Homemade battery pack for field use.....

[Alphawolf]

My camera I use for digiscoping has a 4.5 volt dc input port. The lithium onbard battery just sucks when it comes to duration. Why couldn't I put AA lithium batteries together in holders(in series and parallel to deliver 4.5 v.) and plug it into my camera. I figure 12 of the AA size lithiums should give me a whole bunch of time out in the field....What does anybody think?

[eric s]

There is quite some risk in doing this. I wouldn't do it without some serious consultations with a Electrical Engineer. I know just enough about it that I wouldn't try it myself.

You could check out this link, but (of course) I make no statements about its correctness or usefulness.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/akouzmit/Battery_Pack

Eric

[GR Triever]

I was thinking almost the same thing... the Toshiba PDR4300 is 5VDC input, and my thought was to take a 12V 4AH (or 7AH) gel cell battery (weight approx. 3 pounds), add a precision voltage regulator circuit to drop the output to 5V, and have enough current capacity to power the thing for a WEEK!

Toshiba tech support, on the other hand, doesn't think much about my little idea. To paraphrase, their comment was, 'we do not recommend a power supply like you describe. Any such modification will render the camera warranty null and void.'

Yes, it should work, but proceed at your own risk.