Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

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dodgeyvanner
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Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by dodgeyvanner »

Hi all

The battery holder in a deviation meter I have recently brought (9 x D cells, 3 rows of 3) has obviously had some batteries left in it and this has caused one of the contact points to break off /disappear. I have shown this in the photos, can I ask from your experience:-

1. Are these tabs still available?
2. Is there an easy fix to replace it if not.?
3. As it needs13.5v from the 9 d cells could I wire out the battery holder and power it some other way maybe with AA's etc or from a transformer?

1st photo shows the missing tab to contact with the end of the battery, the next two show what the part should look like.

Hope you can help!
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Tigersaw
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Re: Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by Tigersaw »

Maybe a pan head screw the right dimensions, file the head flat, redrill hole, push it through, resolder?
dodgeyvanner
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Re: Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by dodgeyvanner »

Very ingenious - Thank you very much!! I will get started, may take me a few days - need to find a file as haven't got one, yes I know that's rather poor.

Will post a pic once done!
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prettypolly
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Re: Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by prettypolly »

is the hommebrew tequila ??
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Admiral
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Re: Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by Admiral »

Does it need to be portable? Can't you just stick it on 13.8v supply?
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dodgeyvanner
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Re: Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by dodgeyvanner »

I did wonder that Admiral as in point 3, how would you go about doing that regarding the wiring and would u need any extra components?
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Re: Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by Tim »

What you could use is one of those brass paper pin thingy's, rounded convex head with a pair of flat 'tail' pins on the back that you open out, I'm sure you know what I mean, clean up the corroded area back to shiny metal, drill a hole to pass the pins of the paper pin through, head on the battery side of course, open them up and solder, that I reckon would work. If you adapted it for a 12V supply externally then you would need to link the battery contacts together, the first + (positive) you solder a tail of red wire to connect to the positive of the supply then solder a red wire across all positive connections and a black wire across all negative contacts and on the last negative solder another but longer black wire for the negative connection to the supply. You should only need thin wires, about 5Amp, connecting the internal connections and the two for the supply can be thicker wiring, same as a rig feed cable, around 10Amp.
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Re: Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by Admiral »

Well if you use an external PSU then surely you can go +vcc to the fuse and negative to ground???? Unless it's some kind of crazy positive ground, highly unlikely in radio gear, but always possible if it was meant as portable only.
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Re: Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by Tim »

If the positive and negative wires from the battery compartment to the unit are accessible you could utilise them and bypass the battery compartment altogether or, if the battery compartment was of a size, get a 12V NiCad battery pack and Tamiya type connectors or similar.
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Re: Need to call on your hommebrew experience please!

Post by mountainpenguin »

magnets on the battery work well.
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