Fly6 battery replacement.

[Nealh]

On my last outing I noticed that my rear facing Fly6 had stopped working about an hour into the ride, usually as the battery gets low it bleeps before turning off leaving some power but on this occasion I wasn't able to get a peep or bleep out of it. Back at home I put it on charge and and nothing, when plugged into charge it bleeps and a charge light comes on and stays on until it is charged then goes out but on this occasion zilch dead as a Dodo. So I dismantled it and found the battery was a cheapo generic 18650 voltage output 0.24v

Camera front removed 4 screw on the rear corners are behind water proof grommet plugs.


The camera and pcb are held in place with 3 small balck screws, pcb unscrewed revealing battery. The battery is retained by the small black saddle and is held by 2 small black screws.


The battery has a small bms/pcb attached with 3 wires, the middle one is a charge sensing wire.


I replaced the battery with a new Panasonic NCR18650B 3400mah with welded tabs £4 brand new off ebay and soldered the small bms/pcb back on after checking the correct polarity. My soldering wasn't very elegant
as I didn't want to overheat the battery and covered the exposed wiring and metal with thin card and tape.



Having screwed every thing back together all is working now and charging, a bleep was emitted and the light is on. I should also get longer recording and lighting time now as the battery has 30% more capacity. Overall the unit works very well but dissapointingly for £99 buy I would have expected a quality branded battery to have been fitted during manufacture.

 

[Nealh]

Left the unit on charge over night and this morning it had turned itself off after completing the full charge. Unit now works again and emits the 4 bleeps when tuned on donating a full battery with all lighting options/modes available.

I know there was one or two other members who have this unit so probably won't be to long before there cheapo battery fails, hopefully this will help them to carry out their own repalcement as shipping back to Aus for a repair isn't an option as I believe you may well get a similar cheapo battery.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Great result, and thanks for shaing.

I have a thought on the matter. The failure might be due o the LVC not cutting power when it should have. It might be an idea to confirm that the BMS does actually cut off at 3.0v or thereabouts, otherwise you could end up with another duff battery.

 

[Nealh]

I have had it in use for about 18 months and had been fine, however after the next use I will try to remember to take it apart again and put the probes on the battery to check.

 

[Nealh]

Fully charged there are 4 bleeps when turned on, as the battery capacity gets used it emits less bleeps when you turn on and off 4,3,2 & one when almost discharged. Today on my ride I had it on for 5.25hrs and it bleeped twice when turning off so still a 2-3 hrs use left, removing the back and gaining access the voltage was still at 37.8v. Previously the most I have got is 5.5 hrs use, the Fly6 can't be left on to use the battery as it senses movement and shuts down after 15mins of inactivity. I'm confident the BMS shuts down above 3.0v so will try and drain it more this week and over the weekend whilst riding to get it to cut off for another V reading.

 

[Nealh]

These Panasonic NCR18650B's are awesome another ride today and still not down to lvc yet. Sitting at 35.6v and over 9.15hrs in dual mode of recording and bright strobe light, 95 miles of ride recorded. I think there is still another 3 - 4 hrs to go yet as I don't know what the lvc threshold is and the unit still give 2 bleeps on and off so still some way to go yet.
Probably try again Weds or Thursday with a ride to the S/downs.

 

[racefacelefty]

These Panasonic NCR18650B's are awesome another ride today and still not down to lvc yet. Sitting at 35.6v and over 9.15hrs in dual mode of recording and bright strobe light, 95 miles of ride recorded. I think there is still another 3 - 4 hrs to go yet as I don't know what the lvc threshold is and the unit still give 2 bleeps on and off so still some way to go yet.
Probably try again Weds or Thursday with a ride to the S/downs.

Thank you for these instructions.

Luckily my daughter was returning from the US so I bought the battery and have now done the replacement to my 2nd unit. I had a replacement from Cycliq for my other unit on warranty but thought replacing the battery a better option. Although the battery seemed fully charged before I installed it it went on charge per normal and seems to be cured of the not starting problem.

I'm excited about the extra camera and light time the new battery will give me.

 

[Nealh]

My battery replacement worked fine but since then the usb charging point/connector has come adrift from the pcb and is difficult to try and resolder and the small white ribbon developed a contact/break fault with in the ribbon. The UK price for a new unit has increased by nearly 20% so will not be getting another. For now I have gone back to my usb lezyne and another very cheap usb back uplight and some cheap usb cameras which surprisingly seem to work quite well.