Charger for BP511 batteries

[StephenP]

Hi all, firstly apologies if this subject has been covered before, I'm relatively new to this forum.

Does anyone know if a charger is available that allows you to charge the BP511 batteries from a car battery or a cigarette lighter socket?

If not, I'm thinking of piecing something together myself, but thought it best to check here before going to such lengths,

Regards,

Stephen

[robertwgross]

StephenP wrote:
Hi all, firstly apologies if this subject has been covered before, I'm relatively new to this forum.

Does anyone know if a charger is available that allows you to charge the BP511 batteries from a car battery or a cigarette lighter socket?

If not, I'm thinking of piecing something together myself, but thought it best to check here before going to such lengths,

Regards,

Stephen

Stephen, I could not find anything like that either. What I think you'll do is to get a cigarette lighter plug to pick up the +12 volts, then run that through a very small ohm resistor of decent wattage for current limiting. Then run that into the unregulated side of a three-terminal regulator. The voltage rating of that regulator might be tricky. The rated output should be roughly 8.4 volts, but that is not a standard value for regulators. Anyway, that goes to the BP511 battery. The BP511 has a rated voltage of about 7.4 volts, but they are commonly closer to 8 volts. So the charger system has to put out a little more than that.

I would not use a 9 volt regulator for fear of overcharging the BP511.

The good news is that this is simple. The bad news is that it does not have any of the smarts of the real charger (which does more). So I would not leave the BP511 charging for a long time (overnight) with this rig. It would be better than nothing, but not as good as the real thing.

---Bob Gross---

[Jud Dagnall]

I've got the Lenmar Mach1 Speed charger. I bought it through the web from battery barn along with an 1600 ma battery for my G1. It comes with a cigarette adapter and various faceplate to accomodate a variety of batteries. It has worked well for me.

[StephenP]

robertwgross wrote:
StephenP wrote:
Hi all, firstly apologies if this subject has been covered before, I'm relatively new to this forum.

Does anyone know if a charger is available that allows you to charge the BP511 batteries from a car battery or a cigarette lighter socket?

If not, I'm thinking of piecing something together myself, but thought it best to check here before going to such lengths,

Regards,

Stephen

Stephen, I could not find anything like that either. What I think you'll do is to get a cigarette lighter plug to pick up the +12 volts, then run that through a very small ohm resistor of decent wattage for current limiting. Then run that into the unregulated side of a three-terminal regulator. The voltage rating of that regulator might be tricky. The rated output should be roughly 8.4 volts, but that is not a standard value for regulators. Anyway, that goes to the BP511 battery. The BP511 has a rated voltage of about 7.4 volts, but they are commonly closer to 8 volts. So the charger system has to put out a little more than that.

I would not use a 9 volt regulator for fear of overcharging the BP511.

The good news is that this is simple. The bad news is that it does not have any of the smarts of the real charger (which does more). So I would not leave the BP511 charging for a long time (overnight) with this rig. It would be better than nothing, but not as good as the real thing.

---Bob Gross---


Bob, thank you so much for the reply, that is exactly the sort of info I need. I don't really want to pull apart the Canon charger, but sometimes when push comes to shove...

I do a lot of shots at bike races, so a lot of time is spent shooting with little opportunity to get to a mains power outlet.

The alternative is to have something designed that outputs the correct voltage at near to the right amperage and lug it around with me, perhaps a sealed motorcycle battery or something, and utilize the adapor that 'normally' connects to the charger while you charge your real batteries.

If I figure something out, I'll be sure to place a message on the forum. This must surely be something a lot of people would make use of, perhaps its a bit of an oversight from Canon - Guess you can't keep everyone happy all the time!

Thanks again,

Stephen

[airny0ne]

Check out the following web site. I bought one in Singapore at about USD30. Come with a charger stand, an AC adapter and a car adapter.


http://shop.store.yahoo.com/greenbatteries-store/batcharlitio.html



http://shop.store.yahoo.com/greenbatteries-store/batcharlitio.html



http://www.ephotozine.com/equipment/tests/testdetail.cfm/test_ID/164



http://www.digitaletailer.com/shop/SearchResults.asp?ProdStock=CH-3000L#desc



http://www.buydigitaldirect.com/viewitem.php?IndexID=2302



http://www.d-store.com/d-store/lenmar/M1_index.htm

[robertwgross]

Yes, Stephen, I considered your alternative also.

I have the cord and adapter that connects from the charger into the camera. I could simply hook it up across a 12-volt battery using the same sort of three-terminal regulator that I suggested. For that, I might set the output voltage a little lower, like 7.2 to 7.5, since that is the rated voltage output from a normal BP511. We would simply want to charge the BP511 with about a volt more.

There are several ways to "skin the cat" so to speak, and none of them are Canon-approved.

For now, I simply have two BP511 batteries. If one goes dead on me, and if I am near my vehicle, then I have a very small inverter in it that runs off 12 volts DC and produces 115VAC, which is what I can plug the regular charger into. An hour or two there and the battery should be ready again.

My problem is that I travel far away from vehicles or commercial power, and solar recharging has only limited practicality.

---Bob Gross---