
Re: Substituting alkaline for ni-mh in Digital Camera
On Thu, 20 Dec 2007 09:30:21 -0800 (PST),
twirling.head@gmail.comwrote:
>My camera normally takes a 6v .6ah ni-mh battery. I've been able to
>rig-up and power the camera from a 5v 1.5a wall wart, but whenever I
>try powering from a pack of alkalines I get the low battery error.
>
>The batteries all meter out to at least 1.3v, I've tried 4 d cells, 4
>aa cells, and 5 aa cells, which came closest to working (the zoom lens
>pops out, but then the camera shuts down with same low battery
>error). I'd like to use these batteries as I dumpster dive a lot of
>them. Is there any trick to this?
---
Nope.
If the camera works on 5V you just have to make sure that the cells
you use come up to at least 1.25V _under load_.
Alkalines are generally considered "kaput" when they fall to 1.0V
under load.
The cells you're finding, dumpster diving, have surely been depleted
and, even though they may measure 1.3V or so, open circuit,
when you try to take any current out of them their impedance will be
so high that their terminal voltage will fall to well below 1.25V.
Why not go to
---
oOPS...
Hit SEND by mistake...
I'm confused.
Since your battery pack is NiMH (and, therefore, rechargeable) why
don't you just assemble as many NiMH (or NiCd) packs as you might
need for a single session and forego the dumpster diving?
--
JF