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Power the camera with an external supply

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Offline Gearlos

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Power the camera with an external supply
« on: 21 / October / 2013, 02:13:38 »
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Hello all dudes out there  :)

How do I power the camera for longer durations with an external power supply when there is special voltage requirement and/or only a battery slot.

I have not seen any good guides about this  ;)

I have an older Ixus A540 with a 2.5mm female jack that says DC input 3.15 V (there might be other models with similar requirements, like those with Li-on batt. only).

3.15 Volt seems quite restrictive (as if anything else is not accepted, like 3.2 volt), allthough the camera is powered with 2xAA's aka 3 Volt (which change voltage with use).

One option is of course to make a fake battery assembly and simulate the battery power with the external supply (this may be the only option when there is no power jack). This again force one to fabricate battery adapter replacements and making holes etc.etc. with failing success and hope for good luck it does'nt go into fire from shortcuts etc.

tx for any answers  ::)

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ADDENDUM - READ THIS ALLSO

After posting this I found 3 other topics about this:

Most of this was about the Ampere requirements and supply quality. And some says that using 3 Volt when connectors says 3.15 is Ok.

Of course one has to get a safety marked adapter.

I'm not sure about how well it is to overrride the Voltage spec. using 3.00V instead of 3.15. Remember if Ampere is drawn 0.15 Volt difference may be significant. Yes - camera may work, but long-time stress is not seen - maybe a regulater inside is working overtime...

Some of the cameras biggest power req. is the lens-motor (and flash recharge). This may be solved by simply adding a electrolytic capacitor to the power adapter output in the range 5.000-10.0000 uF.

Both above requires some home soldering.
« Last Edit: 21 / October / 2013, 02:40:07 by Gearlos »
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Offline outslider

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Re: Power the camera with an external supply
« Reply #1 on: 21 / October / 2013, 02:51:06 »
You can use some AC/DC adapter that gives around 3V. In case of my two cams (sx130is and s2is) I've been usually using voltage a little bit higher that stays in spec. It should not harm your camera. However - you have to do such things on your own responsibility :)

Keep in mind, that you might need quite high current - I needed up to 4 ampers for s2is.
Typical adapter for phone gives you few hundreds of milliampers, which is completely too low.

You can always use battery pack - few times more batteries than needed connected in propper way.
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Offline lapser

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Re: Power the camera with an external supply
« Reply #2 on: 21 / October / 2013, 03:22:53 »
Quote from: Gearlos on 21 / October / 2013, 02:13:38
How do I power the camera for longer durations with an external power supply when there is special voltage requirement and/or only a battery slot.
I bought an A/C power supply from Amazon. For your camera, the A540, I think it's the ACK-800. It looks like there must be a small power connector on that camera, since the kit doesn't include a dummy battery.
www.amazon.com/ABC-Products®-ACK-800-CA-PS200-Powershot/dp/B0042SA5U6

I bought the A/C kit for the SX50 and G1X and cut the cord from the A/C supply to the dummy battery. I spliced that cord to another cord that plugs into an 8.4 volt lithium battery I also bought. That's about 1 volt higher than the 7.4 volt battery spec, but a fully charge 7.4 volt batter puts out about 8.2 volts. So 8.4 volts works fine for me. It runs the G1X overnight with power to spare.

You should assume you can go about 1 volt higher that the battery nominal voltage. I've had good luck powering the SX260, nominally 3.7 volts, directly with a USB power supply at 5 volts. The D20 sometimes cuts off from too high voltage when the battery is fully charged, though.

I haven't damaged any cameras from over-voltage, although that may happen on an older camera, I suppose.
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Offline Davo

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Re: Power the camera with an external supply
« Reply #3 on: 21 / October / 2013, 06:11:28 »
My A810 works fine with rechargeable AAs all the way down to 2.4V and up to 3.15V when on a dummy battery I got from Amazon. I take tens of thousands of shots for time lapse and no problems so far - touch wood.

Dave
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Power the camera with an external supply
« Reply #4 on: 21 / October / 2013, 16:45:26 »
Quote from: Gearlos on 21 / October / 2013, 02:13:38
How do I power the camera for longer durations with an external power supply when there is special voltage requirement and/or only a battery slot.
FWIW, I've used this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003P4INFM/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1 with an a540 for quite a while and had no problems with it. The only issue I've noticed is that the fit on the plug is not great. (This appears to be the same item lapser linked, but a different listing with a different price)
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Offline Karmaschinken

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Re: Power the camera with an external supply
« Reply #5 on: 01 / February / 2014, 04:08:40 »
Hello, I got a question concerning this too. I have 50 cameras driven with 50 power supplies that provide 4.3 Volt DC 1.5A from 100-240 Volt AC.

Now I wonder if it would be okay to drive two cameras powered from only one power supply. This way my setup not only would become lighter but also easier too solder together.

Thanks for your opinion!
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Offline ahull

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Re: Power the camera with an external supply
« Reply #6 on: 01 / February / 2014, 04:55:58 »
Quote from: Karmaschinken on 01 / February / 2014, 04:08:40
Hello, I got a question concerning this too. I have 50 cameras driven with 50 power supplies that provide 4.3 Volt DC 1.5A from 100-240 Volt AC.

Now I wonder if it would be okay to drive two cameras powered from only one power supply. This way my setup not only would become lighter but also easier too solder together.

Thanks for your opinion!

Not if the power supply can only provide 1.5 A, since that is barely enough to power one camera.
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Offline andrew.stephens.754365

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Re: Power the camera with an external supply
« Reply #7 on: 01 / February / 2014, 10:40:19 »
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Power the camera with an external supply
« Reply #8 on: 01 / February / 2014, 10:58:57 »
Quote from: andrew.stephens.754365 on 01 / February / 2014, 10:40:19
related - just reviewed this http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Camera_Power_Consumption
Unfortunately,  those numbers don't really tell you the peak current needed for things like charging the flash and writing to the SD card.
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Offline Karmaschinken

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Re: Power the camera with an external supply
« Reply #9 on: 01 / February / 2014, 14:54:05 »
Hmmm. That's a good point. Assuming that a flash is the highest peak at a camera one might come to the conclusion that when using the camera without flash there is so much overhead that two cameras driven by one power supply is safe?
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