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[Terbs]

Morning all...
I have an old set of Sony wireless headphones. The batteries are not holding charge now. I have taken the cover off and it has a Sony BP-HP550-11 rechargeable battery. Looking to replace, but Sony version is £23.00. Found other versions, with a varied price range. The power is 2.4v, 700 mah. it is two batteries. They are listed as suitable for various headphones etc, but as I said, loads of prices. If the battery is a replacement for the Sony one, surely they must all fit, regardless of price ?
Input appreciated, before I waste money.

[zirk]

Morning all...
I have an old set of Sony wireless headphones. The batteries are not holding charge now. I have taken the cover off and it has a Sony BP-HP550-11 rechargeable battery. Looking to replace, but Sony version is £23.00. Found other versions, with a varied price range. The power is 2.4v, 700 mah. it is two batteries. They are listed as suitable for various headphones etc, but as I said, loads of prices. If the battery is a replacement for the Sony one, surely they must all fit, regardless of price ?
Input appreciated, before I waste money.

Not an easy one, no one wants to pay 23 quid for what, in essence, is a couple of 1.2v NiMi Cells stuck together inside a plastic case. Problem your going to have, as with anything like that, is eBay and Amazon will be knocking out Chinese copies for probably less than half that price, with unknown results, reliability and potentially safety issues.

Sony have been around a long time, there not generally a company for ripping people off, so maybe theres a reason why there charging that sort of money for thier own replacement batteries.

If your really keen, and handy with a soldering etc, you could break the battery pack apart and see if you could sort your own replacement Cells from Varta, CPC / Farnell or Maplins etc.

Other way of looking at it, how long is a genuine Battery going to last vs your enjoyment of the Headphone?, 5 years maybe, that works out at less than £5 per year or 40p per month, at least you can take the battery out of the box, plug it in and away you go.   

[Terbs]

Thanks for that, Chris.
Yes I suppose looking at the big picture is the better option. Glad you mentioned about Chinese copies and safety !!!. I think I will go into a Sony shop and see what I can get. If no joy, I have soldering irons, so will explore that route too...
Incidently, buying  from Maplins, Curry's, etc, does that mean that their stocks are genuine, or do they get caught out !!!

[zirk]

I would have thought you if you stick to the Big Stores like Curries, Tesco Direct, to name a few, etc, you should be safe, any large Company will have its own Buying and Technical Dept to ensure its Suppliers / Vendors are Genuine and more important fall within any ISO / CE Paper Work trail. I sure if you buy a product thats got a Sony Label on it, it will come from Sony and not some Over Night Trader in the back Streets of Hong Kong.

If your going down the DIY route, then you probably cant go wrong with Farnell, Maplins or RS Componets, if you can afford the latter.   

[Bigron]

Rapid Electronics, of Colchester are generally better on price if you choose to try re-fitting your existing battery pack.
Now, I hesitate to suggest this and it is at your own risk, but sometimes NiCads suffer from an internal fault of "whiskering" (dendritic crystals) after some time and can be blasted away by flashing the cells across a low resistance power source such as a car battery. If you choose to try this, make sure that the connection from car battery to NiCad is transitory - a quick flash - and NOT a permanent connection. A fraction of a second's contact will suffice!
Let it rest and do it again if it still won't accept a charge, but if you are still unsuccessful after 3 or 4 attempts, throw the NiCad away.

Ron.

[Tick Tock]

If you like your toy(s), then I'd always say buy genuine despite the price. Cheapo's are just that and invariably their performance usually matches the price of the Chinese imported shite. I've bought a Canon replacement battery for my aging camera, which will no doubt be obsolete very soon and not worth spending any decent money on, but I never leave it unattended when on charge or just after.

[Terbs]

Yeah....that's the thing, as Zirk pointed out. As this headset is used at night, then recharged during the day, I can't take the chance of a suspect battery setting fire to the caravan. I had not really given that any real thought until he mentioned it. I shall either source the pucker job or try the 'rebuild'

[zirk]

Having had a quick look on tinternet on these Sony batteries, looks like there just 2 x AAA Ni Mh in a plastic case, so if it was me, I'd probably go down the DIY route and just replace the cells, but dont take my word (or Googles) have a look and do some measuring etc, if your soldering batteries, (normally the custom jobbies are lightly spot welded) then just need to rough the contact edges with a file and then carefully flux and solder the contacts properly before soldering pre tinned cable. check they will fit back back correctly in the case with your additional joining cable and also check theres no additional circuitry (electronic temperature or current sense) hidden inside that your need to take into account.

If they are standard AAA type, quick Google something like these should do the job,  Varta 1.2 NiMh 800mA - 

https://www.rapidonline.com/varta-56783101402-nimh-aaa-1-2v-800mah-rechargeable-battery-pack-of-2-57-8129

Strangely enough from the same place Bigron suggested, Rapid Electronics, of Colchester.

You chould probably go up to 1000mA type if need be, and your probably find cheaper 700/800mA ones but I would pay the extra and stick with well known branded ones.