Hi, gang. Well, I promised that I would report to the List the results of
my battery shopping exercise. Here's what happened:
1. Olympus: $60, per John Hermanson (the parts persons kept hanging up on
me)
2. Digi-Key: After sending them a line drawing and a JPEG file of what I
needed on Monday, the person on the other end quoted me $23.35 for the
twelve Panasonic 1/3AA NiCad cells, plus $20 to make up the pack, totaling
$43.35. He would fax me back a quote. Tuesday, nothing. Wednesday, still
nothing. I called them, and discovered that they really needed to have the
old pack (after all I did for them on Monday!); since I was in Chicago and
the pack was at home in Florida, this would mean a delay of at least two
weeks. "OK, I'll have my technician call you". Thursday, nothing.
Friday, I called them again: "WHat... you mean he didn't call?" "No."
"Did you receive the quote?" "No, I didn't." "Well, it was for the $23.35
for the cells, $20 labor to make the pack, plus the $20 set-up charge..."
"WHAT??? Set-up charge?" "Yes, that's what we charge,,," "Stop, do you
realize that you just exceeded the OEM parts cost? Can we do anything
about this?" "No." See ya.
3. Batteries Plus, a local shop in Morton Grove, IL. After giving them
the line drawing, there were still many back-'n'-forth gyrations by the
counter help between me and the fellow in the back who makes these things,
but I was quoted $36.00 for the twelve Sanyo (better) cells, plus $18.00 to
make up the pack. "Wait a minute... we can't make this, because your
dimension of 3 15/16" (that's the length of the six-cell portion, and is a
controlling dimension for the pack to fit in the case) is less than the
distance that I can make it, which is 3.9 inches." (note that 15 divided
by 16 equals .9375"). I said that I would take the risk. Total is $50.00.
They'll have it done by next Wednesday. Deal.
I'm considering myself lucky to even get the battery, considering our
throwaway society. Gonna make myself a shaker full of martinis when I get
home tonight, and try to forget the whole experience.
But, the thing to remember is that if you come across one of these NiCad
packs for the motor drive, it's probably a safe assumption that the battery
pack is dried out. The charger is pretty primitive, and most people are in
the habit of just putting NiCads on the charger, which will just dry them
out. Use this as a negotiating point whenever you want to buy one of these
things, or stick to the alkaline packs.
All right, I'm through bleating. See ya.
Mahlon
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