lipo camcorder

[mistercrash]

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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[Arct1k]

Nice job... Just watch the cutoff as normally in the battery electrics which you removed...

[mistercrash]

Originally Posted by Arct1k

Nice job... Just watch the cutoff as normally in the battery electrics which you removed...

Thanks and yes, I'm aware that I will have to be careful not to over discharge the lipo. Small price to pay.

[What's_nitro?]

Nice work. That's pretty sweet that it doesn't get in the way of anything.

[eovnu87435ds]

lipo always wins! I just finished modding a nintendo DS by soldering a micro deans to the main power leads so I could run either the stock 850mah li-ion or a 4000 mah zippy single cell lipo! I found the same thing that you did. My new lipo technically has 5 times the amount of runtime, yet it has lasted over 2 days turned on, with mario kart playing... theres something missing in the math that is giving us more runtime than expected..

[What's_nitro?]

2 days of Mario Kart..... MMmmmmmm I prefer the x64 edition!

[mistercrash]

I used the camcorder for a total of one hour and 25 minutes, filming or viewing always with the LCD screen on. I went to recharge the battery on my CellPro 10s and it said there was still 86% fuel left in the lipo Best battery I ever put on this camcorder