Zephyr 2nd Battery Plate

[Stephen Parsey]

Hi-ho, everyone.

 

Anyone know if there's anything particularly special about the official Tiffen 2nd Battery Plate for Zephyr besides the 12V/24V mode switch?

 

I have some spare parts lying around:

- AB plate with D-Tap

- Threaded cheeseplate

- D-Tap to 3-pin LEMO cable

 

And I was thinking if I simply attach an AB plate to the cheese plate to the bottom of the sled (where the second battery plate would also attach) and plug from D-Tap to 3-pin LEMO IN on the sled base to,swill that give me the equivalent of 24V mode or 12V mode?

[Scott Monk]

I use one. As you probably know, the Lemo pigtail on the 2nd plate plugs into the connector at the bottom of the sled so it can pair up with the standard battery holder.

 

The switch on the plate puts the two batteries in parallel or serial. If you get the pin-outs straight on the Lemo, and recreate the switch pole wiring, you could make your own with the parts you have.

[Chris Van Campen]

I don't have the 2nd battery plate, but I'm guessing they build in a rectifier so the stronger AB doesn't try to charge the lesser AB - which will cause it to protectively lock itself out.

[Scott Monk]

Actually, my plate didn't have the diode mod; I had to add it myself. But Chris is right - you'll have to add a rectifier diode to prevent back-charging.

I noticed I didn't have it when the charging LEDs would light up on one of my Red Bricks when I had one mounted with other batteries.

 

The info on DIY-ing the mod is somewhere here on the forum.