does this exist? if not can it?

T

teuron

Active member
since the number of quality cameras charged by AA batteries is quickly diminishing,
im looking for a way to charge a proprietary (lithium) camera battery remotely. (with AA batteries) so that i can still use my camera when on long trips in remote areas

is this possible?
does such a device exist? or can it be made?

this way if i buy two camera batteries, one can be used while the other is being charged by the AA charger?
 
For which camera? There are a few power options that have variable voltage settings that are still rechargeable. And, worst comes to worst, you can always go to radioshack and get some battery enclosures, mess around with connecting that to the camera...
 
i dont want to charge the battery through the camera (as in creating an external battery), rather i want to charge just the battery.
i found something like this:
http://www.boxwave.com/products/batteryadapter/
and it seems like if the camera ships (or if it can be bought seperately) with a usb battery charger then it could be done (exceot im not sure if the voltage/amperage would be enough to charge the lithium battery)
 
Why not simply buy a bunch of cheap OEM batteries on eBay?

An alternative is to modify a solar battery charger.
 
As you have discovered there are SOME portable "rechargers" available, but they tend to be designed for very wide mass-market devices (like iPod and the new cell-phone "standard" micro USB).

It seems ulikely that there will ever be such devices for camcorder batteries for two reasons:

1) Because the market is only a tiny fraction of the size, primarily because there are scores (hundreds?) of different kinds of camcorder batteries. Likely nobody would bother to design, manufacture and market such a device because they couldn't sell it for a reasonable price.

2) Camcorder batteries have rather high capacity, and it would take a double-handful of AA cells to recharge one.

There is no technical reason you couldn't create such a circuit/device. But it doesn't seem commercially viable, and maybe not even mechanically efficient.

When I had exactly the same issue when I went to Africa, I created a home-made "battery belt" using D-cells. I used a cord that plugged into the power connector on my camcorder.
 
this would be pretty easy, I'm assuming your camera can be used while plugged into ac power, via an acdc adapter. I've not seen a video camera that can't. most of them I've seen are in two parts, the actual adapter that plugs into the wall and the cord that either plugs into the camera, or has a battery shaped plug on the end. either way it doesn't matter, what you need to do is find the out voltage on the ac adapter. then you need 6 items, a battery case, (radio shack, 1 to 5 bucks) a voltage regulator internet, radio shack, frys, again 1 to 5 bucks. a capacitor, with the same voltage at the ac adapter plus 2 to 3 volts this is optional, but I'd use it (1 to 3 bucks, a plug that your to camera cord will fit in 1 to 4 bucks. and a small housing 5 bucks.

battery case goes to capacitor/s, cap/s go to regulator, regulator goes to plug, plug goes to camera. and you have AA c cell d cell, what ever power supply for your camera.
 
oh two more thing, a power switch between the batteries and the cap/s if you use cap/s you may also want a resister after the cap/s to drain it off if you kill the camera power before turning off the batteries. again, these are only needed if you're using cap/s. power from batteries is smooth enough though that while cap/s would make it a little more efficient, it isn't required as it would be during current conversion, all you're doing is voltage regulation, simple stuff.
 
You don't really even need to regulate the external power supply. The (unidentified?) camcorder was likely designed to operate on a range of voltages expected from battery packs of varying ages and levels of charge. Just keep adding enough 1.5V cells (or 1.2V or whatever chemistry you are using) until you get the approximate voltage of the original camcorder battery pack. Note that D cells (or even C cells) will last much longer than AA cells.
 
Jason Miller said:
it's possible, but with a VR and a cap it's going to be a much more reliable power source.
Click to expand...

Anything with MORE parts is less reliable. Consider also that unless you know exactly where the low-voltage threshold is on the camcorder internal power supply, you are throwing away some of your battery capacity by trying to "pre-regulate" it.
 
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i dont have any specific camera that im trying to build/buy this for.
i am simply looking to broaden my options as to what will be my next camera because the ones that come out with AA are usually subpar.
i need a solution (travel camera) that will let me record video for extended periods of time without needing to plug in anywhere (say in the jungle for a month)
if i could find something like the panasonic lz7 (what i currently use) but with 720p video recording capability then that would be great however almost all the cameras that come out these days are prorpriety lithium which is a crippling obstacle if out in the field for a long period of time.
if i could find a way to charge the propriety batteries then tht would open a huge selection of cameras that i could look at

thanx for the responses above
 
Power is power. Any camera with an external power input (or an adapter that plugs in to impersonate the battery pack) can be powered with simple primary (non-rechargable) batteries. No camera REQUIRES LiOn or any other type of battery.
 
what you build is dependent on the camera you own, but the idea is the same, AA batteries are 1.5 v each, your camera will probably be between 6 and 14v, connect them in series to reach the volts you want.

a better bet would be 9v batteries if the camera is in the 9v or less range, connect multiples in parallel to increase the amps (remain 9v) , then to an on/off switch, then to a cap, then a resister in parallel to the cap, then to a voltage regulator that matches your camera's voltage, then to a female plug, then to the camera.

the more amps you have availible the longer the batteries will last. it depends on your camera's amp hour rating.
 
9V batteries are poor value in terms of power per price.

Furthermore NEVER parallel ANY KIND of batteries without some kind of current-equalizing method. It destroys batteries at best, and can cause dangerous overheating and even explosion. I'm sure Mr. Miller means well, but do your own research if you don't believe me.

Mr. Miller is correct about capacity. The larger (physical size and power capacity) the batteries, the longer the device will operate. His fascination with regulators for batteries is completely baffling. There are no commercial examples of this practice.
 
Richard you're wrong again, I parallel 9v batteries often and have never had a problem. yes they get a little warm, but thats what heat sinks are for, it you have a cap and a vr you need them anyway.





as for why you need a VR, its simple, the chances of using a standard battery that actually matched the voltage of the camera is slim, to you need a battery with higher voltage, which you then regulate down. further more the use of capasitors, smooths out the voltage

You will need to parallel the 9v, to get the needed amps. You will need 9v or higher the only other option to get the needed volts and amps is to parallel battery sets that are in series. but this makes it much more complicated.
 
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