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From GarySehne@aol.comThe PX-27 is critical to my subminis, since it's used in my Rollei E110, the Minox EC and the Minox C. The original battery is made of mercury cells 4x1.4=5.6v Just recently, someone has come out with a silver oxide lookalike S27PX??? but if you can't find one, here's how to rebuild the old Varta pack. I used a mini tubing cutter to cut around the metal external case. Used just enough force to "break the case. During the process the lengthwise seam separated, which is good. It's important to keep the end lip intact as it helps hold on the endcaps & insulators. A pleasant surprise is the black plastic cup which is just underneath the case. By pressing with a Q-tip at one end, you can remove the stack of 4 button cells. The top and bottom cells have sheet metal caps spot welded to their cases. You'll want to separate these and save them for later. A sharp pocket knife with thin blade can be used to "crack" the spot welds and separate the caps without any distortion. Somewhere in the middle of the sandwich, you'll find a metal disc that serves as a spacer & spring. Go out & buy four 386 batteries (the 357 types are too fat, even without the spacer). Just restack & don't worry about the spot weld to the caps. I had some heat shrink tubing which fit loosely over the plastic sleeve containing the battery and I cut it to overap the ends. By using a mini torch, I first shrank the ends to form the lip over the ends. Then I shrank the rest of the tubing and it made the battery pack look just like the original one. It had the same thickness as the metal jacket, which I just tossed away. A little trim with a pocket knife around the protruding caps gives a nice finish. How does it work? Well, in the Minox C, the shutter time appears to be the same with both the 6v pack and the 5.6v original equipment (I think Minox agrees with this), but bad news for the Rollei owners....there's a marked difference in the E110. The higher voltage produces a 2-stop LONGER exposure (in mine). So--beware of the effect. Diodes have a pretty constant forward voltage, and I'm thinking of a way of putting in a Germanium one which has a .4v drop in series somewhere, which will bring the voltage down to 5.6v. The Silicon diodes, which are more plentiful have a drop of .7v which give too much drop, I think. One might be able to sandwich a thin one in, in place of the spacer, or somewhere internal to the camera in the power path. Too bad the Rollei people's circuits are so intolerant. This round goes to the Minoxers.
For more info contact: GarySehne@aol.com
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