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2 batteries for non-stop recording... or with two types of batteries


Boomboom

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I remember having seen a topic on the forum with a 2-batts rig and wondererd if it's as simple as having two battery cups mounted in parallel to feed the distro ? My NP1s are slowly fading away and I'd take the opportunity to go from NP1s to the lighter Hi-Q batts in the process. I'd simply buy a new batt and single charger, put a battery cup in parallel with my NP1 cup in my bag and go from there. 

Now, usually, things are not that simple; would that be a situation where it is indeed ''just that'' and I can pop the champagne ?  

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Electricity will flow from the battery with the highest voltage, so when you plugin in a fresh battery (regardless of chemistry) assuming it is at a higher voltage, it'll take the load. If the 2 batteries connected have the same voltage, they will share the load (batteries in parallel have the same voltage but will combine current - amps) and draw down together.

 

The only caveat to all of this, if you have a full battery and a dead battery in parallel the dead battery will charge off of the full battery, so be quick on your battery changes, as this could cause a huge current draw and pop fuses in your fresh battery, so test it before trying in the field. Systems properly designed for multiple battery connections will have diodes to keep the power from feeding into the batteries with the lower state of charge.

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Thanks a lot for your input about this !

I will make ''standard'' battery swaps, it's just that I'd be using two different types of batteries, hence the two cups (slowly converting from NP1s to HiQs as my NP1s die).

I wouldn't be using two batteries at the same time. So that's good news. 

Cheers 

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I think you will still need something like diodes to isolate the two batteries, but using one battery at a time should be a workable strategy.  The diodes will drop about 0.6v which will equate to some small amount of lost power.

Even with two different types of batteries, as long as they are the same nominal voltage things should still work.

Run off the first battery until is nearly discharged, then add a fresh battery to the empty slot.  At that point the fresh battery will take over the entire load because its voltage will be higher (and the diode will prevent it from charging the spent battery).  Then you can remove the spent battery for recharging.

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I've got 3 battery cups in parallel going into a Remote Audio Battery distribution system.  I use IDX NP1s, both the older blue ones and the newer black NP1X. I usually use them one at a time and then use an extra cup (s) for a hot swap when we are going on forever and the battery indicator is in the red.  I have also used all the battery cups at once for long runtimes and it worked perfectly.  The RA distribution has thermal fuses and I believe the IDX batteries are also internally protected against dead shorts.  I haven't put diodes in the system, but each cup is individually fused, so I'm double protected against short circuits.  Been running this for a number of years without any incident other than a AA falling into one of the NP1 cups when it's protective cover fell off,  shorting the contacts and tripping the thermal fuse on the RA battery distribution.  

 

YMMV!  Diodes would probably be a really good idea, but the system as described should work without them.

 

Cheers,

Brent Calkin

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Audio Department in Burbank make a dual Np cup that works rather well. I used it to power my cart when it was stripped to a more basic rig. 
 

there is also the BDS made by PSC with multiple power sources that one could use. 

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