nanoFlash - life expectancy of internal battery?

[Alastair Traill]

The internal battery of my nanoFlash has failed after about two and a half years. Its function is to keep the date / time circuitry working. Is this a typical life span?

I can either ignore it and set the time and maybe the date at every powering or send it back to Convergent design - $50 plus international shipping charges. I could also look inside or have someone else look inside it for me.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Joe Batt]

Don't open it up and mess with it! My experience with convergent design is that they have great customer service and will do all they can to get your unit back in shape. Right on the back it say's warranty void if seal is broken. Just send it in.

[Alastair Traill]

I am pleased to report that I have had a new internal battery fitted to my nF. The failure of the original was unexpected as they are supposed to last about 10 years whereas mine only lasted 2 ½ years. The failure of my battery is apparently the first CD has known about. However it all took a very long time to organize a replacement with over 30 eMails involving 7 people. I was reluctant to send it to the USA for such an apparently minor procedure so I was sent a battery, in fact the wrong battery. In desperation I opened the nF myself to see how difficult the replacement would be. A locking compound had been used on the screws making it very hard to open. At this stage CD kindly offered to replace the battery under warranty and suggested that I contact my dealer (Videocraft) to arrange this. It turns out that Australian agent (New Magic) is only 15 minutes away.

Although I am very grateful to have the problem fixed it would have saved a lot of time and frustration had I asked or had I been told at the outset that there was an Australian agent. Another worry is that Convergent design said that they had trouble sourcing the Panasonic BR1225A battery.

[Billy Steinberg]

I've never been inside my nano, and my internal battery is working just fine, and I would never recommend fooling around inside your nano, but that all said, I'm not sure why CD had trouble sourcing the battery. A quick google search turned up dozens of places with them in stock for a few bucks.

So if anyone needs to buy one, here's an Amazon link that also lists dozens of places that have them available.

Thanks Alastair, for mentioning what the actual battery is.

[Alastair Traill]

I do not know why ‘it took awhile to find the small replacement battery’ unquote but I am pleased to hear that they are still widely available.

I am not sure what you mean when you advise against ‘fooling around inside your nano’. Is opening the unit when it has a known fixable problem (failed battery) and no longer under warranty ‘fooling around?’ Remember that I had already been sent the wrong battery so my confidence in Convergent Design was waning. In practice, I just undid the screws and gently opened the unit to see how accessible the battery was and then sealed the unit up to await the supply of its replacement. The outcome of the opening was that to access the battery for soldering, I would probably have to disconnect a ribbon cable or two. As these are something that I am reluctant to touch I decided I would take it to someone more experienced. In the end, as mentioned, it was repaired under warranty locally for which I am very grateful.

I am actually glad that I opened it because of my initial battle with the thread sealant that I would normally undo with heat (not appropriate in this case) . I found it impossible to undo the screws unaided so I put the driver bit in the chuck of my drill press and turned the chuck by hand. As its diameter was larger than my screwdriver I could apply more torque as well as more pressure. With the well-supported and padded nano on the drill press table undoing the screws became easy. It is a technique that I will use again in the future if need be, i.e. I actually learned a new skill albeit probably well known to everyone else. If humanity was not prepared to ‘fool around’ we would probably still be awaiting the Stone Age.

[Stephen de Vere]

Mine has failed after 5 years.

I'm going to have a look see if I can replace it myself.

Glad to hear about your drill press method of releasing the screws - are there any other 'pitfalls' to be aware of?

[Jack Zhang]

I've posted in another thread that if you're willing to solder in a new one, Digikey offers the batteries for inside the Nanoflash here: https://www.digikey.com/product-deta...P290-ND/447501

There are side effects other than just losing the date and time when it comes to a dead CMOS battery. I've had the analog audio IC completely fail upon reboot if there's memory corruption caused by a dead CMOS battery. If you use your analog audio IO a lot, it's VERY MUCH worth it to replace the CMOS battery.

[Stephen de Vere]

Thanks that's useful to know, although I have never used the i/o audio on it.

[Stephen de Vere]

(Sorry, all sorted now.)

[Anthony McErlean]

I might get a spare battery for my NanoFlash.

I saw these in Amazon.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...asonic+BR1225A

How difficult is it to replace yourself?

Might just leave it after looking here :)

NanoFLASH professional video recorder teardown - YouTube

Hope my battery lasts a while yet.

[Stephen de Vere]

Annoyingly it's not a user replaceable battery. You need to be very competent with a soldering iron not to damage other components with the heat.

I wonder if all Convergent Design recorders have non-rechargeable batteries soldered into them?

In 30 years in the business I've never come across anything like it!

[Anthony McErlean]

Originally Posted by Stephen de Vere

Annoyingly it's not a user replaceable battery.

Looks like your right Stephen, I'll just wait and see how long I get out of the battery.

Thank you.

[Jack Zhang]

Originally Posted by Anthony McErlean

I might get a spare battery for my NanoFlash.

I saw these in Amazon.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...asonic+BR1225A

How difficult is it to replace yourself?

Might just leave it after looking here :)

NanoFLASH professional video recorder teardown - YouTube

Hope my battery lasts a while yet.

This is actually my buddy's teardown he did a few years ago.

The board the battery is on is separable. If you're afraid of damaging the main boards, you can disconnect the board the battery is on and solder a new one on in a separate work area from the rest of the components.

[Anthony McErlean]

Originally Posted by Jack Zhang

This is actually my buddy's teardown he did a few years ago.

The board the battery is on is separable. If you're afraid of damaging the main boards, you can disconnect the board the battery is on and solder a new one on in a separate work area from the rest of the components.

Small world :) Thanks Jack, that's a bit too much for me to do myself.

Maybe I could find someone that is more capable than me when the time comes.

Thank you.