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short battery life

guitarzan

guitarzan

New Member
I've been experiencing short battery life in my homebrew. S40 Sony using Sanyo 2700 mAh industrial grade AA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries and a Whitetail Supply XLP board (the board uses it's own battery). When I say short battery life, I mean about 2 days, at the longest. I was thinking I should expect about a week, am I expecting too much from the S40? The batteries are not brand new, but they haven't been cycled much, in fact 2 of the 6 I'm currently rotating are new this year.
 
Try a couple lithiums in there. I know they are expensive, but i get at least a month out of my S40's with lithiums.

You definately should be getting more than 2 days. Do you turn the lcd off? What kind of hack was done? I would say if it was with an SA, maybe it needs realigned.

Has it always been that bad, or just got worse?
 
I'll try the lithiums, and I always remember to turn the lcd off.
Not sure how the hack was done. I got the "kit" from Whitetail Supply (except the camera) and, if I remember correctly, they hooked me up with someone to do the hack. I sent the camera to them and it came back with a plug on the top side of the camera. I think it's probably always been the same. This is only the 2nd season I've used it. The first season I never could wait more then a day before checking to see what was on the card. This year I'm trying to stay out of the woods more.:way:
Maybe I should have someone check the hack?
 
Not sure if this is even worth posting or even why I remember this but back in the day when I spent a lot of time on the Hag's forums, I remember a few threads where this was happening to one of the Sonys (can't remember which). Ended up being one of the screws under the battery door cover wasn't screwed in tightly after doing the hack and it made contact with a metal strip near the battery contacts causing a rapid battery drain. Might check it for grins.
 
I'm not sure what an "SA" is, in reference to the hack, but the camera has a 3 wire terminal attached to the top of the camera case with 3 wires running from the terminal, through the top of the case. I thought that might help.
 
guitarzan said:
I'm not sure what an "SA" is, in reference to the hack, but the camera has a 3 wire terminal attached to the top of the camera case with 3 wires running from the terminal, through the top of the case. I thought that might help.
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SA stands for (shutter assembly). That would be the wire hack you attached to the switch block ribbon inside the camera.
 
Took the camera apart to check the hack. It looks like the guy that did the hack used an "SA". Everything was intact, wires taped down, good solder points, everything seemed to be in order. Put the cam back together and decided to set it in my backyard just to see what happens. Got 2 days on my rechargeable batteries, then not enough power to turn the cam on. Took the cam to work, set it on my desk and went to work for a while. When I got back to the cam, a few hours later, it powered on and seemed to work fine. Took 3 or 4 pics just to be sure it wouldn't shut down. I guess I'll try the lithiums, these rechargeables seem to be junk! When they get cold, they don't want to work. Was told from the company I bought them from that the rechargeables should last about 12 days in the field depending on number of nightime pics and cold temperatures.
I thought maybe they'd offer to replace the batteries since it was Feb 2008 when I had the hack done and I bought the batteries after that. But, no offer.
I've got some alkaline's on my desk. My plan is to throw them in the cam, hang it in my backyard and see how long they last, then try lithium's.
 
Something's dorked up. I use rechargeables the vast majority of the time in P41 homebrews and regularly get 3 weeks out of them, maybe more with newer batteries and slightly warmer weather. If totally new rechargeables are failing that quickly, there's another problem at play. Check with the boys over at the Hag's House homebrew forum. If anybody can help you, it'll be them.
 
guitarzan said:
I've got some alkaline's on my desk. My plan is to throw them in the cam, hang it in my backyard and see how long they last, then try lithium's.
Click to expand...

Alkalines are not the best choice in digital cameras. They don't "recover" very fast after a picture. A digital camera is a high drain device and multiple pictures in a row could drain alkalines quick. Lithiums or good rechargables are your best bet. They recover quicker. Go ahead and give it a try though.

I just remember reading one guy on the homebrew forums said he put alkalines in a P41 and took picture after picture and was suprised to see they didn't last very long compared to other types of batteries.
 
I'll check on Hag's, good suggestion.
One thing I forgot to mention. When I put the cam back together, I plugged the connector into the cam and used the bare wires to check to make sure the hack was working. I noted which wire would turn the cam on and which one activated the shutter. In my case, white was ground, red was on-off and blue was shutter. When I wired the connector to the board that way, it wouldn't take a pic. When I wired it opposite, red shutter - blue on-off, it worked fine.
 
Everyone at Hags House seem to agree, after a year or a little more, rechargeables start going downhill quickly. It must be time for new ones.
 
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