extended power supply (one month)

I

idylwyld

Member
i'm surprised this question has not come up yet, but i've searched the postings and have not found anything.

i'm going to be a month in the wilderness with a DVX100 (not very warm and cuddly). i'd like to shoot between 30 and 40 hours of footage. Any suggestions for the best way to power the camera. Remember ... light and lean is helpful.

- solar chargers (does anybody have experience with these?)
- belt packs (are there any that work well with the DVX100 ... i'd like to use them to charge the battery rather than power the camera). how exactly is this to be done (i am not very versed in volts, amps, or watts as important considerations).
- while expensive I can always take 7 or 8 high capacity camera batteries with me (this is well detailed in these forums). but this is less than ideal.

my ideal solution would be 2-3 camera batteries and a solar charger. Powerfilm Inc. has the most robust charger i can find ($650 for a 1.5 amp, 15.4 volt, 30 watt charger ... but the energy numbers don't have any meaning to me). they also have a charger with twice the capacity (but this is beyond my price range).

i know there are others out there with the same question, and the technology keeps improving. any help from people who have tried any of these solutions?

thanks.
 
Your mentioned cost for that solar charger is equal to about 6 to 8 HIGH capacity batteries, so that's something to consider.

Maybe this is something that might work (not out yet, but they have a smaller brother also):
http://www.aladdinpower.com/apStepCharger.html

Otherwise a solar charger will do fine. Keep in mind that they require SUNLIGHT, eben a cloudy day yield poor results (compared to their rated capacity).
Also note that you will need a GOOD regulator or kit to make the solar charger work. Their output is all over the place, so that "juice" needs to be stored/conditioned to a more managable power before you can attempt to charge a dvx battery.
 
Solar day pack

Solar day pack

Last year at the SF Green Festival there was an outfit selling a Solar day pack, simular to this from Voltaic systems. The nice thing about this is that the output
is a female car "cigarette" fitting, so any male 12 volt recharging cables that you have cell phone, etc. will work. The guy there said at that time it was NOT powerful enough to recharge a laptop battery.
 
idylwyld said:
i'm surprised this question has not come up yet, but i've searched the postings and have not found anything.

i'm going to be a month in the wilderness with a DVX100 (not very warm and cuddly). i'd like to shoot between 30 and 40 hours of footage. Any suggestions for the best way to power the camera. Remember ... light and lean is helpful.

- solar chargers (does anybody have experience with these?)
- belt packs (are there any that work well with the DVX100 ... i'd like to use them to charge the battery rather than power the camera). how exactly is this to be done (i am not very versed in volts, amps, or watts as important considerations).
- while expensive I can always take 7 or 8 high capacity camera batteries with me (this is well detailed in these forums). but this is less than ideal.

my ideal solution would be 2-3 camera batteries and a solar charger. Powerfilm Inc. has the most robust charger i can find ($650 for a 1.5 amp, 15.4 volt, 30 watt charger ... but the energy numbers don't have any meaning to me). they also have a charger with twice the capacity (but this is beyond my price range).

i know there are others out there with the same question, and the technology keeps improving. any help from people who have tried any of these solutions?

thanks.
Click to expand...
The 12V or 14V beltpacks in general are the largest energy storage devices (visit Bescor for info) but they are very heavy. You could quickly charge 4 DVX batteries on our charger as it accepts 12-14V in. Still, it is not a very good solution as the packs are heavy, and also would not hold charge well in cold weather. If you had periodic access to 12V car power, things would work out much better...
 
Honda makes a very tiny gas generator that is light and will run for ever on a gallon of gas. Liquid is heavy if your walking in but if your droped off then this might be the answer. then you can charge 2 or 4 at a time.
 
follow-up

follow-up

Thanks for your feedback. This has been very helpful so far (particularly the link to the Dolgin Engineering charger). We are traveling by canoe, so it is possible to bring a little extra weight. We are trying to stay under 20 lbs on batteries, power generating equipment, etc. But I’d also like to try and brainstorm some options that would be useful to other people in different kinds of circumstances (where power is not readily available).

I don’t think the “many camera battery” solution works too well … will the batteries loose their charge over time in a climate that alternates between hot and cold? I will be filming for over a month. The batteries will probably loose some charge sitting idle for several weeks.

Solar is also not proving very workable. 10 hours to charge for an hour or so of battery life, voltage issues, and less than optimal sun conditions (the sun is not very strong in the arctic).

A gas generator is great if weight is not an issue. Many film crews use generators in these circumstances, and they bring lots of gas. But the crucial word here is “film crew.” They have budgets to fly equipment around, have personnel for lugging and setting up equipment, etc. The smallest Honda generator is 29 lbs dry, and this stretches the limit of a precarious crew of 2 managing both safety, weight, and video making concerns.

I think the battery packs option may be the most cost effective and practical solution: but there are still issues about different kinds of connections, chargers, types of battery pack (starved electrolyte, NiCad), reliability of equipment, and what works best with a DVX100. How to get the most out of what little charge you start out with? The best recommendation is from people who have tried out different approaches and products.

Here’s a link to one of the newer technologies (hydrogen fuel cells for video makers):

https://jadoopower.com/
 
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The hydrogen cells are nifty, but I think they also won't work: your "problem" is that you have no source to CHARGE any batteries that you bring along; the hydrogen ones also require power to recharge the cells, no?

If you REALLY want to be autonomous, you WILL have to find a way to GENERATE power. Other options would be WIND, but my guess is you will find yourself under cover of vegetation most of the time, or in transit, so that would be out.

I do really think a step-generator might be your best bet; even if just as a backup. Here's another one:

http://store.preparedness.com/frfrfowepoge.html

better link:
http://www.freeplayenergy.com/index.php?section=products&subsection=freechargeportable
 
response to questions

response to questions

JwrFord said:
What stored energy are you taking as of now for cooking heating etc etc
Click to expand...
We’re using white gas. A gallon lasts about a month with a single MSR Dragonfly stove. This trip is also in the tundra, so no trees. Places a higher burden on cooking equipment. Lots of wind.

vidled said:
I do really think a step-generator might be your best bet; even if just as a backup.
Click to expand...
Yes, I am very interested in the FreeCharge Weza. It’s main use seems to be jumpstarting a car when the battery has died. I’m going to do more research on this product. A DVX100b has about the same energy requirements as a DVD player (10 watts or less … so says the Panasonic spec. sheet), and the product page lists a 2:1 ratio for such a device (five minutes of stepping for 10 minutes of power). A five hour DVX battery would thus take 2.5 hours to charge. Not the best option (but perhaps my calculations are off … I’ll try and get better information). At 17.75 lbs. it’s right where I’d like it to be.

I’m currently doing a crash course on batteries and chargers. I found the “The Video Battery Handbook” by Anton Bauer to be an invaluable resource.

http://www.antonbauer.com/selecting_batteries.htm

I highly recommend others studying this manual. It helps you avoid falling into a mismatch voltage and charging trap (which is sometimes inadvertently attributed to a “memory” issue), and thus helps to get the most out of batteries. It also sounds like batteries are extremely fragile (more than I had previously understood). I will be taking MUCH better care of my batteries as a result.
 
idylwyld said:
Lots of wind.
Click to expand...

Might want to look into a small wind turbine then.

Also, re: batteries/charging: that AB handbook concentrates mostly on 'older' battery technology, like NiCD and NiMH.

The batteries you are looking at getting are Li-Ion (the DVX/HVX ones are), and they don't have memory effect for instance, and their chemistry is COMPLETELY different to NiCD, different charging, etc.
 
more options

more options

i’d also like to add Anton Bauer to the list. i just got off the phone with them, and they are on the verge of releasing the ElipZ, a 10500mah battery.

http://www.antonbauer.com/elipz.htm

it sounds pretty cool. they describe it as a true all day battery. list pricing (i am told) is around $300 for battery and charger, and $195 for battery. this compares very well to other reliable batteries in the equivalent capacity to price range.

vidled said:
Might want to look into a small wind turbine then.
Click to expand...
if you know of a small (under 20-30 lbs) portable wind turbine generator, please provide me with the link. i wasn’t able to find anything myself searching on the web.

thanks.
 
idylwyld said:
i wasn’t able to find anything myself searching on the web.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was unsuccessful too, in my limited searching. It's got to be out there though, no? I'd thought it would definitely be feasable, and something light-weight should be available...
 
Has anybody tried these products for charging DVX batteries via solar and sealed lead acid battery pack? It's not the most efficient option, but it might work for extended periods of time away from a power source (and for limited shooting of 1-2 hours/day).

solar%282%29.gif


PowerFilm 10 or 20 watt solar roll:
Operating voltage 15.4V
operating current .6 Amps
1 lbs

solar.jpeg


Xantrex PowerPack 20 Plus Portable Power Supply
Runs 115-volt AC or 12-volt DC products
Built-in 200 watt inverter
Slealed, non-spillable 12 amp-hour AGM battery
12 lbs

solar%283%29.jpg


Brunton Solar Controller
Prevents overcharging 12 volt batteries
maintains battery in fully charged state
14.2 V Cut-Out, 13 V Cut-In
4.2 oz

And the Panasonic DC power charger for the 5 hour Lithium Ion DVX batteries, or Quad charger by Dolgin.
 
I also looked at the solar chargers, but decided against them because of the length of charging time and the fact that you have to buy the converter and a seperate battery, then the DVX batteries are charged from that other one. As pictured above... I'm not sure if tehre is a way to charge the DVX batteries directly from the solar panel.

My best bet was to buy a couple of DVXuser batteries, these batteries last quite a bit, 2,3 days depending how much you shoot etc... and a small car power inverter. Not sure if you mentioned weather a car would be available, but its the best portable power generator around...
 
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