Beaulieu 4008 ZM II: Another Battery Pack Solution

[GeneratriX]

A few news:

Today my provider of cabinets have confirmed the availability of the first 24 new-design units. I've not seen even those new modified boxes, and I'll put my hands on the new plastic cases tomorrow at 09:30AM; so, we'll get assembled soon the first battery pack to include all the refinements detailed above.

[GeneratriX]

What a moment... That's it... The new order of GeneratriX Battery Packs is almost ready to go! I've arranged a few pictures with my webcam (pretty low resolution), to allow the people interested to see them:















Let me know your opinion, specially those that have ordered units, as UppsalaBildTeknik, UltraMarine, and any others...

Geez!, I can feel the butterflies in my stomach! :oops:
Cheers! ;)

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

Looking good! Is that a fan on the side? Does it get that hot?
How about the LED thingy, you skipped it because it got too complicated/expensive to get accurate redings?

[GeneratriX]

Looking good! Is that a fan on the side? Does it get that hot?
How about the LED thingy, you skipped it because it got too complicated/expensive to get accurate redings?

What a fast man! :lol:
...You have an eMail from me, inviting you to see the pictures! :lol:
The eMail says too that the Battery Packs are ALMOST ready, and precisely the feature that I've left for the last step is: THE CHARGE-METER!

Yup; these little guy was giving me some problems; but I have the electronic side resolved by now, so, just matter to run to buy the electronic components... I've arranged two different circuits, so, I'll get both assemblied to test wich works better, and then include these one! ;)

Yup!; the units has a little fan! ...You'll ask WHY?

Easy to explain:

I've discovered on my tests here, that the Ni-Cad/Ni-Mh batteries are drastically affected if you put them to fast charge when they are frozen, or just too cold. in fact, some batteries could simply explode if you take them to fast charge when they are too cold (or too hot!)

Then, I've arranged a thermal system, to ensure that the batteries are always inside a well determined limit, even in very cold, or very hot conditions. So, when you back to home, tired to shoot kilometers of 8mm film ...you put the Battery Pack to charge, and the fan is automatically started, along with the charge process. The fan duct is designed to get evacuated quickly the gas inside the case, and the batteries are climatized to reach a safe level of temperature during the charge.

If they are too hot, just get renewed the gasses inside.
If they are too cold, just get air with ambient temperature to get fastened the de-frozen process, climatizing the batteries faster.

That's it! Also, what do you think of the new "Belt-Press"? ...Oh!; my belt is not included! ;)

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

I think I thought the belt-clip looked good, but now your pictures are offline....

OK, the fan makes sensewhen recharging, I thought it was running when the battery pack is used! :lol:

I have received my 4008 now, thanks to Bjorn I got it faster!

[GeneratriX]

but now your pictures are offline...

Yyyaaakkk! Damn Geocities!
...I guess this is a problem by exceeding the max traffic allowed on Geocities... yup; I'm using their hosting to host all the pictures wich I'm adding on many posts! :oops:

Don't worry; in the next hour we'll get the pictures back! (That's the way in wich works... Geez!)

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[GeneratriX]

The GeneratriX BatteryPack News:

finally I have resolved the problem of the battery pack and camera consumption meter. In a little board of 67x25mm I've managed to put a nice transistorized meter, many times more reliable and precise that the ones based on IC that I've tried here. I've used three diferent IC(s) from Texas Instruments, and I've noticed that they are not reliable when the Vref (Reference Voltage) varies along with the Vin (Input Voltage), so, I've designed my own meter that works as:

1) Remaining Charge Indicator On The Battery (Amps Metering)
2) Consumption Monitor On The Camera (Combined Metering)

The meter has (just by now) a row of three LED units, precisely calibrated to show three values on steps of 33.33% each; on next releases I'll try to put more metering cells to reach rows of at least five LED units; but by now I can't do this because there is not enough space on the cabinets. Also the board was reduced until virtually the size of the components by itself.

[GeneratriX]

...The above picture shows the new meter board assembly, with their row of three LED units featuring two metering modes, and the left picture shows the battery pack body unit.

I really want to give my big excuses to those peoples waiting for their battery pack orders by the delay suffered to ship the orders (Kent, George, etc.), but my actual (main) work is taking many of my spare time, and I have to arrange some particular details (some of them very time consumming) for each order previous to ship the kits.

Also, I must add that this time I've worked on little series, and I want to resolve the main issues once and forever, to simplify the assembling process, today pretty difficult because some issues as: absence of original non-functional Beaulieu batteries to arrange the dummy sockets, very reduced space on the battery pack body to fit all the needed components, and precise calibration of the meter.

But all, one by one are beeing resolved, and if you are patient, maybe we'll get a very nice way to do it quickly and easily for the next generations of battery packs. Sorry, I don't know how to do it faster, cheaper and dirty. But I know how to do it well!

Thanks in advance to the supporters!
Cheers! ;)

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

...The above picture

....is not there.... I guess it is the thing with exceeding your limits again.

[GeneratriX]

...The above picture

....is not there.... I guess it is the thing with exceeding your limits again.

WEIRD!; I can see it here perfectly! :roll:
Anyway don't worry, you'll see your battery pack very soon, I have it almost finished, just needs some details, and then I'll ship the set for you (I hope inside the current week laps) ;)

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

WEIRD!
Now I can see them too, guess it was a temporary thingy.

Nice to get the Battery pack, finally I can start shooting my testfilms....

[GeneratriX]

WEIRD!
Now I can see them too, guess it was a temporary thingy.

:lol: Yes, those Geocities web pages are only for "mini" web sites, such as family sites, or little professional pages, and I'm using it as my personal bank of images... seems a logical thing the bandwidth limit anyway. I'll get a commercial site one of this days to put all my stuff! ;)

Nice to get the Battery pack, finally I can start shooting my testfilms....

Kent; sorry again by the delay, you already know the reasons, I've desired to finish the thing before, but for a bunch of circumstances I've suffered many delays to get it ready.

Now I only need to join all the modules: Meter, Battery Cells, Active Regulator, Protection Circuit, Rectifier, Climatizer... and you'll be the first to have the GeneratriX Battery Pack for your beloved Beaulieu! (In fact, before than myself, since I only have the previous version for my cam! )

The George's unit is suffering a longer delay, but this time not by my fault, but instead by his courier service, not enough fast to put his package here at home by now... I don't know, seems that these package already has almost two months and half, and I've not received the customhouse ticket to get it on my hands... very weird...

At difference of your kit, the one for George includes the re-working of his old and non-functional batteries, to arrange those as newer dummy sockets. The yours are built from scratch, using new stuff, and this is one of the facts for my actual delay, including the new meter.

But please, don't worry now, since we are on the last step of assembly. Soon you'll get it working there!

[GeneratriX]

As you know, my Geocities account has a limited bandwidth, so, don't worry if temporarely the images below are not available... sooner or later will show!

Third generation of battery pack, connected to my Beaulieu:



Close view:



Closer view:



Hey!; the battery is fully charged!



mmmhhh; Let's see how much eat my camera...



A dummy socket beeing built from scratch (it is not ready by now):



The whole kit, including the AC Adaptor:



Hey!; I'll test again my battery!




(The battery pack set showed on the above pictures is the first one of the third generation of battery packs, and is by order of Uppsala BildTeknik... yes Kent, this is yours!

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

Cool.

[GeneratriX]

...mmmhhh ...Seems that those aged M42 metallic body caps are not so easy to obtain after all... I've purchased one for the Uppsala's alternative dummy socket, and managed to get the thing solidly built, but I'm unable to obtain more of those caps here in Argentine.

The cap was a "Soligor M42x1 - MetallicThreaded Photographic Body Cap"




I've purchased a sample of the only cap that I'm able to obtain in my location (a chinese plastic cap), but these one simply does not attach firmly to the Beaulieu 4008, because the absence of threads on the plastic cap (these one has only two release latches to fix the cap to the body)

Also, in the plastic cap there is not a safe way to fix the metallic tube that supports the pertinax contact board... :roll:
I hope to be able to get at least some used caps at any place...