LP-E6 to 12-volt-plus Vehicle Power Adapter ???

I am aware that A/C power adapters are available; does such an animal exist as a cigarette lighter to LP-E6 Power Adapter ?

The reason I desire such is that I often go on extended road trips where I may take a thousand or more photos from the seat of a vehicle and such a device would save my batteries for when I am taking pictures away from the vehicle; especially considering the fact that the 7DMkII eats batteries like a hog eats ear corn.

Whenever I am in a big truck, and not having to do the driving, with such a wonderful vantage point, I may take several thousand shots in a day --- when I am driving, it is terribly tempting sometimes to try to grab a few shots, but good sense usually prevails and the camera remains on the passenger seat.

I could build this myself if I had a video to guide me along or a well-written article; or, I may just jump right in and go with the idea described below.

I had thought of gutting an old LP-E6 and possibly soldering leads to the battery contacts of one my many lighter-plug compatible chargers, most likely with a voltage regulator between the charger and the altered battery.

All of my vehicle compatible chargers are labeled 8.4-volt output and test between 8.35v and 8.5v.

Keeping check on freshly charged batteries, regardless of charger used, average voltage after a 1-hour rest from being charged is 8.38-volts; considering that, I may not need a regulator and just use straight charger voltage.

As I was typing this, a couple epiphanies soaked through my skull.

My initial plan was to route the wires through a slot milled in the door of my battery grip; then, I got the idea of incorporating a pigtail connector such that I could plug/unplug as the situation demanded, leaving the adapter battery in one of the bays inside the grip and a normal battery in the other.

Further thinking along this line led me to the idea that, why use a converted battery at all --- why not just solder leads to the contacts of the grip itself, with my pigtail connector hanging out and two normal batteries in the grip; thus, I could connect to my charger when in the vehicle and work off of vehicle power, and be all charged up and ready whenever I stepped out.

I have not yet tested and compared charger output between a non-running engine with nominal voltage of 12.75 or thereabouts and a running engine with between 14- and 15-volts depending on whatever else may be drawing power.

I do not know what if any effect the variance in vehicle power will have on charger output; I need to check this out.

Have any of you guys went this route ?

There are a number of LP-E6 chargers which take USB supply, and there are lots of 12V USB power adapters available.

There are also some combo AC + 12V DC chargers, that come with the 12V plug, like this one example
https://www.amazon.com …harger%2Caps%2C​232&sr=8-9

Lots of them on Amazon.

Plenty of CLA battery chargers on Amazon, but that's not what he's talking about. He's looking for a way to plug his camera directly into a cigarette lighter. Power it that way.

I'm too dumb about this stuff to add any input, but it sounds like an interesting project. Closest I ever got to that was my dad built me a cord to power a Vivitar 283 from an external battery. He used dowel stock for the AA battery form that went in the flash. Worked until I stopped using that flash. I may still have that cord somewhere.

Smoke test the hell out of it. You don't want anything catching on fire. Other than that, good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

Given the fact that a 12V automobile-compatible adapter regulates the 12-14.5V DC output of the alternator to 8.4V DC at the battery connection terminals of the charger, one would thing the simple thing to do is to simply make an LP-E6 mimic at each end, and it simply send the Poistive terminal at the LP-E6 charger to the body connector using something conceptually like the Canon wall AC adapter-to-camera.

But why stay connected with a cord, when you simply put another battery into the 12V-compatible charger to continuously charge as you drive?!

Wilt wrote in post #19177379
But why stay connected with a cord, when you simply put another battery into the 12V-compatible charger to continuously charge as you drive?!

That was my initial thought; however, while one battery is charging, I will have went through three or four; a single charger could never keep up.

There ARE chargers with TWO charging stations. In fact, a quick search found one with 4 charging stations with input power from USB and 12V DC and 110-240VAC input!

https://www.amazon.com …ger&qid=1609897​937&sr=8-3

I don't know about a 12v to Camera power cord, but I do own a dual battery charger that works on 12v acc jack in a car, that also has a USB jack, into which I can plug yet another dual charger, so 4 batteries charging at once.

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1485035

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19177488
I don't know about a 12v to Camera power cord, but I do own a dual battery charger that works on 12v acc jack in a car, that also has a USB jack, into which I can plug yet another dual charger, so 4 batteries charging at once.

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1485035

Thanks for your experiences with the Neewer Dual Battery Charger.

A few months ago, I was seriously considering one, but the less than stellar reviews shied me away, especially the ones that claimed it messed up their batteries.
Of course, not everyone is having the negative experiences and I may go ahead and take a chance on the strength of your positive experience.
It is one impressive piece of charging equipment and the USB port is a well thought out feature that really should be a given on any such item that plugs in the wall or car.
My wife was recently in a motel room that had USB ports in the table lamps.

I have several of both, the Wasabi 110v/12v single chargers and the Wasabi USB dual chargers and I have been well pleased with them.
I may be singing a different tune in the future, but I have many Wasabi batteries in six different sizes and have not had a bad experience with them yet.

Like you described in your linked story, I soon discovered that I could swap plates between chargers --- so long as battery voltage was the same; some of my batteries are 3.7v and some are 7.4v

There are a number of USB chargers for the LP-E6 and similar batteries available on Amazon. Below is a link to one such charger that includes two third-party batteries, I bought this a few months ago, and so far, it and the batteries have worked perfectly. It cost me about $20, a black-Friday special. It is now about $29. As it has been on the market for only a few months, no one has any long-term experience with it. But so far it has only 5-star and 4-star reviews. Combine it with a 12v cigarette-lighter USB port to get in-vehicle charging capability.

https://www.amazon.com …n_title_s00?ie=​UTF8&psc=1

The current limit out from USB 1 or USB 2 is power limit of only about 500 mA, unless the port is USB 3/USB C which has 900 mA limit to current flow.
The speed (and number of batteries charged in a short time) is fundamentally limited by the input current, which is why I prefer using a 12V plug for automotive charging...the automobile accessory port is limited to 15A (or the rating of the fuse protecting the accessory port)!

Similarly, AC input is preferred over using a AC-to-USB adapter, and USB 3 (USB C) is preferred over USB 1/2 (USB A)

Those are old specs Wilt. USB2 slow charge?
Standard USB 3.0 ports output at a level of 5V/1A for smaller devices like wearables. Most phones and other devices are capable of handling 5V/2.4A.
A lot of USB chargers are now made for fast charging, where you're looking at something that bumps the voltage up 5V, 9V, 12V, and beyond, or increases amperage to 3A and above.

I've got this one, and it charges my Fast Charge enabled Note10 in about 30 minutes;
https://www.anker.com …jidRgROfknYhoCW​1IQAvD_BwE

Even the USB port built into my 2019 car is fast charge.

It looks like that charger he linked to is in fact limited to USB3 normal output though. So that won't be very fast.
The charger I mentioned was a DC and universal/internationa​l AC charger,. it just happens to have a USB3 charging port as well, which means more options.
There are USB Fast charge enabled USB LP-E6 chargers available; (still not as fast as the phone and laptop chargers)
https://www.nitecorest​ore.com …A9IrBJUd5iYhoC0​EsQAvD_BwE

Specs:
Input Voltage DC 5V/2A or 9V/2A
Output Voltage Slot 1 8.4V±1%
Output Voltage Slot 2 8.4V±1%
Output Current - QC Mode 1200mA*1 (MAX), 800mA*2 (MAX)

Those specs actually put this little charger as very competitive with most "normal" AC chargers. The fastest AC charger available for an LP-E6 near as I can find, is 2amps which will charge your battery from dead to full in about 2 hours.

Jake,
What you say is true, but the average consumer has no clue about which of the USB chargers are faster in his/her home, apart from the one supplied by the smartphone manufacturer with fast charge capability. "Which USB charger can I plug my LP-E6 battery charger into, if I also need to charge my phone?" I have tons of USB chargers in a drawer..."Can I use one of those?"

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #19178190
Those are old specs Wilt. USB2 slow charge?
Standard USB 3.0 ports output at a level of 5V/1A for smaller devices like wearables. Most phones and other devices are capable of handling 5V/2.4A.
A lot of USB chargers are now made for fast charging, where you're looking at something that bumps the voltage up 5V, 9V, 12V, and beyond, or increases amperage to 3A and above.

I've got this one, and it charges my Fast Charge enabled Note10 in about 30 minutes;
https://www.anker.com …jidRgROfknYhoCW​1IQAvD_BwE

Even the USB port built into my 2019 car is fast charge.

It looks like that charger he linked to is in fact limited to USB3 normal output though. So that won't be very fast.
The charger I mentioned was a DC and universal/internationa​l AC charger,. it just happens to have a USB3 charging port as well, which means more options.
There are USB Fast charge enabled USB LP-E6 chargers available; (still not as fast as the phone and laptop chargers)
https://www.nitecorest​ore.com …A9IrBJUd5iYhoC0​EsQAvD_BwE

Specs:
Input Voltage DC 5V/2A or 9V/2A
Output Voltage Slot 1 8.4V±1%
Output Voltage Slot 2 8.4V±1%
Output Current - QC Mode 1200mA*1 (MAX), 800mA*2 (MAX)

Those specs actually put this little charger as very competitive with most "normal" AC chargers. The fastest AC charger available for an LP-E6 near as I can find, is 2amps which will charge your battery from dead to full in about 2 hours.

I have a 5 port charger with specs similar to the anker you posted (8a with 2.4 max per port ). I don't use it a lot, only when I have multiple devices to charge and limited time to do the charging. Then it becomes a real blessing.

I have wasabi lp-e6 batteries for my camera but they are back-up batteries and i have only used one once.

Rod

Almost any USB charger made today runs 1A, and most are 2.1 or more. USB C PD output will run 18w.

The solar panel/power bank I just bought has 3 USB A ports, one a high output, and then a USB C PD port, an AC outlet, and a 12v car lighter power port, so I can charge my LP-E6 either via my USB dual LP-E6 charger or from my wall charger. I can charge the power bank via the car too if I want, and then have my LP-E6 charging from the bank while driving if I want. There are so many ways to solve the issue of charging the LP-E6 on the road these days!