I wanted to see if an alternative battery could be made to fit the Exx series so I bought some nicely priced FLIR 'K' series batteries and experimented with them. They are electrically the same as the Exx series batteries but the casing differs. Did I give up at that first hurdle ? Heck no, I got out my hack saw and removed the excess plastic
Well to be honest I already knew that the battery casings were completely different when I bought the batteries but exactly how they differed was not known to me. It turns out that the excess plastic at the bottom of the battery is easily removed but the battery casing is also wider at the bottom than the top ! Have I given up ? Heck no.... I will either cut away the lower casing where its width is too great and fit a 3D printed replacement lower section, or remove the offending lower wider section and use heat shrink tubing to secure the cells in place.
For me, part of the fun is the challenges you meet when working on kit and overcoming those challenges. I know that is not true for everyone though. For those not able, or willing, to experiment, it is best to not place yourself in a position where you are faced with a challenge
The Exx battery has to be one of the simplest packs to re-cell that I have come across. It is truly a walk in the park compared to those found in modern laptops with horrible pin protected battery management IC's etc. The cells are connected to a very standard battery protection PCB and 3 connections are used.... +V, 0V and Temperature (see pictures)
I can understand Calel being cautious regarding buying equipment for which batteries may be expensive or hard to re-cell, and I consider the same issue when buying some specialist equipment, but if such a challenge is too much for a person, then they need to stick to new kit and buy new battery packs, at whatever cost that is. I just paid £89 to Apple to exchange my Wife's iPad for a brand new one under their "battery replacement" policy. £89 for a brand new iPad is a good deal and far better than me spending time dismantling an iPad Air to fit a 3rd party, unknown quality, battery pack. Sometimes buying from an OEM does make sense.
I do believe that a little knowledge can be dangerous and messing around with high energy cells like Lithium Ion is an area where knowledge is important. Expecting a battery manufacturer to use battery contacts in place of the well proven welded tabs is expecting too much in my opinion. Those battery packs are not intended to be rebuilt after all ! When messing around rebuilding a battery pack, especially a Lithium Ion type, with more than one cell, great care is needed to ensure imbalance or shorts do not occur. Get it wrong and 'bad things' can happen.
As I said, I can understand concern regarding battery replacement in the Exx, but if unsure, walk away. No one on the forum can guarantee the success of a cell replacement when the person doing the task is not them. Yes, I find such tasks easy, but that does not mean others feel the same about the task.
If the fear is that a particular battery will become unsupported and obsolete, I am still rebuilding battery packs for the FLIR PM series that went obsolete in the last decade ! No problem and there will always be people like me who are willing to rebuild battery packs in a safe manner. The hardest part is getting inside the battery pack casing without causing serious damage to it ! Note though that modern battery management IC's used in laptops etc are making battery re-celling a total nightmare as OEM's do not want batteries to be rebuilt. The laugh is that I can likely rebuild a Lithium Ion battery pack from a 2010 camera easier that one from 2020 !
Fraser