>Mark Hammons wrote:
>
>>
>> Speaking of battery conversions for the OM-1(N), I had my done by Photosphere
>> about 1.5 years ago. It works great, but they put an alkaline 625 battery
>> in and said
>> to just change it once a year. That is because of the discharge
>> characteristics
>> of Alkalines. I asked if I could but a Silver Oxide Cell in and they said
>> "Yes".
>
>Interesting. Sounds like a place to stay away from, UNLESS conversion
>included a voltage
>dropping device. The Mercury cell is 1.35V and thats a far cry from 1.5V.....
>
Lest their name be tarnished, let me say to those on the list that haven't
dealt with
Photosphere
that they are one of the few remaining competent Olympus repair centers, along
with
Camtech
(John H) and a few others ( as listed in the Oly FAQ). I tend to use them
because I live
only a
couple dozen miles from them and it is nice to be able to walk in with my
camera(s) and
talk to
a technician in person about a particular problem. In particular, when I
recently took my
newly acquired RD in for a CLA I also took in my flea-market acquired $25 OM-2S
and they
were able to check it out and give it a clean bill of health :-)).
As to whether the Battery conversion included a voltage dropping device --
which I thought
all conversions did -- yes, the conversion is of such a nature that the voltage
is
dropped.
I believe anything else would potentially prove harmful to the meter ( i.e.
just adjusting
the meter to use the higher voltage).
>>
>> The thing I worry about is that the battery compartment is still sized for
>> the 625
>> type cells (big). I wonder if putting a SR44 in there would let it shift
>> around. I
>> understand Camtech does a similar conversion and from what I've read, it
>> sounds like some kind of adapter is put into the battery chamber to allow
>> the SR44 sized cells to fit properly. If that is the case, is that adapter
>> something
>> I can get and put into my battery compartment?
>
>I think the adapter has a schottkey diode and a size adjusting device.....
>
>If the original "converter" installed the diode to drop the 1.5V to 1.35V and
>the big 625
>cell fits, why worry about it? Its not like you change cells every week or
>so...
The reason I worry about it is the discharge characteristics of Alkalines,
which from
what I understand varies from 1.5 v to 0.9 volts before it rapidly drops off.
The silver
oxides don't do this -- they stay at vittually the same voltage ( just under
1.5 v ) for
990f their lives ( or some number like that). This is why the FAQ discourages
people from using alkalines in the OM-2(n), OM-2s, OM-4(T) and so forth unless
they are fresh and it is an exceptional situation. Photospher's solution was
just
use the alkaline and replace it often -- but they also admit that putting an
SR44 is
probably a better thing to do. They also say that the SR-44 shouldn't shift
around
enough to lose contact -- but I'm just anal about these kind of things and
wanted
a spacer of some kind in there.
The idea about using rubber or nylon washers from a hardware store that John H.
made sounds like the easiest way for me to go...
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