Folks,

For using a GL-2 for taping in wilderness areas (meaning away from any electricity for recharging for at least a week at a time), is there a way to solar charge or, better yet, find an adapter for a 12-V car battery that might provide power for 15-30 minutes/day? Is the answer a simple Radio Shack adapter purchase? I've seen other Canon cameras used in the wilderness powered off 12-V, but I noticed their voltages requirements differ from the GL-2.
Rob

Yes, there is a simple Radio Shack solution called an inverter. They cost about $30-40 and will convert 12V DC battery power to to an AC plug capable of supplying in the range of 100-150 watts of power--ample for the GL2 AC adapter. They are usually outfitted with a cigarette lighter plug, but if that doesn't work for you you can cut it off and put alligator clips on the leads.

There may be a 12V adapter available from Canon, but I think that the inverter is a better deal. You can watch TV while you're waiting for your next shot sequence 8>]

Fred,

Thanks. It's interesting that I called Canon tech support for help with this and they referred me to dvinfo for answers.

We make 12V to 7.2V converters for this. It is a simpler and more efficient solution than generating 120V AC.
HTH

Hi Rob,

Might I suggest the SIMA SUP-2 Universal Power Adapter, sold at Best Buy, Circuit City, Mico Center and likely other such places too. It has a number of different connectors and Voltage out puts.

It is very small and both AC and DC ready - you can use it in the wall or in the car. I'm running 4 of them due to their small size and AC-DC for my 4 Cams. They have worked great. I keep two of them attached to two of my TriPods as part of my PreWired systems. Cost is 30 to 40 bucks depending on if you find a sale.

Harold

Alex beat me to suggesting you check out his converter. (In fareness, I suspect there are other brands on the market as well.)

Forget using an inverter to convert 12 VDC to 120 VAC to power the A/C adapter - it wastes battery power, and can be a source of electronic noise as well.

Hey Don, how are you? Remember how your wrote a hands on review of the converter for the Watchdog? It feels like ages ago, the first XL1 was the king then :-)

It has been a few years. Or as the frog said "Time's fun when you are having flies." Alex, I trust you are doing well.

FOr others, the link to the review is:
http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/articles/article25.php
The product in this review had a form factor for the XL1 and Panasonic 12-vilt camcorder batteries, but a stand-alone version of the same voltage converter was available as well.

Don

It has been a few years. Or as the frog said "Time's fun when you are having flies." Alex, I trust you are doing well.

FOr others, the link to the review is:
http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/articles/article25.php
The product in this review had a form factor for the XL1 and Panasonic 12-vilt camcorder batteries, but a stand-alone version of the same voltage converter was available as well.

Don
:-) Yes, and trying to catch as many as we can, not like the "Slowsky turtles" in the Comcast commercial. Have a new 20W (!) version of the converter for the HD crowd, HD cameras are very power hungry. And the new battery chargers are going all over the world, where I never travel. Filming expedition to Mt. Everest, Australia, New Zealand...B&H and a few others carry them as standard stock items:-).
Stay in touch!
Alex

Alex,

I've been considering options for powering my XL1s off a battery belt and your converters are perfect. I use 4 945 batteries right now and that's fine for a day, but I've been looking into more efficient ways of powering the camera. I've bookmarked your site.

Ben

Thank you Ben! Bookmarking our site is the first step in the right direction :-)
Alex Dolgin

Canon used to sell a 12 to 24 volt battery charger for the BP945 type batteries. This looked just like the standard battery charger that came with the camera, except that it had a cigarette adapter plug.

This unit could be used to charge your batteries, or directly power your camera. If you use a large car battery, you could power your camera for weeks (I assume).

But, the real beauty is that you can charge your batteries whenever you have car battery power, or you can power your camera.

Other low cost battery chargers exist for the Canon batteries, many come with a cigarette adapter plug.

...Forget using an inverter to convert 12 VDC to 120 VAC to power the A/C adapter - it wastes battery power, and can be a source of electronic noise as well.I would say don't rule out the inverter on the basis of these fears. The "waste" is absolutely insignificant compared to the energy stored in a car battery, and the potential for AC noise is no greater then when you use the AC adapter elsewhere. The DC to DC converter solution is more elegant, but you can't run your electric toothbrush with it. The inverter is more versatile.

The noise is a result of the DC-to-AC conversion and the quality (or lack there of) filtering, and with some economical inverters there is a very significant spatter that can creap into audio systems, especially when mic-level signals are involved. I have encountered this trying to use DC-AC inverters to power recorders. Obviously there are differences in quality (and price) among inverters. Perhaps the Radio Shack model is a good one.

Most low cost inverters, those costing less than several hundreds of dollars, output a "Modified Square Wave". An ideal inverter outputs a "Sine Wave", identical to normal AC power.

Many inverter's instruction manuals warn against using these to power some battery chargers.

If it works for you, great, but I would not recommend it since there are other very low cost options available.

The following charger cost $2.01 plus $7.51 shipping, and charges from AC or 12 to 24 volt supply:

http://www.power101.com/item.htm?id=60109

Their posted prices seem remarkable. Who all has bought from them? With what results?

I have some of the Power101 chargers, some for Canon BP-945 type batteries, and some for the Sony batteries.

The all work fine.

The seem to have a smart charger electronics chip in them to ensure that they charge the Lithium-Ion batteries properly.

I have not run any exhaustive
tests, but they seem to charge the batteries properly.

I do trust the Canon chargers more than the Power101's, but this is pure prejedice against something that only costs $10 or less without any basis for the prejedice. So, whenever I have the time to charge the batteries using my Canon chargers, I do. I use the the low cost chargers when I have to charge a lot of batteries in a limited amount of time.

With the Canon chargers, the battery locks into place in the charger. In the Power101 chargers, the battery slides into place, but there is no locking mechanism. This has not been a problem.

The top of the battery charger does get warm, but this is not a problem either. This heat does not seem to be transferred to the battery as the heat is not under the battery area.

The LED on the charger flashes while charging, and turns solid green when finished.

The specifications state that the charging current is 500 +- 50ma.

There are 2 most important parameters in a Li-Ion battery charger. Charge current and voltage accuracy. This chemistry requires the charge voltage to be within 0.5% of the target of 4.2V per cell. Even slight overvoltage of 1-2% damages the cells, reducing their cycle life. Undervoltage does not charge them fully. -1% causes -10% undercharge. Without testing it is hard to say how accurate the above mentioned charger is.
Small charge current results in slow charge time. As a point of reference, most brand name chargers send about 1-1.2A into a battery, so a 3,000 maH battery would be charged in about 3-4 hours. Obviously, if a charger is capable of only 500ma, the time to charge would double.

Thanks for all the discussion, guys.
The SIMA SUP-2 seems to be discontinued, but I also noticed it lacks a 7.2v output setting which the GL2 requires. (Has 6.5v, 8.4v plus others). Not sure if I could use 6.5 and it would just take longer to charge.

I tried to e-mail Alex and message was returnedunsent, plus I can't get into his website from this computer for some reason.

I will be in a wilderness setting with no car access, just a 12-v battery. Sounds like Alex' charger would do it. I guess a 12-v car battery would last a while since I would not be filming a lot. Would use it just for charging BP-945 batteries.

I have tried the Dolgin website and it works for me.

His units seem to be very well designed. A lot better than the under $10 units that I mentioned.

The only advantage of the under $10 units is that they are very light.

If you are just going to have a car battery to charge your Canon batteries, consider getting a solar panel kit to keep you car battery charged. This is easy to find.

Dan,
I keep striking out trying to find a solar charging panel. Although I
recently ran into a wildlife videographer who has used one. But he didn't
tell me where he got it - a custom job for him apparently.

Sorry, I have seen the car battery solar panels. My concern remains
charging the 945s from the battery. Looks like the Dolgin product or something from Radio Shack will do it.

Thanks for all the discussion, guys.
The SIMA SUP-2 seems to be discontinued, but I also noticed it lacks a 7.2v output setting which the GL2 requires. (Has 6.5v, 8.4v plus others). Not sure if I could use 6.5 and it would just take longer to charge.

I tried to e-mail Alex and message was returnedunsent, plus I can't get into his website from this computer for some reason.

I will be in a wilderness setting with no car access, just a 12-v battery. Sounds like Alex' charger would do it. I guess a 12-v car battery would last a while since I would not be filming a lot. Would use it just for charging BP-945 batteries.
Rob, try a different address if need to reach us dolgin_eng@yahoo.com
We just introduced a smaller portable 2 position charger, it also takes 12V in in addition to AC. There is a DVXuser member who recently reported using our charger with a solar panel power source, he was in the wilderness for 30 days. His name is Gary Tompkins. If you need to get his advise on solar power, I can ask for his permission to share his email.
Alex Dolgin

Here is one source for a rollable (can be rolled up to minimize space) solar cell for charging batteries.

http://store.sundancesolar.com/poror110waso.html

Harbor Freight also has some solar cells.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94543

If you are going to be in the wilderness for some time, I would buy items of a known quality.

Also, I would check out various battery technologies. In our Top Alcohol Drag boat, we used some high technology lead acid batteries which were very light but extremely rugged and powerful. I assume that weight may be an issue for you. These batteries keep their charge for a long time.

If you are interested, I will research the brand name. If I remember correctly, they cost about $100 apiece. We used 4 of them to power a DC-9 Jet Engine starter, which we used to start our 3,000 hp hemi blown alcohol engine.

Is someone going to drive you to the wilderness location and then leave you?
Or will you have to backpack in?

I'll be traveling by kayak/canoe to a remote base camp for two weeks. I'm planning to simply carry a car battery with me for recharging. I don't believe the high end kind you mention, Dan, is necessary. I'll not be taping constantly, just waiting for rare events, so I've planned 4-5 batteries for extended shooting if necessary. Just need a way to recharge. Sounds like Alex's unit or something similar will do. Would be nice to be able to recharge directly from a foldable (lightweight) solar panel - that would be first choice and avoid the 12-v battery weight.

Rob

If I was going by Kayak or Canon, I would want to minimize my weight.

I would take 5 fully charged batteries. The Canon BP-950g and BP-970g batteries are great, but expensive. Other Canon type batteries also work.

I would take two or three of the power101 chargers and a rollup solar charger. The Power101 charger can take up to 24 volts for input.

Yes, you will have limited current to charge your batteries and yes it will take a while to charge them, but this will be very lightweight. These only weigh a few ounces. And you can put them in Ziplock freezer bags to keep them dry. I would double bag them.

You can easily test all of this before you leave on your trip.

I would also check on how much sunlight you can expect per day.

Once upon a time I was planning a trip to New Zealand. I was amazed to learn that they have only about 3 hours of sun per day during some months!

Hi Rob,

You are correct that the SIMA SUP-2 does not put out the 7.2V that the Batteries do. My Sonys all use the same 7.2V batteries also, but the Sony Electric Power Packs put out 8.4V. Hence I use the 8.4V output on the SIMA unit. Has worked fine for years now.

I'm guessing that you Canon's Electric Power Pack also puts out 8.4V ??

I seem to find the SIMA's for sale on the internet, although I haven't looked in a store lately.

I also use some small AMG 12V Batteries (2-7ah's & 1- 12ah) to power up my Cams and LCD Monitors for extended time shoots. They could also be used to charge up your Canon Batteries.

They are much easier to tote around than the car or RV batteries, although I use RV batteries to power up my VCR's if putting out tapes at Horse Shows in the field.

Harold

The Canon CA-910A battery charger/power supply puts out 6.0 volts when the DC power adapter (cord from the power supply to the camera) is plugged in.

It puts out a higher voltage, 8.4 volts, when used as a battery charger.

The Canon CA-920 battery charger/power supply (for the XL H1) puts out 7.2 volts in power supply mode, and 8.4 volts in battery charger mode.

Rob:

I know you are not in the market for a high-tech battery, but it anyone else is interested, we used the Odyssey battery in our dragboat. These are amazing batteries and will keep a charge for 2 years and can be fully-discharged and recharged 400 times. A normal lead-acid battery can not stand up to this type of abuse. They also have very high, short term cranking power. The battery we used put out 1800 amps, at 12 volts for 5 seconds! They do require a high-tech battery charger to charge them properly.

At the end of one season, we put the boat away, and at the start of the next seaon we just started the engine without a battery recharge. Our starter motor, out of a DC-9 jet engine, requires a lot of current. A normal battery would not have done this!

I only bring this up since someone, in a remote location, may occasionally need to charge a lithium-ion battery. These would be wonderful in that situation as they are small, light, and keep a charge for a long time.

Solar, powerfilm, PT15-300, 15.4V, 200MA, Weatherpro Series, 270mmX could be used to charge a 4 or 7 Ah 12v gel cell that could in turn be used on a 12v camcorder battery charger.

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&categoryId=702040

These folks http://store.sundancesolar.com/cabach.html tell me I can
charge the BP-945s directly from a solar panel, presumably using the Canon cigarette lighter adapter (they weren't specific about this) or perhaps Alex's adapter. This avoids the heavy 12v car battery. Fast recharge is not critical for what I'm doing.

I'm still not certain this really solves everything. I'm told to describe the batteries I'm using when buying the solar panel. Seems right question is to describe the adapter/charger holding the batteries. Sorry I don't speak electronese.
Rob

Rob, That charger looks the same as the under $10 charger available from Power101.com. That is the charger that I have been discussing.

It appears to me that if the Solar Panel puts out over 1.5 amps, then you should, in bright sunlight, be able to charge the Canon batteries directly.

All you need, in my opinion, is the foldable Solar Panel (get a good one) and the Power101.com charger.

If if put a battery in the circuit, so that the Solor Panel charges the battery, then you could charge your Canon batteries at night.