My 7d battery solution.

F

floop

Active member
Nothing too fancy. I was inspired by some talk at dvinfo and soldered this up. I chose mini-xlr cause it was a small, locking connector that also looked kinda sexy. hehe. Also, the tekkeon uses 3 wires to sense when you have removed a tip, so i wired up all three in the mini-xlr and shorted the indicator wire on the canon-battery side so the tekkeon battery can sense if you detach the mini-xlr.

In most of the pictures i just have the single tekkeon 3450 attached. On the shoulder mount, i have the 3450 with the 3450-10 additional battery clipped on, which doubles the life of the 3450.

I know there are other battery options, especially the one for d-taps, but I liked mine better since... well, since I'm cheap. For the price of the d-tap adapter i was able to buy the mini-xlr and the tekkeon battery (with charger!!). Being able to specify the output voltage of the 3450 makes it so useful.

I haven't done a proper "test". I did a couple hours video shooting with the tekkeon powering the 7d and only lost one "bar" on the tekkeon, so that would imply something crazy like 16-18 hours shooting time on a charge. (thats a wild guess, btw. more accurate info eventually)

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/attachment.php?attachmentid=16759&stc=1&d=1270563412

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/attachment.php?attachmentid=16760&stc=1&d=1270563412

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/attachment.php?attachmentid=16761&stc=1&d=1270563412

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/attachment.php?attachmentid=16762&stc=1&d=1270563412
 

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Thats really awesome! So what was roughly the grand total for everything? I was thinking about getting the VMount solution, but realized it was going to be like $700 with battery.
 
Hey, glad I helped somebody.

I bought the 3450 and 3450-10 as a bundle for like $190 (no longer available from where I got it). Then, i bought a dr-e6 "dummy battery" from b&h for $40. Then the xlr connectors for $13 for the pair from a local electronics shop. So, for the full battery, charger, release and "dummy battery" i guess i spent around $240. You don't *have* to have the 3450-10, so that $120 3450 + dr-e6 would work for around $170. (you can always add the 3450-10 later)

If you want it to work exactly like mine, you sacrifice the 3450 dc cable to make the rig. You could also connect the battery to the tekkeon by connecting an inline dc female jack to the battery side and use one of the tekkeon's tips. I opted for the mini-xlr solution because i wanted something that locked in place and had no chance of coming loose while shooting.

I didn't do anything terribly creative here. The dummy battery is a simple 2 wire "7.4v" dc connection to the camera. There are heaps of other ways you could run it off battery besides mine... and heaps of other batteries.... i just thought the 3450 was a good battery + regulated power source for a great price. I also like the tekkeons because you can charge them up with just about any laptop power adapter (even a solar charger!), and you can dial in the voltage.

And of course, the price. That too. heh.

Also worth noting, you can buy the canon ACK-E6AC kit for around $130, which includes the dr-e6 as well as an a/c power supply. If you made a second quick release for the weirdo plug that the dr-e6 comes with, you would have the option of powering off battery *or* a/c if that was ever useful to you if you were shooting multicam or sports from a platform or something. The a/c option would cost you an extra $90 over the price of just the dr-e6.

hope that helped!
 
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If i was doing it again, (and i probably will), i would buy the 3450i instead.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...P3450I_myPower_ALL_Plus_MP3450i.html#features

Its like $40 more expensive, but you set the voltage with dip switches. I plan to mostly dedicate one tekkeon to the 7d, so i'd rather it be foolproof and always produce 7.5v rather than needing to set it each time i power up the tekkeon. I'd still have the option to change voltages around, but low odds of accidently changing.

just a thought.

meh. lame. I just noticed that the 3450i doesn't come with an a/c adapter, where the 3450 does. Its not really a "charger" since the charging circuitry is built into the battery, but still. If you dont have an old 12-19v dc adapter lying around from a laptop or something, its an extra expense.
 
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