series.

How many mA-hrs are the battery packs? [that info would narrow down which cell type are in the packs; maybe, http://www.megabatteries.com/item_details....0&cat_id=51]

You also need to know how much current the Lights draw while powered up.

Maybe, someone on this list could add links to them.

Or

Ask L&M if they can rebuild the packs)

 

Take Care,

ChrisS

Chris,

I will ask L&M and see if they can give me the technical specs for these batteries.

Then I will need to try to find a place here in Bangkok that can do the repacking. Hmmm...

Regards

Peter

Peter,

 

There will be someone in Bangkok/Singapore etc who can rebuild those batteries for you at a smaller cost than the originals i should think. I managed to find a company to do that for a Sea and Sea battery pack in Taiwan. I would normally do it myself but the battery sizes and types were funky.

 

Good luck!

Thanks for your suggestion.

If you have tracked down a place in Taiwan, you'll understand the challange if finding such a place in an Asian city with no decent Yellow Pages and very few small businesses with a website. Just to get me started, what kind of place am I looking for? Electronics repair shop? Battery manufacturer? Something else?

I do know people in Taiwan. Do you have the contact details for the place there that helped you?

Regards

Peter

Peter, have you tried contacting David over at Scubacam in Singapore. I'm not sure if he's a L&M dealer, but he sounded like quite a McGuiver when I had a chat with him about video housing and some of the customization he could do at last year's ADEX. Maybe he might know how to source some of those batteries from the region.

Yellowpages... lol... it's how I feel in HK as well. There are soo many little electronic and hardware shops around the territory.

With your L&M battery pack, is it a single cell or mutiple cells wrapped up and relabeled? Can you unwrap them to see if there are any manufacturer labels? Any circuitry inside? Will L&M provide you with specifications to help you find/ build a replacement?

Peter, have you tried contacting David over at Scubacam in Singapore. I'm not sure if he's a L&M dealer, but he sounded like quite a McGuiver when I had a chat with him about video housing and some of the customization he could do at last year's ADEX. Maybe he might know how to source some of those batteries from the region.

 

Yellowpages... lol... it's how I feel in HK as well. There are soo many little electronic and hardware shops around the territory.

 

With your L&M battery pack, is it a single cell or mutiple cells wrapped up and relabeled? Can you unwrap them to see if there are any manufacturer labels? Any circuitry inside? Will L&M provide you with specifications to help you find/ build a replacement?

I have asked L&M for the specs. Hopefully, they'll respond in full. It is the least they can do after abandoning a product so early in its life cycle...

Through Google, I have found a place in Brisbane, Australia that claims it can repack almost any battery. Fortunately it is within a few kilometres of my father's house so, if they respond positively, I can get the batteries over to them easily.

Regards

Peter

Here is a place in the states, that has in the past made for me custom made, battery packs, for use in my older underwater strobes (SR2000) that are no longer being manufactured.

http://www.evssupply.com/home.asp

You never know.. they might be able to rebuild you one, if you send them the old one.

Here is another place in the states, that have made "custom made" battery packs for me in the past.. something worth considering.

http://www.evssupply.com/home.asp

For repacking batteries in Singapore, head to the basement of Sim Lim Towers. There is a guy who specialises in batteries, can't remember his name or number! You can't miss his shop. He repacked my Hartenberger, he said it would be better as he put better quality batteries in it. It lasts even longer than the original Hartenberger did!

For repacking batteries in Singapore, head to the basement of Sim Lim Towers. There is a guy who specialises in batteries, can't remember his name or number! You can't miss his shop. He repacked my Hartenberger, he said it would be better as he put better quality batteries in it. It lasts even longer than the original Hartenberger did!

Thanks. I have a friend who travels back and forward between Bangkok and Singapore every week so it might be a good option.

Regards

Peter

I had the same issue with the historic mako sc100 with the 'nugget' 7.2V batteries. L&M didn't stock them but they did give me th detailed blueprints (after trying to sell me newer battery pods!!)

hope it works out for you.

dan

I replaced two sets myself with continued dwindling burn times. I contacted Carl at Sartek (www.sarind.com) and he retrofitted my Bluefin lights for new batteries/pods that burn about an hour and thirty minutes for each. He was very helpful and is up on the specs for those lights. Even if you use someone locally I'm sure he would help you out. Good Luck. John

I replaced two sets myself with continued dwindling burn times. I contacted Carl at Sartek (www.sarind.com) and he retrofitted my Bluefin lights for new batteries/pods that burn about an hour and thirty minutes for each. He was very helpful and is up on the specs for those lights. Even if you use someone locally I'm sure he would help you out. Good Luck. John

Thanks for the information and URL. I have a couple of local option to try but, if no success here, I'll try shipping them to the US.

Regards

Peter

Peter, have you tried contacting David over at Scubacam in Singapore. I'm not sure if he's a L&M dealer, but he sounded like quite a McGuiver when I had a chat with him about video housing and some of the customization he could do at last year's ADEX. Maybe he might know how to source some of those batteries from the region.

Just wanted to post a close to this thread. Thank you for everyone's help and suggestions.

The key advice that I received was "contact David over at Scubacam in Singapore". After fruitlessly running around several generic electronics shops in Bangkok and Singapore and emailing some places in the US and Australia, David Cheung at Scubacam leapt to my rescue.

I dropped off the weary old batteries at his shop a couple of weeks ago (and had an interesting chat about his product lines). They arrived back to me yesterday. Basically, he had to cut open the old batteries, salvage the circuitry, purchase some replacement cells, rebuild the batteries aligning everything so that they fit back into the pods correctly, then seal them with shrink-wrap.

Not only do they work fine, but they actually last longer than the original L&M batteries did when they were new! I tested them in the sink last night and achieved a burn time of just under 1 hour. Even new, the original batteries gave only 45 to 50 minutes and, as they aged, that dropped away to 30 minutes. I am so pleased that I'll get David to do the same trick with my other, not-quite-so-old L&M batteries.

So, a BIG endorsement to David at Scubacam. Need something done, he is your man. IMO, for us who live in Southeast Asia, we should support a capable but rare resource like David and buy our future housings and lights through him. I will!

Regards

Peter

LMI also frequently uses laptop batteries for their lights and I was able (with some difficulties) to find replacements for an old set on ebatts.com Not sure if it was easier than getting the batteries repacked since I had to troll around somewhat blindly since the e-batts site is easier to search if you know the laptop model you need to replace. Suspect I got lucky on that one.

Don

Don Stark

www.ScubaVisions.TV

Boston, MA and Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands