DIY Camera DC Coupler and Power Supply - Battery Eliminator

[@tw1919]

Tried this, but only have a pipe wrench.

[@prateekbhardwaj9943]

using old dead battery for the case which is easily available at market cheap , is simple option

[@PICTUREREAL]

Damn. I was buy wrong dc coupler..and just to see this briliant tutorial...you are great man...thanks

[@valecillosjg]

Kudos for the video. It is a really good DIY project. Awesome research and construction. You also explained everything really well.

[@artemorbid]

Excellent tutorial, you need more views and get this info to other people.

[@newdadz]

that is some damn awesome content, love the means you use and the methodology you have to explain. I have bought some 3rd party batteries for my sony A7ii and since one of them has died, wanted to have a look if it is feasible for me to open it (safely) and rewire it to a usb powerbank (with the correct coupler obviously). I will see first if I can revive it then option 2 will be pretty much following your video. Thanks thanks and again thanks! You got a new subscriber.

[@laurenternstlouissaint7566]

I have the same camera, same problem, and I dont have 3D printer. but Ill do it anyway. I love smart people.

[@dmueller1875]

Thanks Jose'! Excellent video, If I knew how to make boards or the gear to do so, this would have been perfect to get me started. I really appreciate the high quality vid.

[@powerbatterychannel4315]

Great idea, but I would suggest to use the connector with thread like Sennheiser lavalier mic one to prevent disconnection in case of some improper movement.

[@jfaria]

Not a bad idea, I wonder if the additional thread fits in the hole on the battery cover.

[@powerbatterychannel4315]

@@jfaria Yes, it should be checked.

[@computerjantje]

What a great video. Thank you very much

[@NUTNBOLTvlog]

you are a genius sir, I appreciate you.

[@markgilder7757]

Thanks Jose. I made a power box for my Panasonic FZ1000 using NP-F batteries but couldn't understand why the camera showed "Couldn't use battery" although the battery was almost fully charged. Will try this. Thanks for making a great video.

[@hever9]

I had same problem when using dummy battery for Panasonic GX800, I had to connect "T" terminal and "-" terminal directly or put there 10k resistor see pic (better option is to open it and do it from inside) cdn.thingiverse.com/renders/2c/6f/bc/7a/71/44d66ccffe0a7e9d351231e5cf418cca_display_large.jpg edit: new link

[@CTZN1]

@@hever9 link cannot opened :/

[@SuperCinemaCraft]

Awesome content!

[@mixme8655]

what a great idea sir you are the man

[@penkatadrums]

This is not a DIY video, this is How to manufacture a battery from scratch...

[@jfaria]

I did it myself :P

[@penkatadrums]

@@jfaria Yea Inside a battery factory :))) where you are probably the owner ;)

[@Kumodot]

It s DIY battery Coupler. Jose was very kind to share it. I was looking for one to my camera, and this saved me at least $25 ! And it's a fun project to do. :)

[@MrFox2929]

Hola Jose puedes explicar lo de las resistencias Porque se deben utilizar Porque quiero aplicarlo a una batería de 2 cables a una tablet que tiene 4 entradas bueno gracias

[@jfaria]

[Google Translate] Las baterías suelen tener un contacto de comunicación digital con el controlador para conocer el estado de carga y salud de la batería y un contacto para un sensor de temperatura, en el caso de esta batería la comunicación es opcional, pero la cámara requiere una señal de temperatura, la resistencia sirve para simular una sensor de temperatura. Primero intente conectar solo el positivo y el negativo, si el equipo no funciona, luego intente buscar las señales que el equipo espera de la batería.

[@MrFox2929]

@@jfaria gracias José por la respuesta saludos desde chile

[@mangelozzi]

Great video! What is that clear yellow tape called, and where does one buy it?

[@jfaria]

It's Polyimide film tape, also known by the commercial name "kapton". You can buy it on proper electronics distributors or you can be cheap like me and buy it from china on eBay or Aliexpress. It's kind of stiff, but it is able to withstand a lot of heat without melting.

[@aprogress2374]

hi, I have Finepix HS10 and want to increase battery capacity for long usage (say 12 hours without stopping). The camera says 5v 7w, I plan to use a mobile powerbank which produces 5v 2ampere, do I have to use dc-dc step up or just supply power directly to the camera? what do you think, is the powerbank output safe for my camera?

[@jfaria]

If you mean connect it to the USB port of the camera, it should be safe. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe my Panasonic camera doesn't allow me to charge from USB and record at the same time, maybe Fuji allows you to do that.

[@aprogress2374]

@@jfaria HS10 does not have a USB power connection. so I made a dummy battery. so the power will go through the battery compartment. (this series uses 4 AA batteries)

[@Metal2Mesh]

Hi Jose, I am trying to fool my wifi hotspot to think there is a battery in it and hard wired to my car (12vdc) . The battery is 3.8vdc 2550mAh and has 3 terminals (+ - and I believe temp at 1k). I tried a step down dc to 3.8vdc, I get a welcome screen then cuts out. Do you have any info that could tell me what resistor or a way to wire it so that the hotspot thinks there is a battery? I am not too savvy on electronics but use to be a Toyota Mechanic. I believe I need lower the amps, and not sure how, was impressed with your skills and thought if I could ask is there was anything I could do. Thank you if you can help.

[@jfaria]

Hi, I'm not sure the problem in that case is the lack of the resistor, to be sure put a bit of tape in the resistor pad of the battery and check if it works, if it does the problem is likely on your dc converter that doesn't supply enough current.

[@Maszim]

Thank you

[@yakine13]

Thanks, you're awesome, I'm planning to just 3d print the case and use a LM2596 booster from 5v to 8v, do you think it'll work? Thank you

[@jfaria]

You probably could get away with 2A, so the 3A from that regulator should be plenty. At the moment I'm just using two large lithium cells in series, works like a charm.

[@yakine13]

@@jfaria i was planning to purchase those 15$ kit and then I thought "hey I have a 3d printer, I can just 3d print the battery and power it through a voltage converter" And then I searched on KZbin and find your perfect video. Project as simple as that are just incredibly satisfying. Keep up the good work and thx for confirming that this work.

[@jfaria]

@@yakine13 The only tricky part is the battery contacts, have fun.

[@StringsnNotes]

Which printing method did you use? The ones near me, only print in FDM. Not sure if that is sturdy enough to use

[@jfaria]

FDM/FFF, PLA can be incredibly tough at low temperatures, above 40 or 50 °C I use ABS.

[@StringsnNotes]

@@jfaria so Can I go ahead with PLA? But he said PLA + 100% Infill but that won't serve my purpose. I was looking at SLA, there's one near my house who does that

[@jfaria]

​@@StringsnNotes I don't know what your purpose is, but for something like the adapter in this video, pretty much anything will work, the camera should not get hot enough for PLA to melt and there are no mechanical stresses worthy of note.

[@jfaria]

@@StringsnNotes Are you talking about an adapter similar to this video? If so PLA is fine and you don't need 100% infill, regular pattern infill is also fine.

[@detlefengel3947]

Obrigado, great video, lots of knowledge shared! But there is me now, with a question :-) Using a Lumix mostly for *filming*, and already having a battery dummy and a DC supply, I wonder ... what about the noise? Have you done any testing already? Not speaking of any particular camera brand or model, but in general. When I compare filming on battery with filming on external DC supply, I can hear the typical 100 Hz noise in my video. It is very weak, yes. But still. The DC supply that you are showing in this video, how about that? If you just video-tape "silence", can you hear the difference between a true battery and your DC supply? How "DC" is your DC? Obrigado again! :-)

[@jfaria]

I might try it when I have the time. If I do I'll reply here.

[@detlefengel3947]

Thank you. Tic tac tic tac ... :-)

[@maxiguitar]

Hi, I have soldered a 10k resistor from the negative to the T, but my camera still says "change the battery" and it appears empty. help me pls

[@jfaria]

What camera is it? Maybe yours needs to communicate with an additional IC? Did you check the original to make sure it was 10k and not some other value, like 100k?

[@maxiguitar]

@@jfaria what's mean IC? It's Canon 550D, lp e8 battery. I dnt have tools to check the original resistor, is in a integrated chip.

[@jfaria]

@@maxiguitar I had a 550D and if I recall correctly the camera doesn't care about the battery IC as long as the resistor is right. You probably have the wrong resistor. Ideally you should measure the original value, if you can't do that just try other resistor values until it works. I would suggest you try 47k and 100k first.

[@maxiguitar]

@@jfaria ok, I'll try. Ty very much, josé!

[@habitante19]

Hey! I've seen many videos like this. My camera "turns on" but says "Change battery". I saw your video and I added the 10k resistor, but the problem continues. Any idea?

[@jfaria]

Hi, what camera are you using? Are you sure the original battery uses a 10k resistor and not some other value, like 100k? Bear in mind that some manufacturers require an ID chip, you have to do something more sneaky, like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/foDQZWyiepmeba8

[@habitante19]

@@jfaria Sorry for the late response. I got it to work at the end. The power source I was using dropped it's voltage a lot, so the camera (T3i) detected it as a REALLY low battery. I changed the power adapter and now it still drops it's voltage, but stays at about 5/6V, so the camera shows a half-way charged battery.

[@CTZN1]

Why don't just buy step-down DC buck module? So any 12V 1A power supplies to 8V output then wire it to dummy?

[@jfaria]

You can, but it would also take time and a good one that would guarantee a safe failure (i.e. not outputting 12V after failing) would cost as much as a proper power supply and defeat the purpose of the exercise. If you want it fast, you can just buy the original DC coupler and be done with it.

[@CTZN1]

@@jfaria whoa. I didn't factor the failure. So it's safer to use step up than step-down? So in case of failure, the voltage will be too low to operate, yes?

[@jfaria]

@@CTZN1 If you don't have any other safety feature that might be a good idea. At the moment I don't use any regulator, instead I'm using the same DC coupler but powered by a big a two cell 5Ah external Li-po battery, it lasts a really long time, I already had a charger for it from my RC plane stuff and I don't have to worry about damage to the camera.

[@CTZN1]

@@jfaria the DC coupler connected to rc batteries? Didn't know that.. I thought DC coupler are like AC to DC adaptors but the head is battery dummy.

[@jfaria]

@@CTZN1 I call the dummy the coupler, maybe that's the wrong nomenclature, I just connect the dummy to a 7.4V battery pack.

[@BudikaRabbani]

i want to ask you a question but i see you not reply all your comment

[@jfaria]

I reply to most

[@BudikaRabbani]

@@jfaria many thanks for reply. I just bought dc Coupler. I try to test output and compare between from original battery and coupler. Battery 8volt and coupler 8.7volt. I think its will make risk for the camera for long use. How about you Sir? Thanks before. I am from Indonesia 🌎🇮🇩

[@jfaria]

@@BudikaRabbani When the battery is charging it goes up to 8,4V. 8,7V is less than 5% above the 8,4V value, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Also, when you connect the camera there will be a slight voltage reduction caused by the cable resistance, it will get even closer to the value of a full battery. I would also prefer if it was closer to 8V, but it should be fine.

[@BudikaRabbani]

@@jfaria I asked my friend in youtube with the same thing and he frightened me with what he said about the crust that would arise on the circuit board on the camera. But I think the makers of this coupler have made the right calculation for their products. Thank you very much for your answer.

[@jfaria]

@@BudikaRabbani There is no corrosion on the circuit board whatever the voltage you apply, higher voltages than normal cause components to fail, but devices are usually designed to handle at least +-10% of the rated voltage, your AC-DC adapter is only 3 or 4% above. Not ideal but you will probably be fine.

[@artytaylor9842]

Thankyou, SO much!!!!

[@JohnnyFaber]

Awesome!

[@sauravmodak2365]

Can we connect 8.5v dc directly to battery protection circuit by deassambling a working battery?

[@jfaria]

Yes, but in many cameras you still need to make sure you leave a resistor to simulate the temperature sensor. Also, 8.5V might be a bit on the high side, on a camera with batteries rated at 7.4V I would make sure the power adapter wouldn't go above 8.4V.

[@volodumurkalunyak4651]

@@jfaria panasonic cameras do take >8.4V (official mains adapters supply 8.6-8.8V) as a signal beeing powered from mains, not battery. If you'r camera is not a panasonic one, that might not be the case. I would recommend checking official mains adapter for you'r camera and stick to whatever it supplies camera with.

[@jfaria]

@@volodumurkalunyak4651 To be sure you can always check the original battery, they pretty much always have the nominal voltage printed.

[@volodumurkalunyak4651]

@@jfaria you can't just check battery voltage. Panasonic mains adapters supply more (8.6-8.8V) than battery is capable of (8.4V). Furthermore cameras are also designes to powered like that with higher voltage also beeing a signal for mains power. Hence you need (just look at) mains adapter specifications to design you'r own.

[@jfaria]

​@@volodumurkalunyak4651 That is not accurate in my experience, usually DC supplies for DC couplers are close to the maximum voltage of the battery, probably to make DC-DC converters more efficient and charging flashes quicker. Panasonic's DC supply for the Lumix series is 8.4V (DMW-AC10, 4.2V x 2 cells). The same goes for Canon's EOS Series, 8.4V DC for cameras with 2 cell batteries (the newer ones appear to be even lower, like the AC-E6N at 8.0V) and 12.6V for 3 cell batteries like the newer 1D series. Olympus use 9V because they don't rely on a DC coupler, they use the camera grip and the 9V are used to charge the grip battery, not to power the camera directly. I *definitely* wouldn't connect a DC supply with a higher voltage than the maximum battery voltage for that system unless otherwise instructed by the manufacturer.

[@imhard2please503]

No# 1 Dad

[@aprogress2374]

hi, i want to ask. what is the name of the circuit you use to supply the power? is it ac to dc? or dc to dc step up?

[@jfaria]

In that video, it's a dc-dc. Right now I still use the plastic DC coupler, however, instead of the AC adapter I just use a 5Ah 7,4V RC battery, it lasts several hours and it's very portable.

[@aprogress2374]

@@jfaria how many amps the step-up dc-dc circuit can output? does it adjust camera needs automatically?

[@aprogress2374]

@@jfaria oh yeah, speaking of dc step up, does this circuit cause static noise in voice recording when recording video. because I once got noise when using ac dc adapter to power my microphone. (condenser microphone for laptop)

[@jfaria]

Depends on the AC to DC converter, I used an original HP power supply adapter and there was no noise, now that I use an external battery I don't worry about anything anymore.

[@aprogress2374]

@@jfaria thanks for sharing this, now I'm making an external battery for my camera, with a power bank module, maybe if the power bank isn't enough for my camera's written needs (5v 7watt), I'll use a dc-dc step up. my plan is to make an external battery pack which also becomes a battery grip (like nikon and canon).

[@josephbohme7917]

GREAT INFO- BUT OVER MY SKILLS- video was 18 minutes with lots of other mfg processes assumed So 2 hits make me want to buy an adapter SO are you making these for Sony NP-fw50 owners? $$

[@jfaria]

I only make them as a hobby, but you can probably easily find them online for your camera system. You can always buy a cheap dummy and then buy a good quality 8v power supply. Check out low cost adapters: www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=NP-FW50+dummy

[@EdEditz]

This doesn't work for the GH2 alas.

[@jfaria]

There's always the Chinese adapters: www.aliexpress.com/item/32479399850.html?productId=32479399850

[@Rahulsharma-fv7pr]

Nice

[@mixme8655]

Thank you Sir this is very helpful

[@rafaeldias8077]

tu é brasileiro?

[@jfaria]

Português :)

[@Kombi-1]

ah