Powering your camera for long periods. - Hotwire! Hardware Mods, Accessories and Insights - CHDK Forum
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Powering your camera for long periods.

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Offline ahull

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Powering your camera for long periods.
« on: 26 / September / 2013, 05:20:47 »
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There have been a number of threads related to this subject over the last few months, each of which takes a subtly different view of the problem. User bwh13 suggested in a personal message that we bring the best of these ideas together in one place, so that is the purpose of this thread.

I would suggest that it might also be worth a Wikia page or two on best practice when hacking together a power source.
I intend to add a few links here, back to  previous posts on the subject, and if anyone else has any good ideas, this would be the place to share them, so fire me a PM if you want a link added here.

Here are some more links in no particular order of merit...

1) http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10284.msg103469#msg103469
Discussion that talks about batteries in general, with details on solar, low cost voltage regulators, the various battery chemistries and charging and discharging LiPo and LiIon cells safely.

2) http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10621.0
Building your own low cost regulator module. Also comments from others who have taken a similar tack.

3) http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10452.0
What voltage will you require, and how much current is your camera likely to draw?

4) http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=9105.0
Running a pano rig on 12V

5) http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=10313.0
What makes the Canon NB-4L battery tick. How it works, and the bad things that happen when you don't treat it with care.

6) http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=5196.0
Powering an A530 (normally powered by AA cells rather than LiPo/LiIon)
 
EDIT: In one of those meaningless coincidences of life, while I was writing the above, I spotted this on one of my favourite sites, I haven't had time to read it all yet, but since it is related I thought it worth a link to it.
« Last Edit: 26 / September / 2013, 12:17:06 by ahull »
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Offline lapser

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Re: Powering your camera for long periods.
« Reply #1 on: 26 / September / 2013, 14:43:35 »
I've had good results powering the SX50 and G1X on an 8.4 volt battery I got from Amazon. It's lasted 16 hours during the winter, with more power to spare. Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002QC3O2G/

To connect the battery to the camera, I bought 2 of these:

http://www.amazon.com/ACK-DC80-Replacement-Adapter-PowerShot-Digital/dp/B008WNN3I8/

I saved one of them to use when I have A/C power. I cut off the cable to the dummy battery on the other one, and spliced it to a 4mm barrel connector cable that plugs into the external battery above.

You don't need a voltage regulator with this setup. 8.4 volts powers both cameras fine.

The battery doesn't have a low voltage cutoff, which is an advantage, I think. The battery voltage should gradually go below the Canon low cutoff voltage, triggering an orderly, low voltage shut down. A sudden loss of external power in continuous mode leads to a loss of pictures, I discovered much to my dismay.

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EOS-M3_120f / SX50_100b / SX260_101a / G1X_100g / D20_100b
https://www.youtube.com/user/DrLapser/videos
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Offline crazyklaus

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Re: Powering your camera for long periods.
« Reply #2 on: 24 / November / 2013, 05:34:48 »
All of the current Canon DSLRs that I know of use a 2-cell Li-Ion pack.
Supplying them with an external pack is thus very easy.

Please beware of the dangers of Li-Ion batteries! Never use cheap cells. Use protection circuits.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Powering your camera for long periods.
« Reply #3 on: 24 / November / 2013, 10:26:57 »
Quote from: crazyklaus on 24 / November / 2013, 05:34:48
All of the current Canon DSLRs that I know of use a 2-cell Li-Ion pack.
Supplying them with an external pack is thus very easy.
Please beware of the dangers of Li-Ion batteries! Never use cheap cells. Use protection circuits.
Of course, Canon P&S cameras use a variety of battery types & voltages.  But your cautionary note about Li-Ion cells is a good one.
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