Sony MZ1 minidisc battery

[greg_simons]

Hi folks,
As these batteries are now in the realms of unobtainium I am considering rebuilding a couple of worn out examples, has anyone tried this and had any success or could offer any tips.
Greg.

[MrBungle]

Ah yes a typical Sonyism. I got rid of my MZ1 when I could no longer get a replacement battery which wasn't that long after I bought it if I remember as they moved to the flat long cells. I understand they are rare as anything now and when you do find one it may not even work. They're also NiCd chemistry which is generally something you can bodge into this form factor in 2016. There may be a Li-poly cell that can be wedged into a clone battery shape possibly even with charge circuit.

My later minidisc, an MZ-R91 has a battery box you screw on the side that takes a bog standard AA. I have no idea if something like that exists or not for thay model but it may be the best approach.

To be honest I just use my phone these days though.

[electronicskip]

This may be of interest to you .
Its from the Sony insider forums.

http://forums.sonyinsider.com/topic/...y-replacement/

[greg_simons]

Thanks electronic skip, I was thinking something along those lines, I was also thinking about restuffing a couple of old battery shells, problem is the charge characteristics are different.
Greg.

[MrBungle]

I just had a look and apparently you can still get lots of industrial sized NiCd cells. Look at the options here:

http://www.smallbattery.company.org....trial_nimh.htm

Same chemistry, 5x cells = 6v. If you can get around 1000mAh in the same space then stuffing is an option and it'll still charge.

[greg_simons]

Thanks mr bungle, that looks brilliant, the restuffing option looks even better now.
Greg.

[emeritus]

The "wire glue" at the bottom of the list of the link in #5 looks interesting. When I was with Plessey in the 1970's we used to use silver-loaded Araldite for attaching threaded stand-offs inside Aluminium Eddystone die-cast boxes that had to provide low-resistance ground connections.

[greg_simons]

Yes I thought that was a product looking for a use, will probably get some, as for the md recorder yes I know it's. Antiquated and an anachronism but it does deserve it's place in history so why not a working museum piece?.

[D Cassidy]

Hello.
Has your MZ1 had the countless modifications on it that Sony came up with during and after it's production run?
The MZ1 was a valiant try but didn't cut the mustard, the MZR2 was far more reliable but was so lacking in features that the MZ1 had. The MZR-30 was a revelation in reliability and features.
My MZ1 languishes in a box somewhere well out of sight, unused since the mid nineties when it failed for the umpteenth time.

[greg_simons]

Don't think this example is modified in any way but yes it's certainly feature packed and is in working order, I spent many 'happy' hours repairing these when they were current production and reliable they wern't, the front load mechanism jammed at the slightest provocation and the extremely delicate write head could be sheared of in certain circumstances, the internal wiring was a major lash up and fault finding was problematic to say the least, sony slimmed down subsequent models considerably dumping the f/l mech for good with advancements in lsi design tidying up much of the circuitry with great improvement in power consumption, Still, the old mz1 clunker like the philips v2000 vcr was a brave attempt at a new and innovative product that didn't quite work and now deserves it's place in history.