jason porter Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 Does anyone know if I can charge a battery (NP-1 or 7.2V DV batt) while it is still connected to my equipment? Or would I have to disconnect the gear from the battery to protect it? My batteries are buried in my ENG bag and I was thinking it would be nice to just plug the battery in to a charger instead of having to dig it out. Any thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted October 15, 2009 Report Share Posted October 15, 2009 this may depend on the battery itself, and your hookup, ...but lots of us have our systems designed so that we can disconnect the battery from the gear, and connect a charger overnight, during lunch, etc. this also allows connecting an outside source (AC supply or an external battery) into the gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason porter Posted October 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 well, I am using 7.2V DV cam batteries right now. Just to be more clear...I do not intend on powering the gear AND charge the battery at the same time. Am I correct in assuming that as long as all the switches remain in the OFF position (and therefore not drawing any current) while the battery is charging everything will be OK and safe? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 Just to be more clear...I do not intend on powering the gear AND charge the battery at the same time. Thank you for that... I was just about to sound off about not powering audio equipment from a battery which has a charger hooked up to it. As you probably know, most battery charger are designed to CHARGE a battery, properly and in good time, and usually use various charging rates/voltages/current to charge the battery. All of these things can and do introduce noise in audio devices. - Jeff Wexler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek H Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I like this question, something about it stirs up some good DIY juices.. So how might one make a charging system where you have a special cable that comes out of the bag and connects to a charger? Would it just be another tap off of the + and - ? would some kind of filtering be necessary to make sure the gear doesn't get fried? I like the idea of burying the battery in the bag and just connecting a power cable at the end of the day to recharge. May also be good for a camera hops situation where the external battery for the receivers is buried in some kind of bag and you don't want to pry the battery out every night.. May be more trouble than it's worth but just curious.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 I imagine a simple "Y" cable arrangement would work or, as you suggest, just another cable that looks just like the others (that are feeding equipment off the battery) but in this case gets connected to the battery charger. I don't think any of the gear would get fried if it is all off --- even the most aggressive chargers probably do not put out enough juice to do any damage to the gear. One thing to consider, though, is whether you have more than one battery hooked up --- most chargers to do their work properly need to be looking at the state of just one battery. Lastly, you have to be sure that any DC distribution device you may have in line (like the BDS boxes, etc.) do not have any diodes in place that are providing a one way signal path from the battery to the load (equipment). A diode, or similar protection, would prevent the DC traveling back to the battery from the charger. - Jeff Wexler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Popp Posted November 24, 2009 Report Share Posted November 24, 2009 Interesting topic. First off, it will technically work, but you bring a lot of factors into the mix by doing it this way. First off, you need to find a "charger" that has the ability to provide clean power to both the devices AND the battery. It has to be able to handle the load. I have a 50 Amp Hour battery for my cart, and an IOTA 35Amp Power Supply. This allows me to handle the load of all the equipment on my cart as well as supply power to the battery. If I was pulling 15Amps because of my gear (obviously I am no where near that type of draw), the battery will be charging with the remainder of the 20Amps. If you are working in an ENG bag, I recommend placing batteries in all of your units, and using a BDS system to supply power to everything in the bag. Yes it is a little cumbersome to change the batteries every few hours - especially when they are stuck in the bottom of the bag, but - it will allow you to switch out relatively fast. With cart work, that there are many different options to supply continuous power to your gear, and makes it a lot easier to do so! I hope this helps... ~Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel McIntosh Posted December 13, 2009 Report Share Posted December 13, 2009 The Fostex PD2 DAT machine charged the internal NP1 while operating. There was also no INT/EXT power switch- the unit would auto switch to the higher voltage present. When the PD4 was released it did not charge the NP1, and an INT/EXT switch was added. I recall discussion at the time that Fostex had determined that the PD2 scheme was unstable and had caused power supply failures. There are old school NP1 chargers that provide a 12v power supply while charging. I used to own one made by Hitachi. (Anton Bauer did not roll that way.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfvid Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Look at the links in this it will be a help http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/Battery_watcher.pdf wolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ken Mantlo Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Were can a guy get one of those cool gadgets? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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