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Arri Battery Belt-Reducing 12v to 8v for a 16S


steven jackson

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I have a 12v battery belt that seems to hold a reasonable charge, but I would like to reduce it to 8v for using with my 16S and I wondered if it would be possible to simply remove two of the packs from the belt or cut the wiring to it to remove it from the circuitry.  These seems like a good solution to having a power supply for my 8v camera.  There are six packs in the belt, so I'm assuming each one is 2v.  Any ideas?

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the easiest way to power 8v camera motors is to use Airsoft / RC Car nimh batteries which have tamiya connector. These can be got in 7.2V and 8.4V and it is very easy to make a adapter cable which connects to your camera. You can get additional chargers easily and as many batteries as you want and they are affordable. (if getting extra batteries, make sure to regularly keep them charged to avoid them going bad. High capacity low quality batteries tend to self discharge quicker than good quality low capacity ones.)

2015-01-24+22.29.52.jpg

 

I would keep the battery belt just the way it is and just get couple of the 8.4v airsoft batteries and a charger. you can make your own belt clip for the batteries. I like to use velcro for mounting them to the side of the camera 

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yes, I just went that route and found that the battery was of poor quality even though it was listed as 5000mah.   The charger that was sold with it was also crap and didn't seem to be charging the batteries correctly (full charge time-3 minutes), but I definitely hear you and would like to do exactly that and keep my 12v belt as is.  I have thought of making my own and re-using a dead eclair battery pack that has 10 1.2v nicad d-cells in it.  If you can point me to a RC battery with REAL permformance power, then I would probably go that route.  So far, for me, I haven't sussed out a good supplier.

 

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I think most of my batteries are this type and pretty well working though they self discharge pretty fast (maybe something like 1 - 2  months or so). Not from this seller but the battery looks similar.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/8-4V-NiMH-3800mAh-Rechargeable-Battery-Pack-Tamiya-Plug-for-RC-Toys-Charger/352689401762?hash=item521ded2fa2:g:dXAAAOSweSdc~62d

That charger works but it is very slow charging so it is best to get your charger from the local RC or Airsoft store and get one which has selectable charging current (mine has adjustable current from 0 to 5 A) .

I use this charger with my batteries: 

61vE7BwyhdL._AC_SX466_.jpg

The local store probably has high quality batteries available as well though they will be much more expensive than the Chinese ones. One thing to look at with these is the stated capacity: the higher the number the lower quality the battery may be if the outer dimensions of it are the same. Those 3800mAh ones are by my opinion pretty OK but will self discharge faster than the lower capacity ones. If this style of battery is listed as 5000mAh it is probably pretty low quality though could probably still be used if your charger is powerful enough.

Check the local store and if they have 8.4v batteries which are something around 2000 - 2500 mAh they should be fine. You can ask for high quality batteries if they can recommend some

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This is the battery and charger that I purchased...pure rubbish.  It would run the camera for about 2 minutes before browning out and slowing to about 18fps.  Definitely junk.  I'll keep looking but if worse comes to worse, I'll invest in some decent d cells nimh batteries and make my own battery pack.  I just thought it might be possible to install a switch into my battery belt that would convert it to 8v or 12v, which is how some of the battery belts for arriflex were supplied.

 

Screen Shot 2020-06-17 at 17.42.54.png

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2 hours ago, steven jackson said:

I just thought it might be possible to install a switch into my battery belt that would convert it to 8v or 12v, which is how some of the battery belts for arriflex were supplied.

it would be easy to install that type of switch as long as the switch can stand the current requirements. It will make charging the belt a little more complicated though if you discharge it at 8v but then want to charge at 12v so that some of the cells are full when the others are near empty. I would maybe use a separate 8v charger in that situation and only charge the drained cells (keeping the switch at 8v position when charging)

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