Taperssection.com
Gear / Technical Help => Remote Power => Topic started by: Nick's Picks on August 30, 2005, 04:47:48 PM
-
http://www.bixnet.com/usbbatterybox.html
bueler?
-
you rock
-
I just ordered 2 much like those from the link in the 'Power' forum. $23.85 for 2 shipped!!! I'm planning on using 2500mAh rechargables. That should be plenty of power!
Edit:
This one. https://compactimpact.com/shopping/product_info.php?cPath=35&products_id=63
-
nice!
-
I just ordered one. They hit you hard on shipping, the $9.95 price was around $16.50 with the cheapest shipping option. It looks nicely small compared to the Tekkeon MyPower lithium rechargeable I was planning to use (with the USB adapter they sent me). I wonder if the voltage is well-regulated enough for the MicroTrack, if you use alkelines or lithium AAs four makes 6V, NiMH gives 5V.
Jeff
-
NiMH gives you 4.8v actualy
:)
-
I wonder if there would be a way to use my Valance batteries with this thing. With my power hungry laptop they would give me like 31/2 hours. I would really hate to have them become semi-useless.
I have the 2ndry power port / cigarette connector for the 12v side. If I could get a jb3 cig charger (I think thats at 5v) i cloud hack a USB connector maybe hmm
-
I just ordered one. They hit you hard on shipping, the $9.95 price was around $16.50 with the cheapest shipping option. It looks nicely small compared to the Tekkeon MyPower lithium rechargeable I was planning to use (with the USB adapter they sent me). I wonder if the voltage is well-regulated enough for the MicroTrack, if you use alkelines or lithium AAs four makes 6V, NiMH gives 5V.
Jeff
See my link above. Looks like the same thing. I ordered 2 for $10 each and priority shipping was $3.85 for a whopping total of $23.85!
Edit:
Check out this thread on down in this forum.
http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=48248.0
-
NiMH gives you 4.8v actualy
:)
So it won't work? I know nothing when it comes to powering stuff. ??? :-\
-
So would this just recharge the internal battery, or would it power the unit directly? ???
-
time will tell...
-
time will tell...
yes it will ... nice find +t
-
I just ordered 2 much like those from the link in the 'Power' forum. $23.85 for 2 shipped!!! I'm planning on using 2500mAh rechargables. That should be plenty of power!
Edit:
This one. https://compactimpact.com/shopping/product_info.php?cPath=35&products_id=63
Just got these 2 I ordered in the mail. Look pretty sturdy and good! Just so you know the box and all packaging info is in Japanese! Only think in Engrish is 'USB'. ;D
-
which is actualy japonese for "use specialsuperluckywish battery"
-
for the DIY's in the house:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/
-
for the DIY's in the house:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/
Hmmm, if you substitute a Walmart 9v lithium for the 9v transistor radio battery, should work, no?
-
I just wonder if there is a way we could connect a USB cable to 4pin XLR and then run off a SLA...
-
I am acutally building an all-in-one converter box. It is a 7805 chip and a chunk of breadboard inside a small project box. I am going to make it so that it can connect in on either a 9v alkaline (internal), a 4-pin 6v SLA(external) or a 7.2v-9v RC pack (external). For the out's: USB, 1/8" mono, and an adapta-plug connectorfor JB3 or my IPAQ PDA. I'll snap a few pics once it is done. I just have a lot of other crap going on right now and it is only about half built.
-
As a followup, I found what appears to be the same USB battery box Nick linked in post one, only for $3.99.
I have no clue is dealsonic.com is a legit place or not, but here is the link.
http://www.dealsonic.com/usbbapabapof.html
-
As a followup, I found what appears to be the same USB battery box Nick linked in post one, only for $3.99.
I have no clue is dealsonic.com is a legit place or not, but here is the link.
http://www.dealsonic.com/usbbapabapof.html
Using that box with 2500 mAh NiMH cells I found that the voltage drop meant that they cut off power to the MT prematurely. Though the cells showed as good on my Radio Shack meter, and the lttle green light on the box lit up, the MT shut down after 5 hours, not a big improvement over the 3 hours I got without it and nowhere near the promised 8 hours for the internal battery alone (Hah!).
I will be trying lithium AA cells tomorrow, that should work better. The USB box is speked for 1.5 V cells not 1.2 V.
Jeff
-
can you take off one pack and put on another half way thru or before the MT shuts down all while recording at the same time? or do you need to turn the unit off and then swap the packs?
-
what packs ed ???
theyre talking about using the 4xAA to power the internal lithium, so there is essentially no swapping
-
i thought that these were little packs that held 4aa batteries and they just connected to the usb power thing.
i was wondering if you could unplug the dying one and plug a fresh one in, all while continuing to record uninteruppted.
i think i'm going to go the leegeddy vr box route tho, that way i can use my walmart batts.
-
Ed, you should be able to switch packs on the fly. It would just require a new cable that has a split connection (so two packs can be plugged in at the same time in parallel).
DON'T order from this place: http://buyfromscott.com
They charged me $10 for shipping (which was fine) but then only shipped my pack first class mail. Their website says UPS and USPS on pkgs less than 2 lbs. I assumed they'd ship it priority mail (which is generally great and costs $3.85, that includes packing materials)...
-
can you take off one pack and put on another half way thru or before the MT shuts down all while recording at the same time? or do you need to turn the unit off and then swap the packs?
I have unplugged the USB box to see what the meter readings on the MT were (when the box is feeding power it shows only CHG for charging) and it does not stop or pause the unit. I have not checked to see if it gives burp in the recorded sound, though. I'll try that once I get a fix on the battery life.
Jeff
-
for the DIY's in the house:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/ (http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/)
Hmmm, if you substitute a Walmart 9v lithium for the 9v transistor radio battery, should work, no?
Yes, you could. You could also use a 7.2v battery pack. That 7805 chip converts low voltages like 7-24 down to 5v. Actually mine was kicking out 4.95v. I have yet to figure out if that is enough for the JB3 or not. I tested it out on a 9v alkaline and a 6v SLA which is really something like 6.65v (don't recall of top of head)
The only thing that you need to keep in mind is that the excess voltage is dissipated as heat so that little chip will get hot as hell if you are throwing something like 12v at it. I have seen some folks place a small heatsink on the chip to keep it from overheating and shutting down.
I just wonder if there is a way we could connect a USB cable to 4pin XLR and then run off a SLA...
Yes, there is. In fact, you can solder in any kind of connector that you'd like. In my case I am using a small project box that is big enough to house the chip and several types of connectors.
-
for the DIY's in the house:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/ (http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000270029372/)
Hmmm, if you substitute a Walmart 9v lithium for the 9v transistor radio battery, should work, no?
Yes, you could. You could also use a 7.2v battery pack. That 7805 chip converts low voltages like 7-24 down to 5v. Actually mine was kicking out 4.95v. I have yet to figure out if that is enough for the JB3 or not. I tested it out on a 9v alkaline and a 6v SLA which is really something like 6.65v (don't recall of top of head)
The only thing that you need to keep in mind is that the excess voltage is dissipated as heat so that little chip will get hot as hell if you are throwing something like 12v at it. I have seen some folks place a small heatsink on the chip to keep it from overheating and shutting down.
I just wonder if there is a way we could connect a USB cable to 4pin XLR and then run off a SLA...
Yes, there is. In fact, you can solder in any kind of connector that you'd like. In my case I am using a small project box that is big enough to house the chip and several types of connectors.
i am using 7.2v NIMH packs and i will be using them w/ this thing if it ever pans out!
-
Newbie question:
What would produce longer runtimes?
1.) 4xAA batteries at 1.5 volts each (so 6 volts total) regulated down to 5volts
or
2.) A single 9volt battery regulated down to 5 volts?
I know mah comes into play here, but am unsure how to adjust for overall mah based on the voltage of each battery.
-
#1
-
Newbie question:
What would produce longer runtimes?
1.) 4xAA batteries at 1.5 volts each (so 6 volts total) regulated down to 5volts
or
2.) A single 9volt battery regulated down to 5 volts?
I know mah comes into play here, but am unsure how to adjust for overall mah based on the voltage of each battery.
I don't think that the 7805 works right unless the voltage delta is > 2v. I did find that it will run fine off of my 6v SLA, but it's true voltage is 6.something. Even though that is below the 2v delta and I have not run any tests, but it might be possible that as it drops down closer to 6v it may shut off.
paging leegeddy.
-
You're correct -- you should have at least a 2v differential, so at least 7v input for a 7805 5v regulator. Doug Oade has suggested putting one or two diodes in series with the + output rather than using a voltage regulator. I think each diode drops it by 0.6v (though it might be 0.7v, you should check). So two diodes in series would drop the voltage of 2 alkaline AAs by 1.2v, so 6v down to 4.8v. I have no idea if that will work. But NiMH AA's are 1.2v each, so 4.8v for four and WifiJeff reported that NIMH AAs didn't work the greatest, I'm not sure that alkalines plus a couple of diodes would work any better. Something to experiment with, but using a 7805 5v voltage regulator off of 6v is not recommended and probably won't work too well.
-
You're correct -- you should have at least a 2v differential, so at least 7v input for a 7805 5v regulator. Doug Oade has suggested putting one or two diodes in series with the + output rather than using a voltage regulator. I think each diode drops it by 0.6v (though it might be 0.7v, you should check). So two diodes in series would drop the voltage of 2 alkaline AAs by 1.2v, so 6v down to 4.8v. I have no idea if that will work. But NiMH AA's are 1.2v each, so 4.8v for four and WifiJeff reported that NIMH AAs didn't work the greatest, I'm not sure that alkalines plus a couple of diodes would work any better. Something to experiment with, but using a 7805 5v voltage regulator off of 6v is not recommended and probably won't work too well.
I actually bought a pack of 5.1v zener diodes when I got the rest of the parts and I was going to try one of those too.
I will still try to run the lm7805 off of a 6v SLA and see what happens...just for shits and giggles. It the meantime I am including a connector for a RC pack, so I can do 9.6v or 7.2v straight in.
-
Thanks guys. Very informative stuff.
I asked because radio shack has all those supplies for one of the usb packs and I was going to try making one with the idea of using 4 AA.
WiFi Jeff reported in one of the other threads that today he used 4 lithium AA in the USB battery box and was at 8 hours of power and counting. Pretty sure lithiums are 1.5 volts, so 6 total. That USB batt box must be using something to ramp it down to 5 volts, but maybe not the 7805 chip. Of course they could be using diodes or something else, and we probably can't tell without taking one apart.
-
that slick ass voltage regulater from wallmart looks like a no brainer.
I like no brainers. suites me.
I have one that takes a 12v source and drops it down to 9.6, 7.2 and 6v. but not 5.
:(
-
The USB battery box with 4 lithium AAs (plus fully charged internal battery) ended up lasting just about 10 hours. I don't know how good the voltage regulation of the box is, since even when the voltage dropped too low to run the MT the green light on the USB box was still glowing (as it was for the 1.2V NiMH cells, even when they pretty quickly stopped running the MT). The lithium cells read okay but just on the border of okay/replace on my Radio Shack battery meter, when new they spike the meter all the way to the right.
Chris at SP is thinking of throwing one of these boxes in with orders for the MT, and is working on getting a custon shorter USB cable to connect them.
I have cycled the battery four or five times now, and am testing to see if there is any improvement in the life before testing regular alkaline cells.
Jeff
Edit: I got 3 hours from the MT without USB power again today. No loss evident from the USB on/off cycling, no gain from coinditioning (or else they cancel out!!!) >:(
-
the voltage can stay 6v but you dont have enough current to power your device .
the littium dont drop in voltage until they finally collapse , the same is with ni-mh they stay 1,2 v until 99% of their capacity , the meter can still read 6 vor 4,8) with nimh while there not no enouth juice( power) in the batteries at all .
the regullar alkaline , go down very fast down in voltage under load , so it can be that even you use 4 that give you 6 v on open circuit they will very fast go under the minimum that usb need ,so actually you will not use all the capacity from the battery.
http://www.nimhbattery.com/delkin-rcr-123a-rechargeable-charger.htm
you can use these ( you need 2) in your box , the benefit of rechargeable lithium ion, they dont have big self discharge curv, less then 10% per year , so you dont have to remember to charge it if you did it ones and dint use it , the ni mh must to been charge every time before use since drop very fast in self capacity( the v stay 1.2)
-
I mentioned this in a previous thread... I think most AA Lithium batts are between 1800-2200 mAH and coupled with the USB pack Jeff was able to get ~10hrs of recording. The pricey $110 rechargable lithium USB power pack here: http://www.socketcom.com/product/AC4009-541.asp is rated 7200 mAH (nominal 4400 mAH, I have no idea what the difference is between nominal and rated capacity) but even if its 2x what you get with normal lithiums, that would be approx 20 hrs of recording. I'm realizing that the microtrack is probably less $ than one would end up spending compared to battery and CF card supplies...
-
I mentioned this in a previous thread... I think most AA Lithium batts are between 1800-2200 mAH and coupled with the USB pack Jeff was able to get ~10hrs of recording.
The Battery Station lithium AAs ($1 each in packs of 20), which are supposed to be clones of the lithium Energizers, are labeled 2900 mAh.
Jeff
-
The USB battery box with 4 lithium AAs (plus fully charged internal battery) ended up lasting just about 10 hours. I don't know how good the voltage regulation of the box is, since even when the voltage dropped too low to run the MT the green light on the USB box was still glowing (as it was for the 1.2V NiMH cells, even when they pretty quickly stopped running the MT). The lithium cells read okay but just on the border of okay/replace on my Radio Shack battery meter, when new they spike the meter all the way to the right.
Chris at SP is thinking of throwing one of these boxes in with orders for the MT, and is working on getting a custon shorter USB cable to connect them.
I have cycled the battery four or five times now, and am testing to see if there is any improvement in the life before testing regular alkaline cells.
Jeff
could you just toss in another 4xAA's and do you think the MT would keep running or would the MT battery be too low to really start charging again at that point ???
-
could you just toss in another 4xAA's and do you think the MT would keep running or would the MT battery be too low to really start charging again at that point ???
I think you can just pull the USB box off and let it run on the internal battery, assuming you don't go right down to zero, and clip on another box or just put in new AAs and reconnect the old box. NOT NiMH AAs, but lithiums. I will test alkalines as soon as I finish testing whether I am getting better time from the internl battery alone. (Doesn't look like it 1 hour into the test, though :-[ )
Jeff
-
I remember being told to discharge and recharge batts like laptop/cellphones etc... and was wondering if by plugging in the USB power pack you are essentially simultaneously discharging/recharging the internal lithium batt of the MT - would that have an affect the life span on the batt since you're basically in a constant state of cycling?? I guess it also depends on whether it discharges faster than it recharges via USB.
-
+T jeff
great point jason, id def let the batts FULLY discharge then FULLY recharge!
-
great point jason, id def let the batts FULLY discharge then FULLY recharge!
Unlike nicads, deep discharges are not good for lithium batteries.
-
Even if they are not deep/complete discharges, is a state of constant cycling OK for lithiums?? I know for my laptop, I've always tried to keep a habit of disconnecting the Li batt when I have the lappy plugged into AC... I really have no idea, just curious.
-
The big concern with lions in laptops is HEAT. Lions really really hate heat. It greatly shortens their life. So baking them while you're on a/c shortens their life due to the heat. Same thing about keeping them in a hot car. They also don't last as long when kept fully charged. But if you keep them in the fridge, fully charged is not so bad. Also, Lions have a finite number of charge cycles.
I don't think most charging circuits would be constantly cycling as you describe. But to operate and charge, the unit needs enough current. That's why the internal battery stayed charged during the test with the lithium cells but not the nimh.
Great Lithium info:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttw
Well.. No fedex micro tracker yet.. I want to get that thing on the charger for the show tonight (which is late but I want to get in early)! Now I'm starting to wonder if I can feed it 5.0v from my jb3 setup (SIMA) and still run tonight..
-
The big concern with lions in laptops is HEAT. Lions really really hate heat. It greatly shortens their life.
The MT does not get hot. Even compared to an M1 DAT, it stays room temperature, maybe a slight, barely perceptible, warmth over the LCD screen area. When I carried it in a jacket pocket Saturday there was a tiny bit more heat but still nothing that I would suspect to lead to loss of battery life. I am a bit concerned about the charge/discharge cycling now, will try to get more info from tech support.
Jeff
-
Holy crap. That site has loads of good info. Thanks for the link.
-
It is here. It is plugged in and charging. The charging indicator on the LCD is sweeping left to right and not blinking..
Mine did that too, then it changed to blinking really really fast.
-
Ok, I put together a voltage regulator box to output 5v. Made some cables to run it with my Walmart battery and then out to my JB3. Worked great, ran the JB3 without a glitch with no batteries inside. Then I made a mini-usb cable and ran it with my Zen Micro. Like the MT, the Zen micro needs to have it's internal li-ion battery to run and it powers itself from the mini-usb port. My Zen Micro worked perfectly when being powered from the Walmart+voltage regulator box and the Micro showed that is was plugged in and charging normally.
I'm getting my MT delivered tomorrow, but from these tests, I'm pretty confident the MT will work fine with the Walmart battery + voltage regulator box.
Some pictures of the set-up:
-
FYI:
For those who may want to hack a cable for use with 6v SLA's :
Pin Name Color Notes
1 VBUS Red Power
2 D- White Data -
3 D+ Green Data +
4 ID - Type A - GND: Type B - NC
5 GND Black Ground
-
Ok, I put together a voltage regulator box to output 5v. Made some cables to run it with my Walmart battery and then out to my JB3. Worked great, ran the JB3 without a glitch with no batteries inside. Then I made a mini-usb cable and ran it with my Zen Micro. Like the MT, the Zen micro needs to have it's internal li-ion battery to run and it powers itself from the mini-usb port. My Zen Micro worked perfectly when being powered from the Walmart+voltage regulator box and the Micro showed that is was plugged in and charging normally.
I'm getting my MT delivered tomorrow, but from these tests, I'm pretty confident the MT will work fine with the Walmart battery + voltage regulator box.
Some pictures of the set-up:
Nice +T, how many hours of run time did you get ?
-
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/leegeddy/vr-jbox/vr-jbox-usb.jpg)
i will be offering the USB power cable to run with the Bumblebee VR JBox.
features:
-regulated 5v (up to 1.5A of current)
-4pin xlr connector
-ferrite core RF/EMI suppression
if you have one of my VR JBox with a 5v output, you can easily run the MT by using this cable.
marc
-
+T marc, as always, looks GREAT!
if the MT pans out, which im sure it will, i'll def be buying one of these!
-
I've been wondering how they get 6v down to 5...
Ditto. I was thinking the zenar diode might be the trick, but this sounds like they have more parts in there. Any chance you could post a picture of the insides?
I've got one on order but its much more fun to build em myself.
-
i will be offering the USB power cable to run with the Bumblebee VR JBox.
features:
-regulated 5v (up to 1.5A of current)
-4pin xlr connector
-ferrite core RF/EMI suppression
if you have one of my VR JBox with a 5v output, you can easily run the MT by using this cable.
marc
Marc does this cable work with the mini Bumblebee boxes?
Mine is a dual output model (like the one pictured), I'm just curious..............
yes. just substitute the jb3 lead with the usb lead and you can run the MT/ua5 combo off of your battery of choice.
marc
-
Ok, I got my MT and have been testing it using my "Juice Box" voltage regulator and a Walmart Li-ion battery:
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b82/tramsden/JuiceBoxwithMT.jpg)
I haven't yet done testing to see how long the MT runs with the Juice Box and the 5400ma-hr Walmart battery, but so far it has been working great. I'll be selling the Juice Box for $35 shipped. It should be a good solution for running several types of 5v equipment including the JB3, the new Microtrack, and the PMD660. I will be making mini-USB cables to use it with the MT. Additionally, I can also make a version with a pass-through output for running a UA5 or V3 along with a MT.
More info on it can be found on my post in the retail section (http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=49744.msg659892#msg659892).
-
I was in Fred Myer yesterday and they have these 4000mah lithium-ion batterys for $29.99
Its just like the wally world battery but is smaller and has switchable voltage out. Yes it does 5-volts it comes with all the ends so powering the nj3 out of the box and a quick couple of mins with a soldering iron and you can make a 5v USB cable. You can even recharge from AC and from your car
-
Rather than using a 7805, you might want to consider a low dropout regulator like the LM2940 (http://www.national.com/pf/LM/LM2940.html). For increased efficiency on higher voltage packs, you should consider a switching regulator like the PT78ST105 (http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/pt78st105.html) (1A) or the 78HT205 (http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/pt78ht205.html) (2A.)
-
http://www.bixnet.com/usbbatterybox.html
Anyone can help me get one of these? They look like they don't want to do business with Europeans. Please PM me if you can help.
-
I was in Fred Myer yesterday and they have these 4000mah lithium-ion batterys for $29.99
Its just like the wally world battery but is smaller and has switchable voltage out. Yes it does 5-volts it comes with all the ends so powering the nj3 out of the box and a quick couple of mins with a soldering iron and you can make a 5v USB cable. You can even recharge from AC and from your car
How big is this thing? It looks like it is not much bigger than a 4 x AA battery box?
Might be interesting! (if someone could help me get one)
-
For anyone using one of the USB battery boxes like those from bixnet....
I was in Walmart today and found a battery charger that contained 4xAA rechargeable NiMH batteries. Each battery was rated at 1.25 volts, 2200 mAh. I had yet to find any rechargeables rated at 1.25 volts (everything else seemed to be 1.2 volts), so I picked up a set. Maybe all those 1.2 volt batteries are really 1.25, but these were the only ones labeled as such. Anyway, Walmart online seems to be sold out of this thing, but here is a picture of the item nonetheless. My local store had plenty on the shelf.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=2598517
-
Here is one for those of you that want to keep it simple.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5818145620&fromMakeTrack=true
Brad
-
Here is one for those of you that want to keep it simple.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5818145620&fromMakeTrack=true
Brad
Not bad for $0.01! $24 shipping though...
-
I don't think I've seen the numbers anywhere - anyone know how many mA the MT2496 draws while recording?
-
I don't think I've seen the numbers anywhere - anyone know how many mA the MT2496 draws while recording?
while I'm not sure of the current draw of the MicroTrack, I'm pretty sure that the AC plug that came with it is rated for 1000mA. so it's got to be less than that, right?
-
I've got no idea really, but based on the physical size of the battery that's in there and the record times, I'd guess that it isn't more than 250ma or so when recording spdif in (no phantom obviously).
-
FYI:
For those who may want to hack a cable for use with 6v SLA's :
Pin Name Color Notes
1 VBUS Red Power
2 D- White Data -
3 D+ Green Data +
4 ID - Type A - GND: Type B - NC
5 GND Black Ground
so if i hack a usb cable i have laying around, i can connect + to the red and - to the black, and attach to a 4pin for my 5v source? is this right?