How Quickly Will The Skyport Transmitter Battery Drain If You Leave the Power On?

[TMR Design]

I'm not asking this question because I plan on leaving the power on but I have to admit that with no power indicator on the Skyport transmitter it's very easy to forget to power down. There have been many times that I come back to my camera the following day, only to realize that I never turned the power off.

How much juice is the transmitter drawing if it's on but idle? Will this significantly impact the life of the battery?

[tetrode]

I'm not asking this question because I plan on leaving the power on but I have to admit that with no power indicator on the Skyport transmitter it's very easy to forget to power down. There have been many times that I come back to my camera the following day, only to realize that I never turned the power off.

How much juice is the transmitter drawing if it's on but idle? Will this significantly impact the life of the battery?

Good question, Robert. I've forgotten to turn off my Skyport transmitter on a few occasions and was rewarded in each instance with a dead battery in short order. I can't quantify the drain time for you in hours but my impression was that the batteries had the life sucked out of them alot more quickly than I would have expected. Currently, I have 5 spares on hand (there had been 8 :().

Dave F.

[TMR Design]

Good question, Robert. I've forgotten to turn off my Skyport transmitter on a few occasions and was rewarded in each instance with a dead battery in short order. I can't quantify the drain time for you in hours but my impression was that the batteries had the life sucked out of them alot more quickly than I would have expected. Currently, I have 5 spares on hand (there had been 8 :().

Dave F.

Thanks Dave. I wasn't sure how it would affect battery life. I've got a 10 pack of replacement batteries on the way.

[tim]

No idea, i've never run them out and since there's no indicator I can't tell. Maybe i'd better get some spare cells just in case - they're strange little ones I think.

[wyofizz]

Not sure how long they will actually go on a battery but I've got about 16-20 hours of use from a battery. Probably about 1,500 pops. I replaced the battery just in case. I keep one spare, I figure I'll need to sleep before I outshoot 1+ batteries.

Dave

[tetrode]

Not sure how long they will actually go on a battery but I've got about 16-20 hours of use from a battery. Probably about 1,500 pops. I replaced the battery just in case. I keep one spare, I figure I'll need to sleep before I outshoot 1+ batteries.

Dave

That sounds about right. On those occasions when I've forgotten to turn off the Skyport transmitter, invariably the battery was dead the next day.

Dave F.

[conserv]

I also cant really answer your question because yet, i always remembered to switch the transmitter off when i did not use it.

But what i can tell is the battery of the transmitter reaches quite far.
I'm still using the first battery and i use Skyports for over a year with 1-2 shooting a week!

I bought one spare battery (1,90 euro including shipping) and am still waiting to replace it.;)

[TMR Design]

I also cant really answer your question because yet, i always remembered to switch the transmitter off when i did not use it.

But what i can tell is the battery of the transmitter reaches quite far.
I'm still using the first battery and i use Skyports for over a year with 1-2 shooting a week!

I bought one spare battery (1,90 euro including shipping) and am still waiting to replace it.;)

I shoot a few thousand shots a month, if not more, so obviously battery life is going to vary based on use as well as idle time.

I wonder if the transmitter uses the same amount of power sitting idle when there is a receiver or transceiver on the other end as opposed to there not being a receiver/transceiver... powered on, of course.

[wyofizz]

Not sure about the skyports but most radio transmitters use more power when they they are triggered to transmit. It would appear that is not quite the case here though with the batteries going dead within a day after being left on. Could be their constantly transmitting and a click adds something to the data packet that the receiver acts on.

dave