OK, I tried again with Tinkercad, and your files loaded OK. Don't know what was wrong earlier. Also, downloading the Fusion file, exporting as OBJ and importing again into Tinkercad also works.

I squeezed a pair of 10mm flat Li batteries into a slightly modified Metz 45 NiCad pack, and it shows 7.5v across the terminals - but it doesn't power up the flashgun. A pair of 18650 with 8.4v, connected externally to either the alkali or NiCd pins inside the grip works fine. I don't understand why the 10mm batteries don't work, unless they include battery management that inhibits the high current drain. They are from Dell fileservers (RAID controller batteries) and the original package includes a management PCB (I think) that I stripped out.

But my 60CT dryfit conversion works well - 6x 18650's gives plenty of mAh! I cut off the battery top and the batteries just slide nicely in between the lead cell-separators, giving 3 pairs of 2 cells.

Hi, this is very interesting. I've been converting my 60CT dryfit batteries to Lithium 18650 and am now looking at 45's. But 18650 cells don't fit in the 45 grip - does your design require to be taped in place?

I tried downloading your STL files, but they don't load in Tinkercad - it says corrupt file. I spotted that your STLs are not encrypted, whereas the STL file for my one-and-only Tinkercad project is encrypted. (My design was a filler screw for ancient Sonnenschein lead-acid battery powering a 1950's Metz 500 - it printed OK but I probably used wrong material as it was too fragile). Any suggestions about your STL files? Do you have newer versions or details incorporating your battery management plans etc?

Many thanks

Ian

Thank you for the file. I'm editing to insert a battery protection circuit, add a connector for the charger and the ability to connect a module to check the state of charge. I will be scoring the batteries with nickel strips.

Hey Lucb. Flash is behaving normally, fast charging but not too fast witch would make me worry about internal components. I don't really have lot of experience with normal batteries so i can't give you direct comparison also my 18650 are of low quality and don't have protection circuit in them so i am really careful not to discharge them too much.


If you can't get access to 3d printer (Facebook friends in your community or university close by (you'd be surprised!!)) look at shapeways or i also have version for laser cutter. Not as neat but better then buying AA's. I also use external 9v power supply (you can see the picture) maybe that can solve some of your needs.

Mladen

Think you read my mind, I was looking how to retrofit the 18650 in the Metz 45..can you share how perfoming those batteries were..

And looking to buy a couple since I don't have a 3d printer

Thanks