HD7 must have accessory!
 

Seems I have hogged the forum this week... however...
The OTG drive …is the HD7 must have accessory...I am blown away…Read on:
On The GO (OTG), a Direct to Drive method of transferring data from a host storage medium (in our case the HD7) to a portable external drive via USB2.0 without requirement of a PC. And its pretty damn cheap too. The OTG drive caddy (cost in UK 60GBPound) will house a laptop drive (2.5”), as such it is palm sized (in fact mine is smaller than the foot print of the HD7 and only 0.5” deep). I have put a 160Gb drive in (costing circa 55GB Pounds) which when combined with the storage on the HD 7 gives me around 24 hours of recording capacity without having to go near a PC or share station. The one I bought had crappy ‘chinglish’ instructions that weren’t worth the paper they were written on. However, heres the edited highlights to getting up and running.
1. open caddy plug in 2.5” ATA drive close caddy.
2. Format Drive to Fat 32 Damn
3. Hook to HD7 (where it is recognised as if it is the PC) press the copy button and the contents of the HD7 are copied onto the OTG drive.
4. Clean the HD7 and go shoot another 5-7 hours.
This is a groundbreaking solution for us as we need a way of sucking footage offthe HD7 when we are on expedition filming…as mentioned in previous thread we will likely carry additional 2.5” drives and swap these into the caddy as and when needed.
The runs on 12V so could be run from a battery pack…TBD.

The storage problem is solved ...... how does one operate the camera for 12 hours ?

This enclosure seems perfect for mounting a 120-250GB laptop drive. Like after you upgrade to a faster or bigger drive. MacBook Pro sure can use an upgrade to a 200GB 7200RPM drive.

http://www.virtual-hideout.net/revie...us/index.shtml

But how to power the camera long enough to fill the hard disk in the first place ?

Plug into AC outlet. Get a bunch of the big JVC batteries. Each works over an hour so if you had 4 or 5 you could shoot for a day (5 hours).

Or build an adaptor cable and power from car or big battery. Does JVC have a cigar lighter adaptor?

Backup would be done at night where you'll have power.

Ok so it can be done with a standalone battery. What I might do is buy a dead Data Battery and replace the insides with a curly cord to a Li-Ion polymer super pack. The only problem is going to be controlling the voltage. I didnt see any 12V car adaptors other than for charging so I assume it would be a case of experimenting till the smoke escapes from the camera.

Exactly my Plan Steve. Heres what I have found:
1. OEM batteries
2. Battery Modification (not as dangerous as it sounds)
3. The OEM battery lead Great discovery
4. Car charger
Batteries
I have bought OEM Li-Ion batteries from Amazon (2400mAh costing under $30 each) and they are great...around 3 hours run time. Essentially 1/5th of the cost of the JVC equivalents.
They dont have the feedback circuitry internals to tell the camera their remaining capacity and whilst they plug into the camera as normal you then have a little lead that connects between a socket in the back of the battery (same configuration as the power charge socket on the camera) and direct power socket on the camera.
Ultra high capacity modification
So you can if desired daisy chain them ie link up the batteries from this rear socket...a simple cable mod would mean you could have 3-4 in parallel on your belt.
Great Discovery
A great discovery was that whilst it says that you need to have this cable in connecting the 2 of them for the battery to run...not so it actually draws the power through the usual contacts but tricks the camera into to thinking it is the direct power supply...in fact it only requires a plug in the camera direct supply socket to get started and then it can be removed. (what we do is have a chopped cable with the socket on the short lead and just plug it in as needed...tidy and easy.
Car charging/12V
Now then...you can get an external charger with car battery USB charger for these OEM batteries (ebay) also cheap- $7.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Battery-Charge...QQcmdZViewItem
(just ordered one.. wiats for smoke to rise from Gee residence)
I see no reason why therfore a USB car charger lead wont also act as a charger from any other 12volt supply.

Hi Simon,

The data battery system seems to have a great deal of smarts. The only problem with all of those smarts is that linking them in some kind of ganged circuit requires a controller and isolation. If one of those puppies fails internally and goes to ground the other batteries fuel the almost certain fire.

I learned the hard way with a 9V battery and a set of keys. I got it just before flash point.

I like the idea though.

What is this mention of a battery lead ?

Thanks for the advice Barry. Will have to read up a bit more or ask someone about this.

The battery lead? ..the OEM batteries come with a short connecting cable (we sometimes call cables leads here) to bridge between the back of the battery and the power in on the camera. You only actaul need toplug the ned of the cable into the camera to trick the camera into recognising the OEm battery.

Heres what I think the camera and power supply is doing on the HD7.
Direct power is 11V but batteries actually output 8.3V (rated 7V)...so i think the camera runs at 7V but internally steps it down from anything 12V and below and the battery. This allows it to trickle charge the batteries in situ. Presumabley a high capacity Li-ion battery at anything up to 12V with the correct connector should work? no?

UPDATE: Really really cheap $16! - field based back up of HD7 hard drive using this On The Go (OTG) bridge device (no PC required and can use any prexisting portable USB drive you have)
Just found 1 of these $16! and you can use an existing portable harddrive
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...B:FSEL:GB:1123

Hi Simon,

Ok I think I only got the new type of battery for my HD3. These have no power out, connectors or leads.