Fz 1000 External Battery Pack?

Chris Harding · February 6th, 2017, 05:56 AM

Cool Jack

I'm surprised the camera accepted an 8volt input ..the cutoff is supposed to be 8.2-8.4 .....I presume your converter can accept a 12v input and output a 8.4 level? I would test the output before plugging in as you don't want to damage the camera.

Any idea why 8 v only lasts 20 mins ..it shouldn't make any difference and really should last the same as 8.4 ??

Jack Walsh · February 6th, 2017, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Cool Jack

I'm surprised the camera accepted an 8volt input ..the cutoff is supposed to be 8.2-8.4 .....I presume your converter can accept a 12v input and output a 8.4 level? I would test the output before plugging in as you don't want to damage the camera.

Any idea why 8 v only lasts 20 mins ..it shouldn't make any difference and really should last the same as 8.4 ??

Was expecting it to shut down actually, which makes me think that the LCD on the UP CONVERTER is reading under, and so is my Voltmeter.

I only let it run for a 20 minute MP4 clip, then shut it down. FZ1000 limit, MP4 50p, 20min 20seconds.

Frank Grygier · February 11th, 2017, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Walsh

Gday Frank! So you can use 9v with no problems!!!????

Yes, It works fine.

Chris Harding · February 11th, 2017, 10:40 PM

Just remember that the higher the voltage you feed into the DC coupler, the harder the internal voltage regulator on the camera is going to have to work and it might not be designed to run at temperatures like that for hours. It's probably still safer to use a 9v battery but run it thru a simple regulator to pull it down to 8.4 that is external to keep the actual camera input within specs. Much cheaper to have to replace an LM317T chip costing maybe $1.50 than sending your camera in for repair more than likely hundreds of dollars. A simple regulator circuit is a tint potentiometer, one resistor and the 317T chip and would take up 1/2" square of space and could easily be taped to the battery pack. It's seriously a much safer option than blowing the supply on the camera motherboard!!

February 6th, 2017, 05:56 AM	#16
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Re: Fz 1000 External Battery Pack? Cool Jack I'm surprised the camera accepted an 8volt input ..the cutoff is supposed to be 8.2-8.4 .....I presume your converter can accept a 12v input and output a 8.4 level? I would test the output before plugging in as you don't want to damage the camera. Any idea why 8 v only lasts 20 mins ..it shouldn't make any difference and really should last the same as 8.4 ??

February 11th, 2017, 10:40 PM	#19
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Re: Fz 1000 External Battery Pack? Just remember that the higher the voltage you feed into the DC coupler, the harder the internal voltage regulator on the camera is going to have to work and it might not be designed to run at temperatures like that for hours. It's probably still safer to use a 9v battery but run it thru a simple regulator to pull it down to 8.4 that is external to keep the actual camera input within specs. Much cheaper to have to replace an LM317T chip costing maybe $1.50 than sending your camera in for repair more than likely hundreds of dollars. A simple regulator circuit is a tint potentiometer, one resistor and the 317T chip and would take up 1/2" square of space and could easily be taped to the battery pack. It's seriously a much safer option than blowing the supply on the camera motherboard!!