Hi Guys

Anyone using an external Li-Ion battery pack with the camera? Is there any way to run it as a two wire cable (ie: just use the DC coupler) or does the camera need all 4 battery connectors? With Panasonic the outer terminals of the battery are usually power and the inside two go to the encoder/decoder built into the battery so using the wrong battery will force it to come up with an error ... I think the AC adapter gets over this issue but supplying the camera with a slightly higher voltage so it doesn't check itself.

Any bright ideas of a battery pack that will work without using AC power to run the camera for extended periods

Hi Chris, no luck so far got error with the bike battery supposed to be 8.4volt will have to go to see one of the guys at Jaycar to test and give me some info

Thanks Mark

Does the dummy battery have 4 terminals on it ? It looks like the connector coming out is just a two wire terminal to me so the only way I solved this issue on older Panasonic cameras was to bring out a 4 wire connection to an old Lumix charger and connect it to that but strip out the electronics so it's purely a carrier for a standard battery outside the camera ... Then the trick was to "piggy back" another 7.2 volt Li-Ion battery to the outer terminals so the "in place" battery supplies power and encoding to the camera and the bigger piggy back battery provides a greater capacity to the setup ..the 2nd battery of course doesn't need any encoder and the first one does that but overall you have a longer run time. I think that's the only way it will work!!

Hi Chris
Thanks still working on battery supply problem and yes the dummy battery has 4 terminals on it with the 2 wires coming out to a 5.5 x 2.1mm female Plug to fit 4.8 x 1.7 mm Male Plug to the socket Power Adapter cable.
This sounds silly but I want to use my FZ1000 on my small Glidecam 2000 what automatic settings what do you use when running around, Eg. AFC switch, and menu settings to get the auto focus quick and good quality
Mark

Hi Mark

On the battery issue it sounds like one would need to take 4 wires out of the coupler so you get the decoding and then use an external battery to provide just that but also connected to a bigger 2nd unit to provide the "oomph"

On my stedicam I use the cam in creative video mode and the lens full wide (more depth of field) I have that on the 40 point focus system but also have continuous focus on too. Hasn't let me down yet but every time start a new run I hit the half shutter to establish the base focus point. I do all my stedicam shoots at MP4 50P and then slow it down 50% in post and it's smooth as silk ... Don't try the camera's slow mo on stedicam!! It only sets focus and exposure once when you start so the moment you change direction everything goes crazy!!

Hi Chris, scroll down the page he shows what he has produced for a battery supply for his FZ1000
Tech talk - Graham's Photo Blog (http://www.grahamhoughton.com/tech-talk/)

Thanks Mark

OK so the bottom line is that the camera will chuck a hissy fit if the external power supply drops below 8.0 volts so Graham uses two 4.2volt batteries in series to give 8.4 volts with a DC to DC converter that keeps the output at 8.4 until the batteries go flat. Look here ... DIY Camera Rig Tutorials (http://www.softweigh.com/video/diy.html) This is my own designed converter that uses not two 4.2 batteries but a 12 volt Li-Ion battery pack used for CCTV systems and then I made up a DC to DC voltage regulator which drops the 12 volt output down to whatever you need .... Surely with a 12v pack the convertor would have a longer run time as it would only "die" once the 12v pack dropped to below 8.0??? The packs I bought were 6000 mah and were cheap too.
The complete HTML tutorial with photos and schematics is attached ... you can adjust the output to what ever you require so in our case 8.4v would be perfect ... the battery monitor is only an added extra if you need it.

Below are three items that were suggested to me on another forum.

Tether Tools Relay Camera Coupler for Panasonic Lumix Cameras with DMW-BLC12 Battery

Tether Tools Case Relay Camera Power System

Tether Tools Rock Solid 10,000mAh External Battery Pack

The primary external battery can be hot-swapped.

Other than the above, I have never found off-the-shelf items than can be guaranteed to work in combination with each other. They may be out there but I could not find them.

Total cost about $185.

DSLR Video recommended this USB power adapter for the G85. So I ordered it and tried it with the FZ2500 and a dummy battery. Worked like a charm. You will need the adapters as well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ID90E3C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks Frank

Mike also found an up convertor on a couple of threads below this one http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/panasonic-lumix-lx-fz-series/533325-fz2500-impressions-comments-5.html

I would assume that on the usb side you can plug it into a USB power bank to be totally portable or into a standard usb power supply if you have a mains available?

Yes. I use these USB power banks.
KMASHI 10000mAh Portable Power Bank with Dual USB Ports 3.1A Output and 2A Input - Black.

It is import to use a USB power bank with a 2 amp output to power the camera.

I use the Tether Tools Case Relay for the Black Magic Pocket Camera. I works fine but this solution is less costly. The up-converter is also available in a 12v version that I will try with the BMPCC.

Yes. I use these USB power banks.
KMASHI 10000mAh Portable Power Bank with Dual USB Ports 3.1A Output and 2A Input - Black.

It is import to use a USB power bank with a 2 amp output to power the camera.

I use the Tether Tools Case Relay for the Black Magic Pocket Camera. I works fine but this solution is less costly. The up-converter is also available in a 12v version that I will try with the BMPCC.

DSLR Video recommended this USB power adapter for the G85. So I ordered it and tried it with the FZ2500 and a dummy battery. Worked like a charm. You will need the adapters as well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ID90E3C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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

Rightio, I'm using an UP Converter from Jaycar, with my Sony NP-f batteries_7500mah. Those batteries are bloody huge things when sitting in the battery carrier thingo. Outputting 8.4v to FZ1000 camera. Ran for about 3 hrs straight before I got sick of it, no real issues apart from feeling hotter than normal, Quite noticeable at the rear of the camera.
Was a very hot day here during the test run, 40c. AND that was an indoor test, Garage!
I ran another FZ1000 beside it for comparison with normal battery, thought there was less heat coming from that one.

Hey Jack

You can get pretty compact 12v LiIon CCTV battery packs on eBay and if you wire up a simple voltage regulator chip on a tiny piece of Vero Board it's really cheap and you can adjust the output to 8.4 exactly too.

Have you measured the off load voltage coming from the converter? It's probably a lot higher than 8.4 so that would make the regulator chip inside the camera work much harder and it's temperature will rise. Unplug the converter and see how much it's pushing out with a volt meter ...if it's higher than 8.4 that means the internal one is working harder hence the heat!!

Thanks for the tip Chris.
Checked with voltmeter, which reads pretty much the same. Did another test at 8v for 20 mins today, I think its running cooler, but it was only 20 mins compared to 3 hours.
Might redo test tomorrow.
I've got some of those 12v batteries from my old helmet camera setups, so might try that as well. Had em for at least 10 years, still holding a solid charge.

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 ??

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.

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

Yes, It works fine.

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!!