Question About Battery Voltage

I just picked up a new Kyocera Finecam S5R. It was a spur-of-the-moment
impulse purchase when I saw it as an "open box" special for $100. One of my
cardinal rules in buying digital cameras (this is my fifth one) is to avoid
those that do not use AA or other easily replaceable batteries-- this
purchase was my first violation of that rule. The Kyocera uses a
rechargeable Li-Ion battery marked as 3.6v and 1000 mAh. New batteries
purchased from Kyocera cost almost half as much as I paid for the camera, so
I started investigating generics on eBay and elsewhere. I've yet to find an
exact replacement-- all of the generics are either 800 mAh or 700 mAh. I
figure that's not that much of an issue, but what confuses me is that many
of the generics are shown as 3.7v instead of 3.6. Would this change in
voltage cause a problem?

Thanks for your help!

J-Man wrote:
I just picked up a new Kyocera Finecam S5R. It was a spur-of-the-moment
impulse purchase when I saw it as an "open box" special for $100. One of my
cardinal rules in buying digital cameras (this is my fifth one) is to avoid
those that do not use AA or other easily replaceable batteries-- this
purchase was my first violation of that rule. The Kyocera uses a
rechargeable Li-Ion battery marked as 3.6v and 1000 mAh. New batteries
purchased from Kyocera cost almost half as much as I paid for the camera, so
I started investigating generics on eBay and elsewhere. I've yet to find an
exact replacement-- all of the generics are either 800 mAh or 700 mAh. I
figure that's not that much of an issue, but what confuses me is that many
of the generics are shown as 3.7v instead of 3.6. Would this change in
voltage cause a problem?

Thanks for your help!


No Problem.
The voltage rating is nominal.
New batteries can easily vary by 0.1 V. depending on how long you wait
to measure the voltage after charging.

Buying generic batteries on e-bay is a real crapshoot.
Sometimes you get a good deal. Sometimes you get total junk.
Go to google.com and type in the model No. of your battery.
They will direct you to a bunch of "brick and mortar" type vendors which
are generally much more reliable than e-bay vendors
Good Luck
Bob Williams

" J-Man" wrote in message
nk.net...
I just picked up a new Kyocera Finecam S5R. It was a spur-of-the-moment
impulse purchase when I saw it as an "open box" special for $100. One of
my
cardinal rules in buying digital cameras (this is my fifth one) is to
avoid
those that do not use AA or other easily replaceable batteries-- this
purchase was my first violation of that rule. The Kyocera uses a
rechargeable Li-Ion battery marked as 3.6v and 1000 mAh. New batteries
purchased from Kyocera cost almost half as much as I paid for the camera,
so
I started investigating generics on eBay and elsewhere. I've yet to find
an
exact replacement-- all of the generics are either 800 mAh or 700 mAh. I
figure that's not that much of an issue, but what confuses me is that many
of the generics are shown as 3.7v instead of 3.6. Would this change in
voltage cause a problem?

The small differance in voltage is no problem. The mAh might make a
differance in what you want to pay. The 700 and 800 only hold 70 and 80
percent of the 1000 mah battery's charge or number of pix you may be able to
take.

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 07:56:14 GMT, " J-Man" wrote:

I just picked up a new Kyocera Finecam S5R. It was a spur-of-the-moment
impulse purchase when I saw it as an "open box" special for $100. One of my
cardinal rules in buying digital cameras (this is my fifth one) is to avoid
those that do not use AA or other easily replaceable batteries-- this
purchase was my first violation of that rule. The Kyocera uses a
rechargeable Li-Ion battery marked as 3.6v and 1000 mAh. New batteries
purchased from Kyocera cost almost half as much as I paid for the camera, so
I started investigating generics on eBay and elsewhere. I've yet to find an
exact replacement-- all of the generics are either 800 mAh or 700 mAh. I
figure that's not that much of an issue, but what confuses me is that many
of the generics are shown as 3.7v instead of 3.6. Would this change in
voltage cause a problem?

No problem.

" J-Man" wrote in message
nk.net...
I just picked up a new Kyocera Finecam S5R. It was a spur-of-the-moment
impulse purchase when I saw it as an "open box" special for $100. One of
my
cardinal rules in buying digital cameras (this is my fifth one) is to
avoid
those that do not use AA or other easily replaceable batteries-- this
purchase was my first violation of that rule. The Kyocera uses a
rechargeable Li-Ion battery marked as 3.6v and 1000 mAh. New batteries
purchased from Kyocera cost almost half as much as I paid for the camera,
so
I started investigating generics on eBay and elsewhere. I've yet to find
an
exact replacement-- all of the generics are either 800 mAh or 700 mAh. I
figure that's not that much of an issue, but what confuses me is that many
of the generics are shown as 3.7v instead of 3.6. Would this change in
voltage cause a problem?

A fully charged Li-Ion cell shows an open-circuit voltage of around 4.1V, an
fully discharged cell goes as low as 3.0V (depending on the minimum voltage
spec of your camera). I violated your rule with my very first camera already
(a Sony DSC-F505). Because I got tired of buying expensive NP-FS11s all the
time (none of mine lived longer than about 2 years) I browsed the web and
found this nice project:
http://members.fortunecity.de/kapmfs/e-liakku01.htm
Fortunately I have access to defective notebook battery packs. In most cases
only one of the cells is defective, sometimes all are ok. They all have the
same voltage range, and the higher their capacity the longer my camera will
operate. Please note that the original protection circuitry is still used in
this project. Internal cells are simply replaced by larger external cells
connected via a cable.

" J-Man" wrote in message
nk.net...
I just picked up a new Kyocera Finecam S5R. It was a spur-of-the-moment
impulse purchase when I saw it as an "open box" special for $100. One of
my
cardinal rules in buying digital cameras (this is my fifth one) is to
avoid
those that do not use AA or other easily replaceable batteries-- this
purchase was my first violation of that rule. The Kyocera uses a
rechargeable Li-Ion battery marked as 3.6v and 1000 mAh. New batteries
purchased from Kyocera cost almost half as much as I paid for the camera,
so
I started investigating generics on eBay and elsewhere. I've yet to find
an
exact replacement-- all of the generics are either 800 mAh or 700 mAh. I
figure that's not that much of an issue, but what confuses me is that many
of the generics are shown as 3.7v instead of 3.6. Would this change in
voltage cause a problem?

A fully charged Li-Ion cell shows an open-circuit voltage of around 4.1V, an
fully discharged cell goes as low as 3.0V (depending on the minimum voltage
spec of your camera). I violated your rule with my very first camera already
(a Sony DSC-F505). Because I got tired of buying expensive NP-FS11s all the
time (none of mine lived longer than about 2 years) I browsed the web and
found this nice project:
http://members.fortunecity.de/kapmfs/e-liakku01.htm
Fortunately I have access to defective notebook battery packs. In most cases
only one of the cells is defective, sometimes all are ok. They all have the
same voltage range, and the higher their capacity the longer my camera will
operate. Please note that the original protection circuitry is still used in
this project. Internal cells are simply replaced by larger external cells
connected via a cable.