My Experience - Motor Drive and M.15 Ni-Cd Control Pack

I have been using OM winder 2 for many years, recently I have bought a second hand motor drive 1. It was very cheap, cost only HKD1200 for motor drive 1 plus Ni-Cd Control Pack 1 and Charger, with box and manual too. As with most batteries (both normal and re-chargeable), the very old Ni-Cd batteries inside the Ni-Cd Control Pack was not usable. A 3hrs charge failed to finish one roll of film.

I opened the Control Pack 1 and found some liquid was leaked from the battery pack. I cleaned the circuit board and bottom case with alcohol and replaced the battery pack with 1 5/7 pieces of Varta 9V 120mAH Ni-MH batteries (total 12 cells), it now works fine. Another un-expected result was I get a Ni-Cd Control Pack of 50g lighter than before! The original battery pack was heaver and might have a capacity of around 150mAH, the Varta is much lighter and 120mAH are not far away. The motor drive give me a feeling of fast and smooth, which I cannot obtain from the Winder 2.

The rated charging current of the Charger 1 is 36mA. To re-charge the Control Pack 1, you must be more careful as the Ni-MH batteries are more sensitive to overcharge. Overchage the battery might shorten the battery life, but a charging time of below 5 hrs should be safe for a depleted battery.

Besides the Varta Ni-MH battery, you may also use other 9V re-chargeable battery. Such as Panasonic, it is a Ni-Cd battery with the same 120mAH rated capacity, but I have dissassembled one and found the cells inside are marked "VARTA".

It is better to discharge the batteries (with a resistor, don't short circuit them) before installation, the batteries should be wrap with a plastic sheet to prevent short circuit to casing, the 35mm negative pages serve this function very well. A thin sponge at the bottom of casing is very helpful for fixing the batteries in place. If you are not an electronics technician or you have no experience in repair electrical device, it is better leave this job to a qualified person. For further information on how to change the batteries in M15V Ni-Cd Control Pack you can visit The Camera Repair Resource Guide.