Liquivision X1 Battery ID from dead X1

[Reehan]

After finding the posts above, decided to bring back to live my X1, at least give it a try!

So far I have taken off the back. Unfortunately I had to drill out the 4 tiny screws as it was impossible to back them out, possibly because the battery had started to swell and was pushing up the back putting more pressure on the screws. Using a hair dryer to heat up and soften the potting, got the battery out. It came out cleanly apart from the terminal end where also the wires are potted in that needed a bit more heating up and "scooping out" the potting.

I am now waiting for the new battery.

A few questions though:
@moose_grunt: apart from the red and black battery wires, there are two more very thin and fragile :-( red and black wires that are attached to the gold colored disc. Unfortunately they came off the disc when I lifted the disc. Can you post a close up of how and where they were attached to the disc, I can't see that on the photos you posted on RBW.

I suspect that the disc has something to do with the electronic compass, am I right?

@njaimo Did you ever do and succeed with your battery replacement, if so, what potting did you use and did it work?

Cheers.

 

[Snusmumrik]

A few questions though:
@moose_grunt: apart from the red and black battery wires, there are two more very thin and fragile :-( red and black wires that are attached to the gold colored disc. Unfortunately they came off the disc when I lifted the disc.

I presume that's piezo-electric beeper. It was common polarity-independent.

 

[moose_grunt]

I presume that's piezo-electric beeper. It was common polarity-independent.

Yes, that is for the beeper. I'll have to dig to see if I can find those pictures on an old hard drive, since RBW doesn't exist for any practical purposes.

 

[njaimo]

@Reehan

Sorry to hear you had to drill out the screws, I believe they must be stainless-steel so replacing them may take some searching. The case is anodized aluminum, and steel and aluminum do not get along corrosion wise, so probably this is why they would not turn.

My X1 is still limping along; I try to not let it get completely discharged, so I check on it every week or two, and charge as necessary. I am not diving that often. I had looked into the gel, but can't find now what options I had compiled, seems I recall I had settled on a silicon based one from Europe ...? Too bad the Liquivision folks won't share that info (I tried asking); I would think that using the same gel they did would avoid compatibility issues with whatever original gel pieces remain in the X1 when re-potting. I remember when I bought mine, the gel was still "plastic", as seen on the "port holes" on the sides, but it hardened over time.

I also recall that there is a battery, same dimensions and voltage, that has a slightly higher capacity than the originals; could be worth a try. I had started looking into all this because I thought back then that my X1 would soon die, but so far so good.

Very interested in following your project !

 

[Reehan]

@njaimo

Thanks for the feedback.

The back of the casing is only for protection or maybe as soundboard for the piezo beeper, it does not provide any sealing, it is not supposed to hold any pressure so if I can't get other screws in I can even glue it on I guess. I may loose the sound of the beeper, but I can live with that.

I am considering using an epoxy glue to pot it in, it flows nicely, sticks to everything and is pretty tough once hardened out. If it doesn't work the exercise was a $15 attempt to resuscitate my X1.....

I searched for a larger capacity battery, but they were either a few millimeter to thick, too wide or too long so played it safe and ordered the same battery as original. I will get it mid February from someone coming from the UK and will post how this all ends.

Cheers.

 

[makar0n]

Hm re gel, could perhaps something like Raytech Magic Gel work?
That is something that is used when changing batteries in Uemis Zurich, and it was similarly used to encase the whole battery/PCB parts to protect it from water. It is definitely stays soft though, more like jelly.
Some dude posted instructions ages ago, you can see both the old gel and new application:

UEMIS BATTERY CHANGE (HOW TO) - FB but no need to log in

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[Reehan]

Hm re gel, could perhaps something like Raytech Magic Gel work?
That is something that is used when changing batteries in Uemis Zurich, and it was similarly used to encase the whole battery/PCB parts to protect it from water. It is definitely stays soft though, more like jelly.
Some dude posted instructions ages ago, you can see both the old gel and new application:

UEMIS BATTERY CHANGE (HOW TO)

Facebook

www.facebook.com

@makar0n: Thanks for the suggestion

The potting compound in the X1 was pretty hard but after 15 years it might as well have started life as a gel. Since Liquivision always stated that it was the potting that gave the pressure integrity and not the housing I am a bit dubious if a gel type will do the trick.

I will send RayTech, and some other companies that make potting compounds, an email and hope they can (or are willing...!) offer a suggestion what best to use.

Cheers.

 

[makar0n]

@makar0n: Thanks for the suggestion

The potting compound in the X1 was pretty hard but after 15 years it might as well have started life as a gel. Since Liquivision always stated that it was the potting that gave the pressure integrity and not the housing I am a bit dubious if a gel type will do the trick.

I will send RayTech, and some other companies that make potting compounds, an email and hope they can (or are willing...!) offer a suggestion what best to use.

Cheers.

Have no experience with X1 so cannot tell re pressure - on Uemis i think it was a mixture perhaps. Pics from that link, left, battery encased in jelly, right piece of plastic that went over it (no o-rings or anything, there was also a thin plastic film between those but I have since removed that and it works fine, could have been purely so that jelly does not stick to the cover). So there is some casing over the battery compartment filled with jelly, but definitely not as thick as the rest of the case.

Raytech website states "Moreover, it can withstand quite high pressure under deep water with IP68 protection." ...no clue though what do they mean by high pressure or deep water

Good luck!

 

[Reehan]

I got a bit sidetracked but finally, a year later…………..

I got the battery, soldered it to the leads and the X1 came back to life!

Next up was to drill out the SS screws and insert new studs. Initially tried a drill press which wasn’t “tight” enough and caused the drill to run off the SS stumps into the aluminium casing. Finally got the holes drilled out in a professional workshop.

Opened the holes to 3.2mm holes, +/- 6 mm deep in which I screwed SS bolts which were a fraction more than 3.2mm, i.e. they cut their own thread in the softer aluminium. Cut off the heads as I would use nuts to tighten down the lid later on.

Packed the X1 in masking tape, filled up the strap openings with grease. Put masking tape around the X1 sticking up a +/- 1/2" / 1cm to form a bath to fill up when potting.

For potting I used Araldite, a “gap filling epoxy adhesive”, standard version with a 90 minutes working time. Lifted up the battery, filled the X1 with the epoxy, pushed in the battery making sure the epoxy came up on the sides and was covering the whole X1, put on the lid and tightened the nuts. Removed the excess expoxy before fully hardened out.

 

[Reehan]

After letting it harden out for about a week, glued some neoprene to the bottom to cover the nuts and took it in the water to 41m. Glad to see that it is again working like it did on the very first dive, 16 years ago!