Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

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Comedian
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Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby Comedian » Sun Jul 31, 2016 12:37 pm

I've got one of the first gen Fly6 whose battery has failed. It only lasts for a bit over an hour now.

Has anyone pulled one apart? Replaced the battery? I have heard around the traps of people doing this.

Love to hear your experience. Everything to gain and not much to loose at this point.

EDIT: I've been a great supporter of Cycliq. I understand their decision to have non user replaceable batteries... but in my experience of the fly6 their battery performance does degrade to a point where it's problematic pretty quickly I'm hopeful that something can be sorted as it's a great product but I can't justify spending several hundred dollars a year on replacement lights.
Last edited by Comedian on Sun Jul 31, 2016 12:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Replace fly6 battery

Postby Comedian » Sun Jul 31, 2016 12:41 pm

Found this... need to find a source for these..

https://cycliq.freshdesk.com/support/di ... 5000058377

This looks like the manufacturer.

http://www.sinyo.net/En/HrDemand.asp

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby Baalzamon » Sun Jul 31, 2016 1:09 pm

Well once you find a suitable battery. I would snip the wires off, strip sheath off, little bit of heat shrink then solder onto the wires. Slip heatshrink back over and heat using soldering iron
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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby Comedian » Sun Jul 31, 2016 1:13 pm

Baalzamon wrote:Well once you find a suitable battery. I would snip the wires off, strip sheath off, little bit of heat shrink then solder onto the wires. Slip heatshrink back over and heat using soldering iron
I suspect finding a battery of the right type and shape is going to be the hard bit. :|

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby Baalzamon » Sun Jul 31, 2016 1:51 pm

Comedian wrote:
Baalzamon wrote:Well once you find a suitable battery. I would snip the wires off, strip sheath off, little bit of heat shrink then solder onto the wires. Slip heatshrink back over and heat using soldering iron
I suspect finding a battery of the right type and shape is going to be the hard bit. :|
So do I. Might be a bite the bullet and buy a new fly :(
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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby Comedian » Sun Jul 31, 2016 2:23 pm

Baalzamon wrote:
Comedian wrote:
Baalzamon wrote:Well once you find a suitable battery. I would snip the wires off, strip sheath off, little bit of heat shrink then solder onto the wires. Slip heatshrink back over and heat using soldering iron
I suspect finding a battery of the right type and shape is going to be the hard bit. :|
So do I. Might be a bite the bullet and buy a new fly :(
Let's see if the brains trust comes through. Maybe the people from cycliq might drop us a hint or offer to sell them to us.

Personally If I can't sort something then I can't see me continuing to use the lights when they keel over. If I'm paying $500 for a front camera/light and $250 for a rear it's got to last a few years... 12/18 months is not going to cut it. A solution must be found! I don't think it would have been an issue if they lasted for 3/4 years, but that's not what's happening.

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby eeksll » Sun Jul 31, 2016 2:41 pm

any chance of running with external battery pack plugged in?

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby Comedian » Sun Jul 31, 2016 4:15 pm

eeksll wrote:any chance of running with external battery pack plugged in?
Even if it was technically possible.. mounting it neatly and reliably means that isn't going to happen. :|

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby eeksll » Sun Jul 31, 2016 9:05 pm

Comedian wrote:
eeksll wrote:any chance of running with external battery pack plugged in?
Even if it was technically possible.. mounting it neatly and reliably means that isn't going to happen. :|
surely its technically possible just get one of those external usb battery packs. Leave that strapped to the bike :lol: . I do plan on doing this with some lights I am DIY playing with. however, I can fully understand if you don't want to do that, not sure I want to do that on all my bikes.

Something else I was thinking of is you can go to ebay and search for 3.7v lithium polymer 1500mah you might get lucky with finding one that is the right size. (if you know the size)

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby Lynton » Sun Aug 14, 2016 4:11 pm

Comedian wrote:
eeksll wrote:any chance of running with external battery pack plugged in?
Even if it was technically possible.. mounting it neatly and reliably means that isn't going to happen. :|
This won't work as the Fly 6 will not turn on when a external power source is plugged into the mini USB port that is used for charging.

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby MichaelB » Mon Aug 15, 2016 8:49 am

Lynton wrote:
Comedian wrote:
eeksll wrote:any chance of running with external battery pack plugged in?
Even if it was technically possible.. mounting it neatly and reliably means that isn't going to happen. :|
This won't work as the Fly 6 will not turn on when a external power source is plugged into the mini USB port that is used for charging.
Had this same dilemma for running my video camera on longer rides.

Just need to source a charge only cable - that did it for me.

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby tallmantim » Mon Aug 15, 2016 5:26 pm

FYI - the unit itself is not hard to take apart.

There are 4x screws in the rear (all phillips, small).

Once you get it open you have two sandwiched boards. You do not need to take them apart - just leave them together and remove the three screws in the bottom board. It will then lift slightly off.

Next, remove the SD card slot. Take out the SD card first. Two more screws on this and lift the rear of the board before pulling it from its slot.

Finally, remove the power/mini-SD port. One screw and remove in the same way as the SD board.

The battery is glued into place, but this can be lifted. When you have everything up, there are still two connections to the case - the microphone and speaker are wired and glued in place. You don't need to do anything with them - as mentioned above if you have a replacement battery you can snip the wires, strip, join and reseat everything pretty easily.

The big requirement is the battery.

I have put through a request to Sinyo and to Cycliq for replacement batteries. Will let people know if I get a reasonable response!

Cheers

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby Comedian » Mon Aug 15, 2016 6:35 pm

tallmantim wrote:FYI - the unit itself is not hard to take apart.

There are 4x screws in the rear (all phillips, small).

Once you get it open you have two sandwiched boards. You do not need to take them apart - just leave them together and remove the three screws in the bottom board. It will then lift slightly off.

Next, remove the SD card slot. Take out the SD card first. Two more screws on this and lift the rear of the board before pulling it from its slot.

Finally, remove the power/mini-SD port. One screw and remove in the same way as the SD board.

The battery is glued into place, but this can be lifted. When you have everything up, there are still two connections to the case - the microphone and speaker are wired and glued in place. You don't need to do anything with them - as mentioned above if you have a replacement battery you can snip the wires, strip, join and reseat everything pretty easily.

The big requirement is the battery.

I have put through a request to Sinyo and to Cycliq for replacement batteries. Will let people know if I get a reasonable response!

Cheers
Thank you so much! It's finding the right battery that's daunting.

As I've said before.. I think that if the units lasted for several years then maybe a sealed unit is OK. But they aren't so this needs to be sorted.

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby AUbicycles » Tue Aug 16, 2016 10:08 pm

(AT) tallmantim, thanks for sharing the details. Are you able to provide a photo?

Certain a DIY solution but interested to hear how it goes.
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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby jasonc » Sun Aug 21, 2016 1:31 pm

I'm down to about 2 hours so keeping an eye on this

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby Mububban » Wed Aug 24, 2016 12:18 pm

MichaelB wrote:
Just need to source a charge only cable - that did it for me.
Where did you find such a cable from? How much was it?
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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby MichaelB » Wed Aug 24, 2016 12:39 pm

Mububban wrote:
Where did you find such a cable from? How much was it?
By accident really.

I think one of them was a cable that came with a USB chargeable light.

One other option is to look for the el cheapo cables at Woolies etc that are listed as 'charge' cable rather than a 'charge & sync' cable.

I tried making my own using web instructions, but that didn't work :?

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby RhapsodyX » Tue Aug 30, 2016 12:12 pm

I have *two* Fly6 original, the second was sent as a freebie when the battery in the first dropped below two hours, but now both are in the 1 to 1.5 hour range. As per the experience of others - very temperature sensitive, negative temps just chew through the battery.

I've pulled one apart for a quick look, the battery is roughly 18mm x 15mm x 80mm. 3.7V, 1500mah. Might possibly be able to squeeze in this or this. But no idea if the discharge rates will suit. I'll probably try the round one, a bit of case re-shaping might be required with the die grinder, but we will see.

(And both my batteries have broken free from their glue and have rubbed through the outer plastic).

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby find_bruce » Tue Aug 30, 2016 4:32 pm

RhapsodyX wrote:I have *two* Fly6 original, the second was sent as a freebie when the battery in the first dropped below two hours, but now both are in the 1 to 1.5 hour range. As per the experience of others - very temperature sensitive, negative temps just chew through the battery.

I've pulled one apart for a quick look, the battery is roughly 18mm x 15mm x 80mm. 3.7V, 1500mah. Might possibly be able to squeeze in this or this. But no idea if the discharge rates will suit. I'll probably try the round one, a bit of case re-shaping might be required with the die grinder, but we will see.

(And both my batteries have broken free from their glue and have rubbed through the outer plastic).
The code on the batteries is usually an indication of size and type. Eg the second one you linked to is 752080 and is 7.0mm x 20mm x 80mm.

Has anyone measured the dimensions? I suspect you are going to find the batteries to be a bit big- the code on the fly6 battery is lp701680 which probably means a lithium polymer battery that is 7.0mm x 16mm x 80mm.

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby RhapsodyX » Thu Sep 01, 2016 9:36 am

find_bruce wrote:
RhapsodyX wrote:I have *two* Fly6 original, the second was sent as a freebie when the battery in the first dropped below two hours, but now both are in the 1 to 1.5 hour range. As per the experience of others - very temperature sensitive, negative temps just chew through the battery.

I've pulled one apart for a quick look, the battery is roughly 18mm x 15mm x 80mm. 3.7V, 1500mah. Might possibly be able to squeeze in this or this. But no idea if the discharge rates will suit. I'll probably try the round one, a bit of case re-shaping might be required with the die grinder, but we will see.

(And both my batteries have broken free from their glue and have rubbed through the outer plastic).
The code on the batteries is usually an indication of size and type. Eg the second one you linked to is 752080 and is 7.0mm x 20mm x 80mm.

Has anyone measured the dimensions? I suspect you are going to find the batteries to be a bit big- the code on the fly6 battery is lp701680 which probably means a lithium polymer battery that is 7.0mm x 16mm x 80mm.
As above.

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby find_bruce » Thu Sep 01, 2016 11:16 am

RhapsodyX wrote:As above.
Well that was embarrassing, couldn't see it right there in front of my eyes. :oops:

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby RhapsodyX » Fri Sep 02, 2016 11:34 am

find_bruce wrote:
RhapsodyX wrote:As above.
Well that was embarrassing, couldn't see it right there in front of my eyes. :oops:
All good - I'm surprised to find that the code indicated a size, nothing about the sizing of Lithium batteries makes sense to me!

I did previously find an Australian web-site with a ~$28 battery that was a pretty close match size-wise. Do you think I can find it again. :evil:

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby RhapsodyX » Fri Sep 02, 2016 2:16 pm

I just found this for the second-gen lights, but it looks like it might work with the first-gen as well. Jaycar has the 18650 battery with solder tabs in stock, $21.95.

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby find_bruce » Fri Sep 02, 2016 4:22 pm

If you can wait for china post, I would buy genuine panasonic batteries 3400 mAh, US$19.70 for 4 with solder tabs

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Re: Replace fly6 1st Generation Battery

Postby tallmantim » Fri Sep 02, 2016 4:38 pm

AUbicycles wrote:(AT) tallmantim, thanks for sharing the details. Are you able to provide a photo?

Certain a DIY solution but interested to hear how it goes.
Here is what the battery looks like:

Image

I will see if I can get one of these to fit in:

http://www.jaycar.com.au/18650-recharge ... g/p/SB2313

Sinyo did not respond to my request for a battery.

Cycliq do not offer any parts, however they do offer a discount if you have battery issues to buy a new one (when they come back in stock on the website). US$100 for a new unit.

Out of interest - I was wondering as they are out of stock on the website (for a while) and running down stock at other places does this mean they are gearing up for Fly6 v3? Perhaps a smarter one that can work in with the Cycliq app?

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