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External BIG battery?

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Offline bugbear

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External BIG battery?
« on: 29 / March / 2018, 03:59:39 »
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I want to do a 24 hour timelapse in a remote location.

I have (excellent) Eneloop AA batteries, and a main adapter. Neither are going to do what I need. AA not long enough, mains not available.

This is the only group I know where I might get a positive answer to:

Has anyone made an adapter/regulator circuit to allow the use of an external (e.g. motorbike) sealed lead acid battery to run a Canon camera?

Mine is a (much loved) A630.

  BugBear
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Offline reyalp

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Re: External BIG battery?
« Reply #1 on: 31 / March / 2018, 15:40:55 »
There have been a few threads about this on the forum, especially in the hardware mods subforum https://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?board=36.0

Searching google with site:chdk.setepontos.com and terms like external battery or external power should get some useful results.

Collecting the relevant threads and best practices on the wiki could be a helpful contribution.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: External BIG battery?
« Reply #2 on: 31 / March / 2018, 16:14:58 »
Quote from: bugbear on 29 / March / 2018, 03:59:39
Has anyone made an adapter/regulator circuit to allow the use of an external (e.g. motorbike) sealed lead acid battery to run a Canon camera?
As recently discussed here : Extended battery life for remote shooting there are a lot of nice high efficiency, high current, DC-DC convertors available.  A couple of nice examples from Amazon :


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019RKVMKU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078TBTPNH/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?smid=A2TKGQERXRZT6A&psc=1
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: External BIG battery?
« Reply #3 on: 30 / March / 2020, 07:41:52 »
Quote from: agada on 30 / March / 2020, 05:41:40
can anyone suggest a good car battery brand??????
I suspect 6V golf cart batteries or 12V batteries labelled for RV use (deep discharge) might be a better choice than a car battery.  Different discharge patterns - car batteries have to produce brief bursts of power and seldom get fully discharged.
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Offline c_joerg

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Re: External BIG battery?
« Reply #4 on: 30 / March / 2020, 08:40:27 »
Quote from: agada on 30 / March / 2020, 05:41:40
can anyone suggest a good car battery brand?
I would take a powerbank.
With a 3.7V camera, I would connect a diode in series to reduce the 5V.
 


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Offline waterwingz

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Re: External BIG battery?
« Reply #5 on: 30 / March / 2020, 09:05:07 »
Quote from: c_joerg on 30 / March / 2020, 08:40:27
I would connect a diode in series to reduce the 5V.
Two diodes in series will get you closer to the 3.7V.  THe actual drop is somewhat current dependent too.
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Offline c_joerg

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Re: External BIG battery?
« Reply #6 on: 30 / March / 2020, 10:12:59 »
Quote from: waterwingz on 30 / March / 2020, 09:05:07
Two diodes in series will get you closer to the 3.7V.  THe actual drop is somewhat current dependent too.
Yes, of course but then you lose more power…
I know people who operate the camera with 5V. That would be too risky for me. 4.3V seems to be a good medium.
 

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Offline waterwingz

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Re: External BIG battery?
« Reply #7 on: 30 / March / 2020, 10:21:25 »
Quote from: c_joerg on 30 / March / 2020, 10:12:59
Yes, of course but then you lose more power…
Not necessarily.  Without the second diode, the camera internal regulator may just dump the extra 0.7v as heat. Same as the diode.  But the diode keeps the heat outside the camera - the whole reason for doing this. (Assuming a small simple linear regulator. A switcher seems unlikely inside a compact camera.)

It's easy enough to test my theory with an inline current meter.  If I find some time I may try that. It's an interesting question.

Quote
I know people who operate the camera with 5V. That would be too risky for me. 4.3V seems to be a good medium.
Like I said, it will likely work but you will shorten the life of the camera. Although maybe not significantly.
« Last Edit: 30 / March / 2020, 10:25:02 by waterwingz »
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Offline c_joerg

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Re: External BIG battery?
« Reply #8 on: 30 / March / 2020, 11:32:47 »
Quote from: waterwingz on 30 / March / 2020, 10:21:25
[(Assuming a small simple linear regulator. A switcher seems unlikely inside a compact camera.)

It's easy enough to test my theory with an inline current meter.  If I find some time I may try that. It's an interesting question.



 IIRC I did this on my S110 and G1x. If I increase voltage, current goes down.
But it was a while ago and I could be wrong.
 
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: External BIG battery?
« Reply #9 on: 30 / March / 2020, 11:38:06 »
Quote from: c_joerg on 30 / March / 2020, 11:32:47
IIRC I did this on my S110 and G1x. If I increase voltage, current goes down.
Suggesting the use of a switching regulator rather than linear.  Good to know.
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