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Battery mysteryD1 yes.... D1x no..

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Posted by novicius: Sun Sep 7th, 2014 18:54

1^st Post

Got three brandnew EN-4 , refreshed-charged , did that three times , and there`s one that just won`t work , batt. ind. says low , D1x powers up , but won`t fire ,... refr.ch. again , .. same thing !!

Measured Voltage , meter reads 8.36 V , the other two ( those that DO work read resp. 7.56 V and 7. 96 V., then cleaned contacts , refr.ch. ,..No-go !!

Just by chance , inserted the 8.36 V cell into the D1 ,.. and YES !!

The other two work Flawlessly on Both camera`s .. what`s happenin`..?.. battery haunted ? ..

I`m just not gettin` it , anyone can explain this " phenomenon " .. :banghead:

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Posted by Robert: Mon Sep 8th, 2014 02:53

2^nd Post

Hi Novicius, D1/D1x batteries are a 'phenomena' all to themselves! o.O

The Voltage is not important, what matters is the available current. Your oddball battery can't be providing enough current to charge the capacitor on the D1x, but perhaps the D1 has a slightly lower demand. It's very difficult to measure the current flow because it can only be measured with the battery in place in the camera.

I made myself two Li-Ion batteries using empty shells for my D1/D1x cameras, the first one I made the internal wiring too thin a gauge, about .5mm2, despite fully charged brand new cells, my creation would not fire the shutter. I replaced the wires with heavier 1.5mm2 and it worked perfectly; the wires are only about 50mm long but it made the difference.

Perhaps that gives you some idea that the current demand is momentarily, very high for a battery driven device when it fires the shutter. There is a large capacitor in the firing circuit and I believe that is responsible tor the firing and for the relatively heavy battery demand of the early cameras.

On later cameras Nikon developed lower surge circuits with, no doubt more suitable motors and more efficient, lighter mechanisms with thinner titanium blades.

Hope that helps explain the 'phenomenon' ;-)

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Posted by jk: Mon Sep 8th, 2014 07:08

3^rd Post

There was a version 5.x of the D1X firmware that caused these problems. This occurred when Nikon did a service upgrade to the camera when they added additional memory for buffering images. There was a lot of problems at the time.

It didnt effect me as I had already converted my D1X to using my special Lion batteries.

The D1 camera is less 'demanding' wrt current draw and battery quality.

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Posted by Gilbert Sandberg: Mon Sep 8th, 2014 10:02

4^th Post

N,
I have a D1 and agree with most of the above.
Nominal Voltage is not the crux, Amps are.
You will note similar behavior when the battery is about halfway down its charge, if you do some bracketing or other rapid shots: the indicator will drop suddenly. Switsch the camera off for some time and it will come up with the charge inidcator on Full.
Remember also: the battery pack consists of a number of cells, connected in series: it take just one weak cell to ruin any performance.
Similar afffecsts van be observed with some of the Nikon flash units: some bands of alkaline batteries perform much better than some (well known) brands, just because they can supply more Amps (current).
Regards, Gilbert

Posted by Judith: Tue Sep 9th, 2014 06:09

5^th Post

I'll go with the haunted theory, Novicius. I had three batteries for my D200 when I got it. 2 of them worked perfectly but the other just wouldn't play ball despite appearing to be fully charged. It worked fine on other people's cameras though, just didn't like mine. I think I donated it to JK's collection in the end. o.O

Posted by novicius: Tue Sep 30th, 2014 20:57

6^th Post

Not just to revive an old thread ,....

In the past two weeks I`ve been busy refreshing batteries , went out shooting , keeping an eye on duration times , two batt. which I had discarded but somehow kept in my paraphernalia box , came to live again after refreshing about 12 times , working flawlessly with the D1 , with the d1X however the batt. indicator showed FULL , pressing down shutter button , indicator immediately showed empty , inserting into D1 , and all was well , managed to corrupt a CF card in the process ,...

Another CF card which had shown signs of trouble ( sandisk Xtreme III ) that had caused the SlrN to use up to 30 sec, to power up ( SlrN normally takes 8 sec. ) camera crashing every other time , and during mid-shoot , has now been computer-formatted eight times and.. works now flawlessly !!

I have heard about Current ( amp. ) and inner resistance being an important factor , remembering a flash made by Vivitar , model 283 if memory serves well , running on a single nine (9) volt batt. , which did Not work well with certain makes , only Duracell was compatible I think , the explanation was a " wrong " inner Resistance of the battery , now that was during the seventies , the D1X came TWO decades later ...

JK must have a point about the firmware upgrade of the D1X , causing it to be " choosy " about the battery`s performance .. but what about that behaviour of the sandisk III , and the Ultra II that got corrupted , ..

I`m siding with Judith here..

Maybe I should save up for a trip to the Fiji Islands to find a competent Voodoo priest for a thorough Cleansing of my equipment,...

____________________
Back in Danmark

I do not use my equipment to make photo`s .. I take photo`s to use my equipment

The better I become at photography,the better my camera gets.

Posted by Judith: Tue Sep 30th, 2014 22:20

7^th Post

Well, Halloween is fast-approaching... :-)

Could you have a touch of dead battery syndrome? http://www.dslrbodies.com/cameras/camera-faq/my-camera-wont-operate-all.html

I have problems with this on the D200.

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