CHDK Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Most of the Canon cameras can be used on an external power supply.

The aim of this page is to help those who want to use a non-Canon PSU or an external battery power supply to run their cameras. This is essential for very long exposures, and for scripts that run continuously, monitoring a scene, for example, in a security camera or wildlife setting.

Please could people add in the pin polarity and voltages that their model of camera can run on.


Camera model Pin polarity Stated voltage Peak current Waiting Half press Full press Zooming Playback
Monitor on Monitor off Monitor on Monitor off Monitor on Monitor off Monitor on Monitor off
A560 Outer pin -ve 3.15V 720mA 360 70 450 340 500 530 210 150
A570 Outer pin -ve 3.15V
A590 Outer pin -ve 3.15V
A720IS Outer pin -ve

2.95-3.15V

(4.2V tested - see note bellow)

920mA 350 85 450 350 500 400 450 190 160


A720IS note - I'v been trying to solve external AC power supply ,already had some 18650 li-ion cells in pairs (4800mAh) with 4.15V fully charrged. Using it for timelapses and so , for year or so, no problem so far. It can take around 10 000 !! shots with monitor turned off.


Edit:Hi, here how to build an external Akku with 18650 for Canon (german). And it takes 10'000s of shot's with monitor turned on!

To calculate the time a battery will last, take the capacity of the battery, then divide by the average current drawn.


For example: A monitoring application has the LCD on all the time, and is wired to a 1400mAH battery pack. Sitting in the half-press mode for almost all the time, this means the battery will last roughly 1400mAH/450mA = 3.1 hours. The same camera attached to a 12V SLA with 40AH capacity will last for roughly 40/.45 = 88.8 hours or 3.7 days. (Note that this ignores losses in the battery discharge and gains from voltage conversions.)

Current A590IS

Current A590IS 3.19v

A590IS I've measured the current used during the use of ultimate interval and put it in a graph. The power supplied is 13.9v to a switching power supply which uses approxemately 5mA and converts it to 3.19v for the camera.

Advertisement