HI so I have the d cell battery pack add on and it doesn't last long, Im in Maine and when its below 10F even D batteries don't last long. There is an power port on the unit so it must be capable of it, its 6VDC I think I read which is different than the AC adapter that comes with the solar kit.
Cuddeback's Cuddelink
- Thread starter Peplin Creek
- Start date
HI so I have the d cell battery pack add on and it doesn't last long, Im in Maine and when its below 10F even D batteries don't last long. There is an power port on the unit so it must be capable of it, its 6VDC I think I read which is different than the AC adapter that comes with the solar kit.
Hi thanks, so you are you using regular or rechargeable batteries in it? Have you tried it with no batteries in it? I know if I loose power it will not work but it will pick back up when the power comes back on.
Thank you ~ Phil
john volkman
5 year old buck +
There is a 12 volt power cord coming soon , you could run a large 12 volt battery and get long life or use the aftermartket referenced , I can’t vouch for the quality of ability of that ac adapter from the other manufacturer though. I’ve run the dual power bank with a solar panel and had it never miss a beat in below zero temps as well.
Pretty sure it will not come back on automatically after it dies.
john volkman
5 year old buck +
If power is lost the unit will not power back up on its own , you would need to arm it manually. I would make sure the dc adapter is designed correctly . With alkaline batteries in it as back up it’s important that the ac adapter is built correctly to prevent failure or a fire hazard . I’m not suggesting they aren’t built correctly. I just would want to be sure if you are leaving this hours away unattended that it’s safe.
Any results from your experiment?
Regular batts as backup. No haven’t tried it without any batteries in it.
Bpressley
5 year old buck +
Not yet, other than the cam powers on with 4 D's. Today is the last day of our archery season so I plan on playing with the cameras more in the next couple weeks.
Ok thanks Ill get that adapter and give it a try, hate to keep spending $$ on batteries when I have AC power available...
Please explain something, if the camera shuts down at about 7 v when operating at 9 v, how will it work starting at 6v? Has John commented on using only 4 D batteries on the older Js in conjunction with the dummy batteries?
john volkman
5 year old buck +
in theory it will work as long as firmware is updated to 7.9 or 8.0 (8.0 not released yet). without the new firmware once the externals die the camera wont take night pics. This is assuming the dummy batteries work correctly and Neither I , or anyone else at Cuddeback has tested the units with dummy batteries in them. At some point we will probably have the 4 d battery pack available for those wanting to switch out AA model J's.
If we have the 6d pack on the J cameras, if or when we update to 8.0 would we see longer battery life since it could operate down to 6V? Of course once they start to die I am not sure how long it would take them to finish dropping and go dead even at 6V.
A 4-D cell 6v pack has about twice the capacity as a 12-AA 9v cell pack. It will last at least twice as long.
AA-2500Mah vs D-16000Mah and a 6-D cell 9v pack is 3x the capacity of the 12-AA pack. In calculation, I downgraded both Mah on both type batteries. AA's advertised at 3000Mah and D advertised at 20,000Mah. It will be even greater difference calculated at advertised Mah.
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The run time in your example is the same for the 4D pack vs the 6D pack because they are in a series and one is at 6V and the other is at 9V. Since the new J's can run on 6V the question would be if you have the 6D pack would you get more run time since the batteries could drop all the way from 9V to 6V. I would think likely as batteries die though they usually go fast as some point so that additional time may be small.
I think what you posted is why what Bpressley posted about adding 2 Dummy D batteries in the existing 6D pack has merit since the J camera can run on 6V. Basically as you show above you have 2 D batteries in there that are not giving you anymore run time. The other added bonus with this is that us J camera owners would then know when running externals when those externals go dead. This gives you a few week notice of when your camera would be completely dead. Great for those of us that live away from our cameras.
Look at the Wah. Watts is your energy. But, by all means I am not an opponent of the test.
Yes I agree. What we don't know is what is the power draw (amps per hr) of the camera for 6V vs the 9V. If the J camera draws the same amps per hrs at 6V as it does at 9V then essentially the 2 extra batteries are a waste (which is what your examples above show as the run time is the same for both D banks) . Also if the 6V draws anything less than 1.5 times the amps per hr of the 9V it would be more efficient. I would guess that if Cuddeback is changing everything to the 6V that it is probably a better efficiency in power usage?
For those of us that already have the 6D battery packs for the J, if we can run on 4D's and get close to the same life, it would be cheaper. The other huge benefit of it is then we could know when our external packs die. To me this is a huge benefit as I know that when my externals die that I have a few weeks before my camera dies. I am usually down there at least every 3 weeks, so I can change my batteries when I am there so the camera is not out of service. Right now I have no way of getting that far advanced notice as it seems when the cameras go to low they are usually dead in a day or 2. This is of course assuming that Bpressleys test works as intended. LOL. I think he also feels that battery life is better when it completely switches from external to internal instead of using all the batteries at one time.
Maybe it will work as he proposes. I’m all for less batteries. A couple of points though. That runtime on that calculator is deceiving at first glance. It’s assuming you need that 9v to failure. If you changed that variable to 6v it would increase the time. The runtime is calculated using the wattage (available energy).
A camera circuit has to operate within a pretty strict parameter of voltages and amperage. The incoming voltage is regulated from about 6v-12v input to a steady output around 4 volts. The output is steady and does not change as long as input(battery) is within 6v-12v parameter of the voltage regulator. Amperage is a function of this steady output voltage, not the input (or battery side).
Hope it works. Keep us posted.
“Necessity is the mother to most inventions”.
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Bpressley
5 year old buck +
That would be nice. That's right in my backyard.
john volkman
5 year old buck +
we wont have a factory booth there but there will be reps there every day in some of our dealers booths.
