Converting Z To Use Std Digital Camera Battery, Using std Digital Camera Battery in the Options

[Marty]

I am seriously thinking of opening my SL5500 up to perform some surgery on it in order to take one of the stock digital camera batteries that I can get easily and cheaply. The benefits are that I can stick an Li Ion 1800 mah battery in the Z which I can buy for about £17 to £20.

My current sharp battery the EA-BL06 is not holding its charge and is difficult to get in the UK. (I have found one place charging 49 Euro )

I have the instructions on how to open the Z , and although I wont know until I look at the PCB in detail I am assuming I will just cut the tracks to the two outside terminal posts of the battery connector and wire them in reverse.
This may seem "excessive" but trust me the battery thing is wearing me out.

Almost all the digital camera battery have the opposite polarity from Z and you can get battery with the exact same footprint as the EA-BL06 if not slightly smaller so they will fit with a bit of plastic packing if need be.

Anyone think of any reason why I cant use a (good) digital camera in this way - I mean from the battery standpoint . The only thing I'am worried about is a muli layer track that I cant get access to. If I find that I may have to desolder the connector and isolate the two end pins completely.
Since Sharp pulled out their's not a lot left here in the uk for parts and support for the Z SL5500.

[chrget]

I am seriously thinking of opening my SL5500 up to perform some surgery on it in order to take one of the stock digital camera batteries that I can get easily and cheaply. [...] This may seem "excessive" but trust me the battery thing is wearing me out.

Personally I do think that's even more than a bit excessive, especially since the same result can be achieved by modifying the batteries instead -- with a much lower risk of doing harm to your poor little collie

Almost all the digital camera battery have the opposite polarity from Z and you can get battery with the exact same footprint as the EA-BL06 if not slightly smaller so they will fit with a bit of plastic packing if need be.

I wouldn't know about 'Almost all', but I decided on an EN-EL5 compatible battery (originally for the Nikon Coolpix family of cameras) to modify and use in my Z. (If you read German, you can read up the details on that and have a look at the pictures here). Others have been using other batteries (e.g. originally designed for use in Nokia mobile phones) and did similar things. The user 'Lauter' has even turned this into a semi-(?)-commercial venture and is selling modified Nokia-compatible high-capacity batteries for use in the Z.

Anyone think of any reason why I cant use a (good) digital camera in this way - I mean from the battery standpoint .

None whatsoever. I've been running the Z on my modified battery for 3 months now, with rather satisfying results and no ill effects.

How will you charge it? If you charge the batt via the Zs chipset it will think it's a normal standard battery and always charge it less than it can handle? Just a thought.

Uhm, no. That's not the way contemporary battery charging circuits work

Best regards,
Chris.