Substituting alkaline for ni-mh in Digital Camera

Dec 20, 2007 5 Replies
T

My camera normally takes a 6v .6ah ni-mh battery. I've been able to rig-up and power the camera from a 5v 1.5a wall wart, but whenever I try powering from a pack of alkalines I get the low battery error.



The batteries all meter out to at least 1.3v, I've tried 4 d cells, 4 aa cells, and 5 aa cells, which came closest to working (the zoom lens pops out, but then the camera shuts down with same low battery error). I'd like to use these batteries as I dumpster dive a lot of them. Is there any trick to this?


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S

Dumpster dive? I bought a box of 100 AA alkalines at Fry's last summer for $10. They are actually on a par with Evereadys, Rayo-O-Vacs and Duracells.

BTW, older digital cameras are power hogs and will not run on alkalines at all. Ou\\r old Kodak DC-3400 needs 1.8 amps which alkalines simply won't do. It chews through NiMH in 45 minutes or less. The newest Canon runs 5 times longer.

GG

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J

Nope. If the camera works on 5V you just have to make sure that the cells you use come up to at least 1.25V _under load_. Alkalines are generally considered "kaput" when they fall to 1.0V under load. The cells you\'re finding, dumpster diving, have surely been depleted and, even though they may measure 1.3V or so, open circuit, when you try to take any current out of them their impedance will be so high that their terminal voltage will fall to well below 1.25V. Why not go to
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J

Nope. If the camera works on 5V you just have to make sure that the cells you use come up to at least 1.25V _under load_. Alkalines are generally considered "kaput" when they fall to 1.0V under load. The cells you\'re finding, dumpster diving, have surely been depleted and, even though they may measure 1.3V or so, open circuit, when you try to take any current out of them their impedance will be so high that their terminal voltage will fall to well below 1.25V. Why not go to
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M

You could also put the batteries together in series and parallel to get the voltage requirements you want, wrap it in tape b/c if you wrap enough of them could last a very long time. Then just plug it into the power adapter port. The dashes - and horizontal bar | represent wires... and the = and - > represent wires and connector. ............ infinity |-1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 -| |-1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 -| |-1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 -| |-1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 -| |-1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 -| |-1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 -| |-1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 - 1.5 -| | | ..................................... = = = -> DC Adapter port

That will get you your 6 volts... the only question now... is how much money do you got, and how much can you carry.

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T

Follow-up 12/23/07 no good answer so far

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