LiPo batteries

[MacGyver15147]

Got a question here for you battery experts.

I have picked up a cheep china Ebay camera model "SVP aqua wp6800" Surprisingly for $29 this is an expellant 18MP camera. I have not opened it up but I would expect that it has name brand internals made by Sony, Fuji, or something. Seems to be made out of name brand last year model overstock parts then cheapened.

Here is the problem this takes two AAA size alkaline batteries in series. Brand new alkaline batteries straight out of the package measure 1.7V so that makes 3.4V.
Brand new batteries when the camera is turned on measure 2/3 power left on the cameras screen and in only around 5 to 10 minutes it auto shuts down due to low voltage.
I have tried NiMh rechargeable batteries and fresh out of the charger the camera turns on only long enough to flash a red low batt. indicator and turn back off.

My guess is the internals were originally designed for a camera that would include a 3.7V LiPo battery pack, charger, and possibly a memory card. All of this was skipped in the repackaging to a no name brand.

Does anyone know of a part number for a LiPo battery pack that will fit inside a case made for 2 AAA's side by side with a 1800mah rating or better? Also for future reference the same question goes out for a side by side AA configuration also.

Before anyone replies with a comment like this can't be done, or LiPo's are dangerous, or 3.7v is too much for that and it will burn out the camera. At $29 I don't care I just want to try something so I can use it and if I break it then I break it.

 

[ijl]

Try primary litium cells with a nominal voltage of 1.5V. The voltage is in practice about 1.7V.

 

[VEBill]

Years ago, we had a Kodak-branded camera that was just as bad. Basically did not work except with fresh batteries, and then only for a few minutes. Stupid design. At that point I swore off AA-powered camera and life is much better now.

There's only 1152 results on eBay for the search terms: "lithium polymer battery". That's not actually that many to look through, maybe fifteen minutes. Have you tried just scrolling through those six pages (set to 200 results) to see what might fit into your available space, and with the required mA-hr?

If you already have done so, and didn't find anything, then you might already have your answer. Good luck.

 

[MacGyver15147]

So I was looking at these

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4PCS-TrustF...US_Rechargeable_Batteries&hash=item43c9087dbe

They seem to be close to what I want however 2 in parallel only comes up to 1200mah which is a bit too low. I don't expect much life out of them. I have seen some with impossible mah ratings like enough to run a laptop with a single AAA. I call B.S. and not going with any of them. I have come across some "ultrafire" brand that have very good believable ratings. Did some research online and they get excellent reviews. I have however found that their are a lot of counterfeits on Ebay so watch out. Looking for a reputable dealer that carries this brand without paying to much.

 

[jimkirk]

An 18650 cell volume is about 16,500 cubic mm.
An AAA cell is about 3,900 cubic mm.
The hull of two AAA cells side by side is about 8,800 cubic mm, about half the volume.

1800 mA-h sounds pretty optimistic, especially considering smaller batteries become less efficient space-wise (the housing takes up proportionally more volume).

Have you thought of fabricating a plastic or wood piece shaped to fit the battery compartment (a 3D printer could help, or carving up some wooden dowels), add a flat cable to exit the compartment and connect to an external 18650 cell?

I did that with an old Canon video camera and a belt mounted battery, worked great, I could record more than 4 hours of video on one charge.

 

[mikekilroy]

I use AAA and AA Nimh in lots of my ham radio stuff. I have fancy charges for these that track mah in and mah out. Best AAA are sold as typically 1000mah; AA typically 2700mah; my charging experience shows me most of them can accomplish about 75% of this when new.

http://www.KilroyWasHere<dot>com

 

[MacGyver15147]

So basically when you add two 900mah batteries in parallel you will get my target of 1800. This doesn't seem too out of the question for aaa size. I do have a spare camcorder battery rated 2200mah but is just slightly too large to fit inside the case. I was thinking if nothing else I would make an external battery case to fit that mounted outside the camera and just wire some leads to the inside. That would work but be bulky and awkward to use the camera.

 

[VEBill]

"I was thinking if nothing else I would make an external battery case..."

A concept that was suggested and described by jimkirk a few posts back.