What is the proper battery for Minox C,LX,TLX, etc ?

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), December 20, 1998

Answers

Minox 8x11 camera battery

Minox C/LX/TLX/EC/ECX/CLX uses one 5.6 volt mercury cell Varta PX27, Varta 7150, Ucar EPX 27

But PX27 cell is hard to get, as it contains mercury and is banned in many countries. However there is a replacement kit made by by Minox , it consists of a plastic holder with four silver oxide 386 button cells. The form factor of the silver oxide replacement kit is the same as original PX27, but last a lot longer. When the batteries are used up, you can buy another set of four 386s to put in the holder.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), December 20, 1998.

Battery Check

For Minox C, pull a lever on the speed dial, a light must turn on.

For Minox LX/TLX, check battery with camera close or open, but not released. Push to lever on the shutter speed dial toward the front of camera, hold for one sec, the green light must lit up. Minox EC has also a battery check, open the camera, push the switch to battery icon, look through the view finder, the red LED must lit up

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), December 20, 1998.

Don't use CR 1/3 Lithium Batteries in Minox 8x11 camara

There are some people using two lithium CR 1/3 N cells as replacement for PX27 in Minox C/LX/TLX. But IMO, this is not a good idea. Two lithium CR 1/3 N batteris stacked up is longer than PX27. To jam two lithium cells by force in Minox 8x11mm cameras may loosen the battery clip.

For reference, the dimension of PX27 vs CR1/3N is listed bellow

.Dimension of Varta PX27 5.6v battery:

• length 20 mm.
• diameter 12.7 mm

  Dimension of CR1/3N 3v lithium battery.

• length 10.45mm,
• diameter 11.3 mm

Two CR 1/3N total length = 20.9mm almost 1 mm longer then the PX27 battery.

The battery springs of Minox have only about 1 mm leeway; forcing 2 CR1/3N into Minox 8x11 camera put too much stress on the spring/camera body. may cause damage.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), December 20, 1998.

Make Your Own PX27

In case you cannot find PX27, and ordering a PX27 replacement kit may take awhile, you many make your own PX27.

1) Dismantle one exhausted PX27 battery by peeling off its metal shell, there is a black plastic tube with four button cells , one cathode plate, an anode plate, and one spring plate; discard three thin cells, keep then thick one, which has anode plate wielded

2) Use a unitlity knife, ply off the anode plate weilded to the thick cell.

3) Buy four #386 1.5 v silver oxide button cells. The 386 cell has exactly the same dimension as the mercury cells used in PX27. Put the anode plate first into the black plastic tube, followed by two 386s, then spring plate, then the remaining two 386, put the cathode plate at the end.

4) Use a piece of heat shrinkable tube (from Radio Shack ) shrink wrap the package.

That is a PX27 replacement, using the same cells as Minox PX27 replacement kit.

I made one for my Minox EC; it works

-- martin (martin.tai@capcanada.com), December 26, 1998.

In Asia you can buy Japanese V386 equvilent, called LR43. I found them in Hong Kong. Same as V386. Made by Maxell.

-- Kingson Lee (kingson@kk-tech.com), October 29, 1999.

The 386 Silver Oxide batteries can be found in watch stores. LR43 is alkaline type and the voltage drop will not be the same. In Hong Kong 386 can only be found in "watch stores".

-- Kingson Lee (kkt@kk-tech.com), January 08, 2000.