Anyone has DIY Battery pack for 580EX??

Mystwalker wrote in post #6536979
What is advantage of CP-E4? Does it allow faster recharge? I think my 580EXII on four rechargeables currently take 4-5 seconds to charge - not 100% sure . A little longer as battery is depleted, but I change them out often.

Would love to get that down to .5-1sec

I think Quantum is a possible solution, but too expensive for non-pro like myself.

Also read about "AlJacobs.com" which sounds interesting and much more affordable, but not sure if ~$250 (battery+cable) is worth it when recharge is like 2-3secs - I think that's the spec.

CP-E4 cuts the full cycle time from about 6 seconds to about 2 seconds. Since you rarely use a full charge it's practically instant.

tkoutdoor wrote in post #6537028
What is high voltage to you? It wouldn't surprise me if they just ran all of the batteries in series instead of some in parallel. If we're talking about 6 batteries that'd be 9 volts +/-, 8 batteries in that application would be 12 volts +/-. Neither of those are high voltage (thousands of volts). There may be some performance advantage to keeping the power source in series instead of parallel, but no doubt there's more than one way to hook up an external power source. If Canon are truly using high voltage input then they're doing it for the sake of performance. Intercepting the input leads from the internal battery compartment should still work, but may not include the performance gain that Canon may have included in their design. Anyone know what the output voltage readings are that come out of the Canon battery packs? In the case of intercepting the internal battery leads and not using the Canon jack - that's potentially not a "replacement" for the Canon units, but an alternative instead. I'm not sure which would be the case without knowing what the actual voltage is that runs through the Canon jacks.

You're arguing based on emotion rather than information. A 2 second google search tells me the output voltage is about 300V. Plug 12V into the high voltage port on the 580 and I doubt anything good will happen.

tim wrote in post #6537092
CP-E4 cuts the full cycle time from about 6 seconds to about 2 seconds. Since you rarely use a full charge it's practically instant.

Indeed...I just shot last nite with my two 580EXII at 1/2-1/4 power and it just goes and goes. I love the CP-E4.

tim wrote in post #6537092
CP-E4 cuts the full cycle time from about 6 seconds to about 2 seconds. Since you rarely use a full charge it's practically instant.

You're arguing based on emotion rather than information. A 2 second google search tells me the output voltage is about 300V. Plug 12V into the high voltage port on the 580 and I doubt anything good will happen.

My arguments are perfectly logical. I've stated I didn't know what the voltage was going through the Canon ports and asked how you were defining high voltage. You've provided an actual answer as well as a bit of your own emotional fluff. There's plenty of logic in my analysis and caveats that have dealt with the unknowns as "unknown". I haven't wandered into an emotional area, but I'm finding your willingness to drive people off of this as a DIY project based on your fear of a high voltage issue as something other than a logical response to the matter. Perhaps fear is one of the emotions? Fear is typically overcome by logic.

Since you now seem to have some specifics to present to the discussion (kudos) I will agree that (in light of the voltage) creating a "replacement" for the Canon battery pack is more difficult, but the alternative I've mentioned previously should still be a viable workaround, though not equal to the Canon pack. I wouldn't even recommend my idea as a workaround since the Canon pack would outperform the alternative. I'd definitely prefer the Canon method or a similar replacement as I would prefer the short recycle time of the flash unit. I'm confident there's a way to add a DIY battery pack to the unit, but if Canon is in fact using high voltage then I'll agree with you that it's both more complicated and much less likely to be worth the time and risk if one is designing a solution equal to the Canon solution.

Canon's way of doing it though is not necessarily everyone's way. If the flash unit in question doesn't use a high voltage pack then what I've been talking about would still likely be the way to work with that product. I would speculate that Canon has a leg up on some of the 3rd party flashes when it comes to the technology they would employ in their flashes.

I don't much care if people use an off-brand high voltage pack, but I wouldn't due to risk of damage to the flash when using high voltages. The chances are they'll work fine, but how long will it be before someone posts "I was using this cheap Chinese battery pack and my flash blew up help!"

tim wrote in post #6537580
I don't much care if people use an off-brand high voltage pack, but I wouldn't due to risk of damage to the flash when using high voltages. The chances are they'll work fine, but how long will it be before someone posts "I was using this cheap Chinese battery pack and my flash blew up help!"

True, once it crosses over into the high voltage arena it's a fair question to ask if the power is clean and stable. If it's low cost, it's much less likely. If the risk were only to the cheap power unit that's one thing, but if it's a risk to the expensive Canon flash unit that's way too risky IMO.

At the very least I'd want to see a UL rating (or something similar) and have some seen some good usage history before I'd be willing to give it a try. I don't think I'd find that and I don't think I'd be using the knockoff in this case either. Another scenario might be if one was using something like this on a $100 flash or something used and cheap, in that case it might be worth the risk.

Well in that case I guess I'll be looking for CP-E4.. Thanks guys for your advice and help!

yuriyo923 wrote in post #6539399
Well in that case I guess I'll be looking for CP-E4.. Thanks guys for your advice and help!

I see them around used every now and then. Maybe that's the way to save a buck. I've seen them here and it wouldn't surprise me if keh.com would have this from time to time.

yuriyo923 wrote in post #6539399
Well in that case I guess I'll be looking for CP-E4.. Thanks guys for your advice and help!

That or if you have the bucks, get a Quantum turbo and not having to worry about rechargeable AAs. Same recycle time.

I wouldn't bother with cheap Chinese alternatives, be it CP-E4 knock-off or anything else. Not worth it if you already spend hundreds for your gear.