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Home made (USB-cable) charger for a Camcorder.

North

Jul 19, 2010
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Hi,
I bought a video camera Cannon Legria FS200 but I lost the charger which had a USB end. I have a charger for a car vacuum with a similar voltage (9.6) and I wanted to cut a USB cable and connect the end to the vacuum charger. What I have done is connect the USB black and red cable to the red and black from the charger but it does not seem to charge ( I checked before the polarity with my tester). I have then removed the battery and connect directly the red cable to the + and the black to the - as printed in the battery pack ( 7.4v)but the battery does not seem to take charge. Anyone knows what I am doing wrong?
Thanks.
North
 

Resqueline

Jul 31, 2009
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Well, USB is regulated 5V DC, and ... But perhaps you can describe the car vacuum charger a bit closer (very much closer)?
 

shrtrnd

Jan 15, 2010
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I am thinking your vacuum battery charger would be supplying considerably more current than what your camera charger system would be expecting. Watch out you
don't damage your camera batteries.
 

North

Jul 19, 2010
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Thanks for your responses.

The car vacuum charger gives an output of 9-9.6v at 200 mA. The camcorder battery is 7.4.
Just to clarify, I have cut off the small end of an USB cable and connected it to the charger following the red to red and black to black principle. I wonder if either the red or the black cable is the wrong one to use in this particular case.
North
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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If you're wiring up a 9V power supply to a USB cable and using that to charge the camera battery, the reason it may not be charging is that you may have already damaged the camera.

As Resqueline says, USB is 5V, the camera will be expecting 5V, 9V could kill it.

Now, if it's not actually a USB connector, that may not apply. USB cables will have 4 (occasionally 5) wires in the cable. If yours had only 2, then maybe it's not USB at all.

What does the camera's manual say about the power requirements?
 

North

Jul 19, 2010
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Home made charger for a Camcorder

Hi,
I bought a Canon Video camera and I lost the charger which uses a USB connector. I found a charger for a portable vacuum cleaner with similar output and I did cut the end of a USB cable and I connected it to the vacuum charger using the red-red and black-black cables. It does not charge, furhtermore I tried all combinations with the 4 cables in the USB cable and the camera does not seems to charge. I wanted to try applying the vacuum charger directly to the battery but I am unsure whether:
a) it can damage the battery
b) what is the right polarity for the input(please see picture)Or in other words where do I connect the black and where the red?
Thanks
 

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Resqueline

Jul 31, 2009
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Starting a separate new thread about the same thing only serves to confuse matters so I hereby moved your last post where it belongs.
I think you're on a wild goose chase here, and that you may already have damaged the camera.
As for your last questions:
a) YES, it will!
b) I won't tell..
 

North

Jul 19, 2010
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OK. I appologize for this. I promise not to do it ever again ;)
The camera is not damaged as the battery has been charged a little bit.
So what is the solution then?
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Well, one cheap option would be a USB adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter of your car.

These are extremely cheap, you may want to look for something with better construction. Just beware that you don't pay a lot more for something just as poor!
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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But it will give me just 5v and the battery is 7.6v. Would that be enough? If so can I use a regular universal USB charger like this: http://www.blueunplugged.com/p.aspx?p=117367
connected to the mains?
Thanks,
North

thats right cuz a USB supplies ONLY 5V anything else and its not really a USB connector!

I think its about time for you to show us a pic of the camera showing a reasonable closeup of the power charging connector :)

cheers
Dave
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Presumably you can as you said the original charger had a USB plug. If so, it's 5V.

It might very well step up the voltage internally to charge the battery.
 

North

Jul 19, 2010
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Picture 1 is the camcorder
Picture 2 is the vacuum charger
Why is it not working? And I would like to know why can I not charge the battery directly. It is OK that you guys are saying dont do it but I would like to know why...
Thanks
 

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Resqueline

Jul 31, 2009
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Lithium batteries have very specific usage requirements and are very unforgiving if operated outside their spec's. The camera contains the neccessary circuits.
The vac charger has no regulation or whatever and is meant for constant-current charging of Ni-Cd (or Ni-MH) batteries which forgive you for months of overcharging.
Lithium cells are charged more or less like Lead-Acid batteries are charged but they have an absolute upper limit of 4.15-4.2V per cell. There are two cells in your battery.
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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ok,
I went looking at that video camera. First thing to note and you obviously didnt realise is that the camera battery IS NOT charged via the USB connector.
If one looks at the review blurbs on the net, you will see that the battery charger cable to the camcorder has a standard style DC connector ( hollow tip and large sleeve area) its NOT a USB connector or any other weird style of connector

North, I'm not sure where you got the idea that you charge the battery with the USB cable but everything I have seen or read so far about your camera states that thats NOT how its done. it indicates that there should be another socket on the camera for battery charging/long time period use PSU operations.


sorta makes everything discussed so far totally irrelevent ::)
cheers
Dave

ok found the user manual....

North, in the words of the old saying ... "if all else fails read the manual"
or in more modern terms R.T.M.F (read the manual first)

the DC power in connector is on the other side of the camera towards the back of the unit
user manual here.....
http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/3/0300001923/01/fs20-21-22-200-pim-en.pdf
 
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North

Jul 19, 2010
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BLOODY HELL!!!!
You are right! I bought the camera not long time ago and only charged it once and then I lost the charger so I was not familiar with how it looked like.
The most obvious place was the USB and I did not realise the camera has a different socket. This is a bit embarasing and furhter more I do have the charger but I thougt it was the adaptor for the printer, also cannon.
THANKS so much and please do not laugh at me too much.
North
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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BLOODY HELL!!!!
THANKS so much and please do not laugh at me too much.
North

tis ok :) jst remember what I said earlier, words to live by ;)

..... "if all else fails read the manual"


Dave
 
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