[CapitanXeon]

Hi! I'm a 19 y/o from Spain, and around a year ago i bought my Pentax K-m with around 12k shots, and by this year i learnt myself quite a lot, to the point I can do decent shots even on the phone.
I got through this forum a fair number of times, and just for being thankful, i want to join here, and help whoever i can. It's not like i had to fully disassemble my K-m like 4 or 5 times or got it converted to lithium...

All said, hope i can help!

[bertwert]

Welcome to the forum, I look forward to seeing some shared photos

[C_Jones]

Welcome to Pentax forums.

[CapitanXeon]

Welcome to the forum, I look forward to seeing some shared photos

I see the albums photos on your profiles but i'm still looking around how the forum works I have a bunch of shots on my Instagram, but they don't do justice xD

As long you enter the profile, the pic is there, but see that i didn't fake the K-m disassembly xDD

Fun fact: This is like the third or forth time i did it :')

[Unregistered User 8]

Hola from Australia, and welcome to the Pentax forums. Good to have you here.

[bertwert]

That's fascinating disassembly there... am I understanding correctly that you made the battery grip?

You've got some good photos.

[CapitanXeon]

Thanks!

Yup, i bought a random Nikon grip, disassembled it completely, removed all electronics, stuffed my own electronics (a lithium charge module and a step up to get the 6V), secured all in place including an emergency kill switch (this camera tends to hang itself when i accidentally do a very long exposure so if i sometimes do it, just kill it and i'm done, or when the voltage goes under the "low battery threshold" i just trick the camera to think i just put a fresh set of AA batteries) and the main thing, three 18650 cells doing a total of 6600mAh of battery.

I was extremely sick about the AA batteries, i got a point when even a freshly Panasonic set of batteries could last like...50 shots or so. Also i couldn't do a burst. This grip lasts like 1500 shots, and on test i done a 100 pic burst without card, so it was constant. It was worth the money (18€ for the grip, 1.50 for the fake AA cells, some spare cable i had, 3 18650 cells i got from a laptop battery, and around an hour to got it all working). One time it let me full a 16GB card so i'm happy. I may do a post wit a step by step, but the lack of the biuld photos would be a handicap. I'm also thinking about doing a secondary, lighter grip, with book type lithiums, so who knows btw.

[bertwert]

Thanks!

Yup, i bought a random Nikon grip, disassembled it completely, removed all electronics, stuffed my own electronics (a lithium charge module and a step up to get the 6V), secured all in place including an emergency kill switch (this camera tends to hang itself when i accidentally do a very long exposure so if i sometimes do it, just kill it and i'm done, or when the voltage goes under the "low battery threshold" i just trick the camera to think i just put a fresh set of AA batteries) and the main thing, three 18650 cells doing a total of 6600mAh of battery.

I was extremely sick about the AA batteries, i got a point when even a freshly Panasonic set of batteries could last like...50 shots or so. Also i couldn't do a burst. This grip lasts like 1500 shots, and on test i done a 100 pic burst without card, so it was constant. It was worth the money (18€ for the grip, 1.50 for the fake AA cells, some spare cable i had, 3 18650 cells i got from a laptop battery, and around an hour to got it all working). One time it let me full a 16GB card so i'm happy. I may do a post wit a step by step, but the lack of the biuld photos would be a handicap. I'm also thinking about doing a secondary, lighter grip, with book type lithiums, so who knows btw.

Well done, it would be interesting to see documented here, or any other photography DIY project you've one

[CapitanXeon]

Well done, it would be interesting to see documented here, or any other photography DIY project you've one

I'll definetely do it some day, i just need to find the time, and be able to do some useful photos and schematics, as i'm not going to redo my main grip!

[fsge]

Thanks!

Yup, i bought a random Nikon grip, disassembled it completely, removed all electronics, stuffed my own electronics (a lithium charge module and a step up to get the 6V), secured all in place including an emergency kill switch (this camera tends to hang itself when i accidentally do a very long exposure so if i sometimes do it, just kill it and i'm done, or when the voltage goes under the "low battery threshold" i just trick the camera to think i just put a fresh set of AA batteries) and the main thing, three 18650 cells doing a total of 6600mAh of battery.

I was extremely sick about the AA batteries, i got a point when even a freshly Panasonic set of batteries could last like...50 shots or so. Also i couldn't do a burst. This grip lasts like 1500 shots, and on test i done a 100 pic burst without card, so it was constant. It was worth the money (18€ for the grip, 1.50 for the fake AA cells, some spare cable i had, 3 18650 cells i got from a laptop battery, and around an hour to got it all working). One time it let me full a 16GB card so i'm happy. I may do a post wit a step by step, but the lack of the biuld photos would be a handicap. I'm also thinking about doing a secondary, lighter grip, with book type lithiums, so who knows btw.

Reading you it looks simple, but I am not sure we would all be able to do the same.
I also had some AA troubles with my k-x, which I partially solved in stuffing batteries with more capacity.
Keep up the good DIY work !

[CapitanXeon]

Reading you it looks simple, but I am not sure we would all be able to do the same.
I also had some AA troubles with my k-x, which I partially solved in stuffing batteries with more capacity.
Keep up the good DIY work !

Thanks! It's actually pretty simple. If i had to remember what was the most difficult part, maybe would be figuring out how get all the things inside the not so big grip, specially the usb charging port. That, and soldering the fake AA's, that was a real pain because looks like the terminals were aluminium based, and won't let the solder stick properly, but a lot of fluxed solder later, it got stuck. I was going for it yes or yes, and even damaging 2 of the 4 fakes i bought, as i only needed 2, i'm happy with it.

I may recomend some fakes with premade cabling, to have a painless experience.


If you feel confortable with soldering, go for these instead

Where i had most caution was at setting the voltage properly, as for reverse polarity there's no issue, at least on the K-m where i put the batteries at inverse polarity because getting mad at 20 batteries not working at all

Btw, i believe i seen here the tutorial on a K-x that inspired me to do this one, but the one here was actually made to fit a 5th AA battery to bump the voltage, instead of builing an entire new power plant, and i'm much more happier with the lithium plant with usb charging port (that ofc, let's me using the camera while charging)

[LensBeginner]

Welcome to the forum, I like fiddling myself so I think I'll enjoy your posts (like the one about flash)

[CapitanXeon]

Welcome to the forum, I like fiddling myself so I think I'll enjoy your posts (like the one about flash)

Nice, i like you so! i may look around if there's a subforum about doing what is not supposed to do, or else drop thing on general

[Kerrowdown]

Welcome to the forum, I’m not so sure about these scary open heart surgery camera pictures though.

[CapitanXeon]

Welcome to the forum, I’m not so sure about these scary open heart surgery camera pictures though.

Hah, maybe this fragment gets you in my way of thinking

...may look around if there's a subforum about doing what is not supposed to do...

I mean, i did have a dead K-m on my hands (twice) so...why not to do a surgeon? Y'all like to shoot wide open with 50mm lens, i like to operate wide open with a set of screwdrivers and pliers and well, she's still alive! Pic for proof!


I still have the red marker!