My old MiniDV camcorder needed a new battery. The first one, the original one, was a 7.2V 1000 mah Li Ion battery that never performed well when recording with the LCD screen. I could get a maximum of maybe 10 minutes of recording when using the LCD screen. I upgraded to the biggest battery that could be found at the time which was a 1360 mah one. It was better, a little, maybe close to 16/17 minutes of filming with the LCD screen. Recently, the battery's performance dropped dramatically. I didn't want to spend money on another battery that would perform in a way that would not satisfy me so I thought of using a spare receiver battery from my nitro Revo. A Protek 7.4V 2300 mah lipo battery.
I opened the casing of the Li Ion battery, gutted everything inside except for the tabs that bring the power to the camcorder. I soldered the + and - leads of the lipo on the tabs and wrapped the lipo with the casing using a little CA glue to secure it in place. A piece of heat shrink finishes it off. I left the balance taps sticking out to recharge the batt when needed. It doesn't look as good as before but it's not that bad
And I get a lot of filming time even when using the LCD screen. Last time I used it, I filmed for 35 minutes with the screen on and there was still plenty of power left in the lipo.
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