DIY: Spring your batteries on Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6


---//--- UPDATE 2014-06-24 ---//---

Received a call today from Olympus European Service Center that is located in Coimbra, Portugal and they have informed me, that after reading my DIY, that in fact there may be some kind of random grips out there that may miss the spring but they assure me that the Olympus Battery Grip Holder HLD-6 have in deed the spring at the bottom.

They asked me to return my Battery Grip Holder HLD-6 so they could apply the missing spring at no charge.

Once again KUDOS for Olympus on fast solving this issue and their excellent Service Center Support, just wish Canon was like this when I had several problems with cameras and lenses while on Platinum CPS.

If your Olympus Battery Grip Holder HLD-6 is missing the spring call it in so they can add it... meanwhile use the DIY as a rescue option.

---//---

It's been quite a while since I posted anything here on the blog... the lack of time has made me left out writing and DIY postings on the blog as well as some bumps here and there.

Anyway, today's post it's about something that have been annoying me for quite some time on my Olympus OMD-EM5 battery holder the HLD-6.

I do not know if this also happens to you or is a random case, I've never have report it to Olympus, that's a fact, but that's is very annoying it is.

Let me explain this... When I got the grip my batteries came out quite easily. I have some from Olympus and some from a "white" brand since they are much less expensive and can take the same charge as the branded ones also the chargers have a travel plug that easier to put in the bag than to have to carry the cable around.

After some travels and bumps the grip got some kind of a malfunctioning problem while sometimes it will work and others simply won't responded even after removing the batteries and putting them back on. So I send it to service and while still on guarantee Olympus service center (that is in Coimbra, Portugal) was kind enough to replace the bad parts and the service was so good that I recommend it greatly to anyone using their services. UPS will pick up and will deliver with a great service.

Things started to be a bit more difficult to remove the battery just when I got it back from the service center. It looks like the bottom metal plate is nor a little curved or not well positioned and the batteries are less easily removed. 
    
Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

I now have to use a small knife to remove them because of how tight they are and has you can imagine this is a little bit difficult to do when on assignment.

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

So I decided to have a small paper clip with me and use it to remove the batteries, but sometimes even with the paper clip to help this can take sometime and when you and to be fast to remove the grip battery it can take forever and when in a dim light situation you can sometimes go crazy.

In order to fix this I decided to look why was this happening since when I bought the OMD-EM5 I never remembered this has ever happened and the battery after pressing the release button it will pop out so easily. 

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

 Here is the answer... the OMD-EM5 have a small spring inside near the battery connectors that makes the battery pop out when you press the orange release button.

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring



 Hey!! no spring on the battery grip HLD-6, very strange has it seems to have some kind of attachment inside where a spring should fit easily. Could it be mine or Olympus simply forgot to put the spring inside the HLD-6? Fear Not Not I will teach you how easy is to make a replacement one for your HLD-6.

Here are some things you will need: 
- Scissors
- Some gaff tape
- Broken radio or a small spring
- Long tweezers
- Small spanner (to make a small hoke on the gaff tape)

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

So let's start. Remove the spring form the radio or other accessory you have at hand where you can get a small spring. In my case was this broken radio.

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

Here is the spring out of the radio.  

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

Here is the size in cm so you can have an idea of how small it is.

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

Now cut a small square of a gaff tape, more or less like so. This you have to take in attention has the room inside the battery holder HLD-6 has not a lot of parts where you can glue this to... so take that in attention but this was the size I cut mine.

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

With a small spanner I made a very small hole so that the spring can roll inside of it. Do not make a very big hole or the spring will not hold.

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

With the help of the tweezers I put the spring inside the hole and twist it a little bit so it won't come out so easily.

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring 

There you have it. 

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring


 This is how much I have roll it in the back of the gaff tape.

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

Then with the help of the long tweezers I carefully glued it inside the bottom of the battery holder HLD-6. Use the tweezers to press the gaff tape to the bottom of the grip holder.

Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

Now when you press the orange release button...


Olympus OMD-EM5 Battery Grip Holder HLD-6P spring

The battery will pop out has it does on the OMD-EM5.

Some things you have to take in consideration when making this DIY. 

The spring eventually will be loosen has the gaff tape will not hold the rest of the battery grip holder life. This is because the glue with the heat may come out and the spring will get loosen but until it does I'm pretty sure it will take a couple of months.

When popping the battery out always double check to see if the spring is still there and in the correct position before you put another battery in, this will help you on not having problems when that gaff tape start to loose it's magic ;)

Hope you enjoy this and I will tag Olympus on this post maybe they will have a permanent replacement, in the future, for this DIY fix.
I'm pretty confident that this will be very easy to fix at factory level since there is some kind of attachment already inside the grip but for unknown reason they are not using it and I do not see how a small spring could affect the price increase of the future grips.

Let's hope Olympus will service this and give us a small spring for our grips.

Thank you for following and hope you have enjoyed and if you make one just let me know how it went.

Stay safe,
Rui

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