Rollei 6000/6008 Battery LiFePO4 Replacement

Save the tiny screws. They are easily lost and hard to replace.

Watch out the cables inside may very short.

Depending on battery type this may look a bit different.

Sometimes the batteries have a very tight fit and are not to easy to remove. Try pulling with pliers

The original NiCd batteries had two additional cables for a temperature sensor. See yellow one, which also has the original plastic housing.

Be sure to dispose the old battery pack properly. They contain harmful chemicals and need special treatment for waste disposal!

This step helps later to have the solder stick to the batteries

I had to turn around one of the batteries later in the guide to allow easier soldering... depends on the wiring though.

The PCB/BMS Board plus wiring diagram

The wiring diagram may be different depending on the PCB used. But the principle is the same for all types.

Check the size of the battery pack together with the BMS Board. It should easily fit with a bit of space inside the housing. Otherwise you may get problems down the road of this guide.

You can also use normal thin wire, but be aware that the space within the housing is limited.

This is based on the specific PCB used and my be different for others

Add a bit of solder on the connector you want to use next. I started with B+ and connected it to the + pole of the first battery.

Test again if everything fits in the housing.

Warning! The housing is metal. Make sure not to short-cut something!

Again do not short cut anything!

The hilium connector helps here to save lots of space compared to wires

Fold the hilium and use pliers to flatten it

Use scissors to cut to the right length

Again add a bit of solder before soldering the hilium connector

See the finalised soldering of Step 12

Use electric tape to isolate the finished work (this prevents shortcuts)

Try to isolate but do not cover the writings on the PCB so you can still see, what is already wired.

It is hard to get the orientation if all batteries correct on first try. But the tape allows cutting and reorientation if needed.

This is only needed to use less of the connector and allow easier wiring without crossings

Again add a bit of solder to the poles.

And use fold the connector tape.

Watch out for shortcuts

Now you see why the electrical tape is needed for isolation. If the connector roll is touching the wrong parts you may get a short cut, that may brick your PCB.

The pliers help to not burn your fingers.

See on 2nd picture how much space we save with the hilium connectors.

On 3rd picture we see how solder punctured the electrical tape. In the next step we add another layer for security.

I cut the electrical tape to not cover the markings on the PCB.

Adding another layer of isolation as we have crossing hilium connectors here.

Note from the wiring diagram the B3-connector of the PCB is unused.

So we add electrical tape to isolate it.

These are the charge/discharge ports of our battery pack

Be sure that the length of the wire is long enough to wire it to the Rollei outlet later.

If you use a multimeter to check the voltage you will see it's 0V

The PCB needs to be activated, we do this by doing some short charging

A bit of charging is sufficient. The MaHa charger shows the voltage of 10,4V

Now also the multimeter shows the correct voltage.

The PCB is now activated and the battery pack correctly wired.

If this step is not working as expected, then check all wiring, soldering and diagrams again to validate there are no mistakes.

This is the most tricky soldering part.

Make sure there is not anything connected that shouldn't.

The battery has two + and two - poles. Make sure the + (white cable) is connected to the right input. Have a look at the red cables. One is going directly to the camera connector. The other one is protected by a fuse that protects your camera.

Find out how much foam you need by putting the battery pack with foam layers outside of the housing.

Keep space for wires and fuse at the top.

Align battery pack, lid and housing

Notice that the screws are on one side only.

Two tiny squares snap into the other side.

Check that the lid is closing completely, without much pressure (Pic. 3). Otherwise remove a bit foam

Final assembly steps

Note: the lid is now turned around (thus mirrored to the wiring diagram)

It is expected that the two connectors to the right produce 0V

Make sure you get roughly 10V with the right polarity

Repeat this step, to double-check. BEFORE inserting the battery into your camera.

Fill the two unused connectors (from the temp sensor) with hard glue. This prevents users from accidentally using a Rollei Charger N or G, which are not suitable for the battery type and might cause fire or explosion.

Charge the battery with a Lithium capable LiFePO4 charger only!

Notice that the battery has now only 81g compared to 210g for the old NiCd.

Happy using your Rollei again!

Attached you can find a STL file (under Media) to 3D-PRINT a charging tray for the new pin layout (remember blocking some pins so the Rollei Charger N cannot fry your new battery). The 3D Model can also be downloaded from here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:215677...

Print the 3D Model (or get it printed online).

Get a connector socket (for the charger I used I got one of these: https://bit.ly/2NwmhUo ) with 12.6mm diameter (you can use others but the 3D model might not fit then).

Solder wires to two pins (check the diameter of the pins so they fit the battery!) Make sure they're tick enough to have electrical contact. I used two small nails I shortened. Glue the pins into the two holes so they stick out roughly 5-6mm. Validate that the battery fits and connects (use a meter!)

Solder the other ends of the cables to the socket and glue the socket into the hole. Fill the bottom side of the tray with hot glue to fix everything.

A charger can be ordered from eBay: search for 11V Charger 1A Smart to 9.6V LiFe LiFePO4

https://www.ebay.com/itm/11V-Charger-1A-...