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Charging the MZ-NF810

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Raymiles

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Greetings minidisc enthusiasts

I'm very excited to get my collection rolling but I'm having an issue with charging the MZ-NF810.

The battery it came with was leaking so I replaced it with an orange vapex 1450 mAh battery. I cleaned the corrosion off the contact and have left a faint touch of blue that I haven't yet been able to shift, but it's mostly gone. (Pic)

The player works using the AA battery sidecar and plugging the AC in directly to the port (3V AC-MZR55, no dock) but these don't charge the battery at all, and if the battery had any charge in it straight from the packaging then it's not working.

What shall I do? I've considered getting a dock, though it just appears to be a stand that holds the AC adaptor I already have. I'm considering getting a charger that holds the gumstick battery, but I think this might be a connection issue.

I saw in another thread someone mention a tab in the battery slot they pulled out which solved the problem? Looking inside I see a little ridge that recesses when pushed. The - contacts at the bottom look shiny and clean.

Anyone know the problem?

1519957809047865064274.jpg

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The battery could be dead. The LIP-4WM batteries are ungodly expensive ~$100 but there is a thread with a take apart fix with a generic core battery on ebay. If it is one of the double ended gumstick batteries, the replacements are relatively inexpensive ($15 - 20) on amazon or ebay. From some quick googling it looks like it takes the cheap gumstick ones which might be worth replacing. Personally I'd try to sand slightly the blue off so it is bare rough metal with emory cloth and slightly bend the tab so I know it is making contact.

Other steps to try -

Do you have LIP-4WM battery or the other gumstick where it has a contact on both ends?

On the LIP-4WM battery both contacts positive/negative are on one side, which is the side inside the player. For that battery you can lightly sand with some emory cloth (like sandpaper but no sand) to rough up the contacts on the battery itself.

If that is the other gumstick where it has the contacts on both sides, you can sand down that blue spot with emory cloth as well making sure that metal is touching metal. You can also do that to the battery contacts itself.

Edited by Zervun
Editing to remove my miss information on the spring as I didn't realize it holds the door tight not the battery
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Thanks for the response. If the battery is dead that's a pretty poor show, as I just took it out of the packaging a few days ago. Here is what I use. I stripped the plastic away from the bottom to see if it was blocking the contacts, but nope. This is the only brand that appears to be for sale in europe, and other people on this board have said they're fine. Is replacing it the thing to do?

On closer inspection, what little remains of the blue battery acid is not on the part that touches the nipple on the battery

1519965125040-1479338907.jpg

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10 hours ago, Raymiles said:

The player works using the AA battery sidecar and plugging the AC in directly to the port (3V AC-MZR55, no dock) but these don't charge the battery at all, and if the battery had any charge I'm it straight from the packaging then it's not working.

What shall I do? I've considered getting a dock, though it just appears to be a stand that holds the AC adaptor I already have.

I don't think you'll be able to charge the battery without the charging stand. I've got an MZ-N910 and if you connect the AC adaptor directly to the device it will power it but will not charge the battery. In order to charge the battery you need to use the charging stand.

Edit: actually, I think that's incorrect. If you want to charge without the stand then you need to press STOP after connecting the AC adaptor to the device. Charging should then start. I've just tried with an MZ-N710, which is the same as your device minus the tuner, and it starting charging.

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Take a look at the spring in the battery door (after carefully pulling off the plastic cover of the door). It's a contrary sort of beast - one might think that the little protruding bit is to contact the battery and needs to be bent down (toward the battery). NO! The  prong is just a tensioner, to push against THE DOOR and force the rest of the metal into contact with the face of the nipple.

Once you have grasped this principle, you may be able to get the contact to work.

The other problem can be that the spot inside where the negative terminal of the battery sits needs some sharpening. You can only do this by taking the unit apart so that the whole of the battery compartment is visible. Needed: so-called "jeweller's screwdriver" set, not expensive and not hard to find.

Zervun, your comments about the LIP-4WM are sadly irrelevant ("It's not irrelevant, it's a hippopotamus") as this battery is a NiMH and behaves entirely differently to something made with Li-Ion. The ones you can currently buy are by HQRP. See here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HQRP-Battery-for-Sharp-ADN55BT-AD-N55BT-Mini-Disc-MP3/260742544635

The other good news is that NiMH are not so dangerous to send from one country to another. Li-ion are becoming embargoed by many postal services (see the news yesterday for another smart phone which blew up in a plane's passenger cabin) which adds to the difficulty and expense, not to mention the rarity of the LIP-4WM.

Generally the charge stands do not work as well as the direct prong from the wall charger. I have seen exceptions but the NF810 was not one of them.

A mistake sometimes made is to put rechargeables in the AA sidecar. This doesn't work well and confuses the charging circuitry (I think). The device expects the external battery to be at a higher voltage than the internal rechargeable battery.

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46 minutes ago, sfbp said:

Take a look at the spring in the battery door (after carefully pulling off the plastic cover of the door). It's a contrary sort of beast - one might think that the little protruding bit is to contact the battery and needs to be bent down (toward the battery). NO! The  prong is just a tensioner, to push against THE DOOR and force the rest of the metal into contact with the face of the nipple.

Now I really wish I hadn't tried to play the mechanic at 4am last night.

Well the door has a touch of springiness still, but less than before I mucked about with it. I wish I could just pay someone to sort this thing out for me.

 

2 hours ago, BearBoy said:

If you want to charge without the stand then you need to press STOP after connecting the AC adaptor to the device. Charging should then start. I've just tried with an MZ-N710, which is the same as your device minus the tuner, and it starting charging.

Gave this a go. I pressed stop once and the disc stopped spinning, but there was no indication on the screen that it was charging. Pressed stop a second time and the screen turned off, and neither the buttons or inserting a disc would turn the power on until I unplugged the AC and reinserted it. Left it like that for a few hours, but it didn't charge the machine at all.

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1 hour ago, Raymiles said:

Gave this a go. I pressed stop once and the disc stopped spinning, but there was no indication on the screen that it was charging. Pressed stop a second time and the screen turned off, and neither the buttons or inserting a disc would turn the power on until I unplugged the AC and reinserted it. Left it like that for a few hours, but it didn't charge the machine at all.

Yeah, something sounds off here. On my MZ-N710, pressing stop once when a disc is playing and the device is connected to the AC adaptor stops the disc and the display shows the track number etc. When I press stop for a second time, the display goes blank briefly (less than a second) before the word "Charging" appears flashing on the screen and the battery icon starts filling up.

It sounds like either a connection issue or a duff battery. Have you tried cleaning the contacts as suggested it that other thread? Have you got anything else you could check the battery in?

I ordered some new Vapex batteries last week and the one I've opened only came with a pretty small amount of charge in it and did need charging pretty much from the off.

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I think I've already done enough damage to this thing without opening it up and sharpening the battery contacts myself.

It seems odd that a brand new battery would arrive totally DOA. It should have had enough charge to at least turn the player on for a few seconds.

Next options I think are to either buy a new battery, which I doubt will work, or buy a charger for the battery itself and see if it works then. I'm out of money right now though. Blew it all on pre-recorded discs!

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Just try cleaning the contact at the bottom of the battery compartment with a cotton bud dipped in alcohol. No need to resort to sharpening it if it’s not necessary. 

 

Edit: just re-read your original post and saw you said they looked clean. Might still be worth giving them a quick clean with some alcohol. 

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