Powering a DSLR via USB

[Dezerker]

Good evening all,

I really enjoy doing time-lapses, but have ruined too many by having to jog the camera to change the battery part way through - especially on those lovely cold, clear winter nights where you just want to let the camera run.  I recently bought one of those converter thingies (an ACK-E6) that allows you to power your camera from a USB power-bank, thinking that with a 'bank' of reasonable power reserves, I could last much longer than with a standard camera battery.

Sadly, I hadn't clocked that my camera (Canon 6d) needs the battery compartment door to be shut in order to power on - something that's not possible with the cable extending from the dummy battery.  I can fool the camera by using a needle to hold down the tiny lever that detects whether the door is closed, but can't think of how I might rig this up to stay that way for long periods of time.

Has anyone found a work-around for this, or managed to find ways of powering their DSLR for longer periods of time (uninterrupted) than a standard camera battery allows?  The battery grip option looks interesting, though would presumably add size / weight, and I'm not sure how well they work on time-lapses with the intermittent power requirements?

[david_taurus83]

Theres an opening to allow the cable to exit the battery compartment while the cover is shut.

[david_taurus83]

Theres a little rubber flap

 

[fifeskies]

(David got there just before me  🙄 )

Edited November 14, 2020 by fifeskies

[almcl]

I power my Canon 700d from an Easy Accumulator power bank which  lasts for ages (longer than me, anyway), but while the dummy battery is fine, it needs a power converter to step up the 5.2 volt output from the USB power bank to the 8 volts the Canon needs.

Of course if you are doing this via the mains adapter you won't need to bother with that.

[Dezerker]

18 hours ago, david_taurus83 said:

Theres an opening to allow the cable to exit the battery compartment while the cover is shut.

You, sir, are an absolute legend!  Thank you - I can't believe I hadn't clocked that, but I'm so grateful for the pointer!  And thanks too for the photo - I really appreciate your time on this.

Many thanks,

Derek

[Dezerker]

18 hours ago, fifeskies said:

(David got there just before me  🙄 )

Many thanks Fifeskies - I appreciate you taking the time to respond!

Derek

[Dezerker]

18 hours ago, almcl said:

I power my Canon 700d from an Easy Accumulator power bank which  lasts for ages..........

 

Thanks Almcl, very much appreciated.  What sort of size power bank are you using?  I have a 10,000mAh which I'm curious to test to see how long it lasts taking a time-lapse of the night sky.  I have a heftier one but that's usually powering the dew heater strip!  It'd be good to power them both from the same power bank, though from what I gather, these dummy batteries (or the DSLRs) require a particular amperage output from the power banks to keep them powered - is that your experience with your set up?

[almcl]

4 hours ago, Dezerker said:

 What sort of size power bank are you using?  I have a 10,000mAh which I'm curious to test to see how long it lasts taking a time-lapse of the night sky. 

It's a 20,000 mAh one, but this is way over spec'd for the job it does, it seldom drops below 75% capacity even on 4 hour session.

[Chefgage]

On 14/11/2020 at 17:26, Dezerker said:

Good evening all,

I really enjoy doing time-lapses, but have ruined too many by having to jog the camera to change the battery part way through - especially on those lovely cold, clear winter nights where you just want to let the camera run.  I recently bought one of those converter thingies (an ACK-E6) that allows you to power your camera from a USB power-bank, thinking that with a 'bank' of reasonable power reserves, I could last much longer than with a standard camera battery.

Sadly, I hadn't clocked that my camera (Canon 6d) needs the battery compartment door to be shut in order to power on - something that's not possible with the cable extending from the dummy battery.  I can fool the camera by using a needle to hold down the tiny lever that detects whether the door is closed, but can't think of how I might rig this up to stay that way for long periods of time.

Has anyone found a work-around for this, or managed to find ways of powering their DSLR for longer periods of time (uninterrupted) than a standard camera battery allows?  The battery grip option looks interesting, though would presumably add size / weight, and I'm not sure how well they work on time-lapses with the intermittent power requirements?

I power my DSLR with this. Lasts all night. 

 

[Dezerker]

On 15/11/2020 at 17:10, almcl said:

It's a 20,000 mAh one, but this is way over spec'd for the job it does, it seldom drops below 75% capacity even on 4 hour session.

That's super helpful to know - thank you!

[Dezerker]

4 hours ago, Chefgage said:

I power my DSLR with this. Lasts all night.

Thanks Chefgage!  What size (or rather, power) battery are you using there?

[Chefgage]

3 minutes ago, Dezerker said:

Thanks Chefgage!  What size (or rather, power) battery are you using there?

Here you go. The battery came with the DSLR dummy battery. My camera is a Canon 200D so requires the DR-E18 DC coupler (dummy battery).

 

[Alien 13]

I have found that the USB powered adapters a bit hit and miss especially with the more power hungry DSLR models, my own Canon 80D needs about 1.2A to run successfully which is on the limit of what a 5.2V 2A battery bank can provide... The solution for me was an adapter cable to the inverter that had two USB inputs so that I had 4A available.

Alan

[Chefgage]

5 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

I have found that the USB powered adapters a bit hit and miss especially with the more power hungry DSLR models, my own Canon 80D needs about 1.2A to run successfully which is on the limit of what a 5.2V 2A battery bank can provide... The solution for me was an adapter cable to the inverter that had two USB inputs so that I had 4A available.

Alan

After a bit of research in to this that is the conclusion i came to that the adapter/usb types do not deliver the correct power.Thats when i saw this dedicatedbattery with the correct output voltage for my dslr.  Seems to work so far.

[Dezerker]

On 16/11/2020 at 21:40, Chefgage said:

Here you go. The battery came with the DSLR dummy battery. My camera is a Canon 200D so requires the DR-E18 DC coupler (dummy battery).

Thanks Chefgage!

[Dezerker]

On 16/11/2020 at 22:00, Alien 13 said:

I have found that the USB powered adapters a bit hit and miss especially with the more power hungry DSLR models, my own Canon 80D needs about 1.2A to run successfully which is on the limit of what a 5.2V 2A battery bank can provide... The solution for me was an adapter cable to the inverter that had two USB inputs so that I had 4A available.

Alan

Thanks Alan, that's helpful to know - the dummy battery I bought has two inputs, so I'm going to try a couple of daytime time-lapses with it first to see if it behaves.  I don't want to be testing it on the first night out in a dark-sky site!  As you say, might need to boost the available power a wee bit to be sure.  I do have a separate power bank that I use for the dew heaters, but I suspect they're already drawing a reasonable amount of power....I'll have a tinker and see what works.

Thanks again!