GH2 DIY DMW-DCC8 (DC adapter)

[keylight]

Thanks to Tyampel for the great idea (see here). I basically did what he did and made my own DC adapter out of wood, although I made a couple of tweaks.

Easy to do and didn't take much time.....

After cutting a piece of scrap wood to size, minus "a bit" on the thickness (more later why), I made 2 channels in the wood and small holes at the end. Did this with a Dremmel and some small bits. I used 2 brass picture hooks that had smooth bottoms - many have dimpled bottoms (I found them at Lowes. Home Depot's had dimples.)

GH2 DIY dc adapter (1 of 5).jpg

After soldering multi-stranded 24 AWG wire (taken from an old cell phone charger) to the modified hooks, I worked the ends into place. I then tested the block in the camera to make sure the contacts were out far enough. The camera turned on. Excellent. I used a hot glue gun to fill the channels with glue.

GH2 DIY dc adapter (2 of 5).jpg

I then glued a strip of wood laminate (found at Lowes) on each side, covering the wires and bringing the thickness up to match the battery.

GH2 DIY dc adapter (3 of 5).jpg

On the other end of the wire I soldered the right kind of plug for the battery I am using (basically doing what this guy did).

GH2 DIY dc adapter (4 of 5).jpg

And that was it. Finished. Here's a photo showing it all together.

GH2 DIY dc adapter (5 of 5).jpg

It may not be pretty, but damn it - it works! And the picture hooks are rock solid. No worries that this thing will every come apart.

Finally, Bravo to Panasonic for an incredible camera. But they should be ASHAMED when it comes to the power situation. They could mass produce and ship thousands (hundreds of thousands) of the adapters in a matter of days if they wanted to. There only reason I can figure they don't have them available, is because they want to sell more batteries. Oh wait, those aren't available either.

Anyway, I hope this has been of some help.

[kevin baggott]

god i love this site and the folks in it

[tyampel]

Congratulations. Well done.

[DrDave]

Can someone smarter than me tell me how to check the voltage with a multimeter before I hook mine up? Just need to double check which wire is hot, and where it goes on the fake battery.
I don't want to short out the camera.

[tyampel]

Can someone smarter than me tell me how to check the voltage with a multimeter before I hook mine up? Just need to double check which wire is hot, and where it goes on the fake battery.
I don't want to short out the camera.

The adapter (or the external battery) is providing DC voltage, so we are not talking about "hot" wires here.
Set up the voltmeter to measure DC voltage in the range of 15 or 25 volts. %0 will also do. Connect the black wire to the common/minus terminal and the red one to to the plus.
The meter should show the same polarity when measuring the battery as when measuring the adapter.

The plus terminal o the battery (and the adapter) is closer to the middle, the negative one is near the edge.
I hope this is helpful.

[DrDave]

Thanks!

[qap15]

Experience with the external battery solution was not very positive, everything worked well in the beginning, Then came the first problem which was a strange sound coming from the 14-140 lens, it was so loud that you could not miss it, when i changed the lens to the 20mm 1.7 the sound was gone except the usual 20mm 1.7 sound. A further test with a Canon FD lens, no sound at all from the lens. Suddenly i get this error "This battery cannot be used" despite the fact that the battery is fully charged.

[tyampel]

Experience with the external battery solution was not very positive, everything worked well in the beginning, Then came the first problem which was a strange sound coming from the 14-140 lens, it was so loud that you could not miss it, when i changed the lens to the 20mm 1.7 the sound was gone except the usual 20mm 1.7 sound. A further test with a Canon FD lens, no sound at all from the lens. Suddenly i get this error "This battery cannot be used" despite the fact that the battery is fully charged.

The message means that the battery's voltage is too low. Contrary to the popular beliefs the external voltage is supposed to be 9.3V not 8.4. I checked the adapter for the GH1 and it states that the charging (this one is also used for charging) voltage is 8.4 but the external voltage to the camera is 9.3. Most of the batteries rated at 8.4V actually deliver more so they seem to work.
Try feeding the camera with 8 NiMH cells or 6 alkaline cells and you will see the positive results.
I bought two 4-cell battery holders from Radio Shack, connected them serially to an "C" type Adaptaplug adapter and it works fine.

Good luck.

[g.l]

Nice work keylight. Here in the UK Panny don't even sell the coupler (or AC adapter) at all - can you believe it? So I might do the same, though I'll probably use Polymorph (a plastic that goes soft in hot water).

[mslade]

Well I tried to make one. No joy. I'm feeding it 9.3 volts....but I get the dreaded this battery can not be used. So after exhausting all possibilities I began to wonder about the 2 contacts in the middle of the battery....between the + and -. So I taped off the 2 middle contacts on the battery, put it in , and got this battery can not be used. Soooooooo, I'm thinkin Panny did something and the camera is looking for something across those 2 contacts. Interestingly....those 2 contacts seem to be negative polarity as they read 7.9 volts when measured across the + terminal.
Anyone want to tear their dc adapter open and see if there's anything wired to those 2 middle contacts??!!
Mark

BTW...my cam is new WE1CA001296