An alternative to buying new replacement battery for FLIR E30/E40/E50/E60. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: nikoum
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2019, 09:41:12 pm
content: A friend of mine has a 2011 E40 camera and his battery has come to end of life, lasting less than an hour of continues use. Since I have an ebay account he asked me to look for a used or new one to buy but, there was none available. I then looked at different sites including Flir.com and the prices are outrageous from 90 usd + shipping to Greece at flir.com to 177 usd up to 180 gbp at amazon.uk. This is really ridicules, so I looked at eevblog.com and I found a post from robert_c (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/battery-packs-for-flir-exx-series/) who replaced the cells inside the battery pack with two Samsung INR18650-35E cells. We decided to go on with his solution but modify it a little, so that he could have spare batteries with him that he could change any time and in an easy way. So here is how we did it.1. First I opened the battery pack. It is not hard to do it but you need patience. I started from the bottom of the pack working towards the top, and with a sharp knife started slicing right at the center where there is a small groove all around the pack. Just be careful because at the top there is a protection and charging circuit I guess, so proceed with caution. After slicing all around the pack I started forcing to open from the bottom again working towards the top until the pack starts splitting at he bottom and work your way up. Please note that the batteries are glued from both sides to the pack so it needs some strength to pull the two halves apart (pic 1,2). When it finally opens up (pic 3) you see two 18650 cells with the protection circuit soldered on top of them. Unfortunately I did not take a picture at this instance.2. I desoldered the protection circuit from the batteries and put it aside. In the meantime my friend bought four new Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mah batteries (they have longer life cycle than Sony and last longer than the stock 2200mah) and went to a shop and had them spot welded in parallel. So now we had two sets of replacement batteries available (pic 4).3. Next I fixed the protection circuit with a glue gun into one of the halves of the pack . Just make sure you position the protection circuit all the way at the top in front of the two small plastic pieces (pic 5,6). Finally I glued the long negative connection plate to the bottom and put some electrical tape (pic 7) on top of it . Next I put the batteries in (pic8) and thenattached the other half. Final product (pic 9). This way If you run out of batteries you can just simply swap them and you are good to go. Cheap and easy.Maybe you will find this useful in case you do not want to spend astronomical prices for just two 18650 battery pack from Flir.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2019, 09:49:37 pm
content: As a side note, the Kxx series fire fighting cameras use a similar battery to the Exx but with an extended length. This additional length can be cut off to create a Exx compatible battery.there is still a bulkhead in the position where the bottom of an Exx battery would be. The excess plastic is easily cut off and trimmed back to that bulkhead. I have managed to purchase Kxx series batteries much cheaper than Exx series versions.Fraser

author: Spirit532
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2019, 07:54:43 pm
content: I can confirm that this would also work with the Txxx series. Same two 18650ies, just in a different plastic housing.

author: Bill W
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2019, 01:10:35 pm
content: Would there be enough room to take a complete 18650 pack (would need to be two parallel though) and connect it up ?That would give cells welded up to a protection module straight off, or a 'soldering only' swap out.Bill

author: eKretz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2019, 05:01:29 pm
content: There would be lots of ways to do this really. A LiPo pack would most likely fit too, but either way you'd need to modify the interface by soldering in a plug or something similar.