Hey guys planning on doing a heap of filming with my camera over this coming New Zealand summer for fishing. Camera is mounted on a suction cup mount which you can attach to the boat.

Currently have some 60 rechargable batteries but this is very awkward as you have to change the batteries every hour or so with fishy wet hands.

Keen to make an external power source from a larger battery. Basically camera has a little DC socket where you can plug into an AC wall supply through an adaptor.

Pretty sure the camera runs on 6volts..... if this is the case would it be as simple as getting a large 6 volt battery and simply connecting a lead with an appropriate dc plug on it? or are there other things to take into consideration?

Boat has DC sockets (cigarette lighter) and I've found suitable adapters, but in some situations this isn't going to work.

Advice appreciated.

M.

 

Hello,

Does the camera have an external powersupply connector?
If it has one the connection should be easy.
I have seen it uses 4 X AA batteries, so the powersupply is 6 Volts DC.

Greetings,
Bertus

 

Yep sure does basically a little cylinder with a pin in the middle.

Yeh I figured from the four batteries it would be six volts, but not sure if this applies to the DC in.

 

Hello,

There is an adapter for the camera called CA-PS700.
This is for connecting to an AC source.

There are also battery packs called CBK4-300 and NB4-300.

Greetings,
Bertus

 

No I'm thinking more along the lines of an SLA battery like this.

http://jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=SB2495&keywords=6v+battery&form=KEYWORD

 

Hello,

You will have to find out about the external powersupply connection.
Is there someting written in the manual about it?

Greetings,
Bertus

 

No I had a pretty thorough look threw it but can't find any technical data on it. Might flick the canon technicians an email.

 

Hello,

The only thing I could find about the external powersupply is :

It seems to be 7.2 Volts.
Perhaps the higher voltage is used to charge internal batteries.

Greetings,
Bertus

 

Does the amp output make much of a difference? Other than the output being higher than what the camera will draw at a maximum (couldn't be much) So the AC power adapter produces 2A at 7.4volts and if I make something rated 1A at 7.5 volts it will still work?

I've been looking at getting one of these, I can use this instead of a portable power pack where there are DC outlets close by on a boat.

http://www.ccrane.com/more-categories/alternative-power/cigarette-lighter-adapter.aspx

Looks like it will have to be 7.5 volts so if I'm going to make a portable battery pack it will have to be a 12v battery with a regulating circuit.

 

Amps only dictates how long the battery will last. Does the camera have a little picture next to the jack (most of these type power connectors do) showing whether the center pin is positive or negitive? If it does that is half the battle, then you need to match the connector itself.

The other thing that give me pause is the fact that a lead acid battery isn't quite as stable on voltage as I would like, though it might be good enough. This can be measured via meter though.

 

That SLA is only 1.3 AH, which is very small. I can get rechargeable AA NiMH batteries that are 2.7 AH. Why not just use something like that?

John

 

Going to record (video) entire days (8-10hrs) fishing out on the boat. Really don't want to open up the camera in such a salty environment especially with fishy hands.

 

You could still make an external battery pack using LiOn batteries to side step that. There really isn't any size limit to such a pack, it could have 30 or so battery cells.

 

Was thinking something like this

http://www.jaycar.co.nz/productView.asp?ID=SB2486&keywords=Sla+battery&form=KEYWORD

I currently have around 60 x 2.7mAH rechargeable batteries but find it a hassle to have so many batteries around and it would be great to have a single battery to charge that could last days if needs be....... sometimes I go on fishing charters that do 3 day trips.

With the battery in the link could I not just make a 7.5V voltage regulating circuit to bring it down to the required voltage and stop any fluctuations.

 

You could. Look for a buck boost convertor though, they convert DC levels with an extremely high level of efficiency, you're not throwing away a lot of your power as heat.