rndm(mod)

Well here is another random mod (hahaha yeah I said it). We have this cheapo camcorder whose batteries always died way to quick and had no ac adapter port.

I was just using the camcorder to take video of random things here and there when I didn’t need anything too hi-res. So I thought to myself I have two options either rig a dc jack on it which wouldn’t of been that bad or make something I have been toying with in my head for a while. I don’t know if anyone else have made these or not I am sure I am not the first but I like to call them “plugin batteries”. Basically I got two old flat head screwdrivers I had laying around and rarely used that were about the right circumference and dremeled just the shaft of them off.

So I was left with a nice metal cylinder. I then added a grove in the middle to place and twist a piece of wire and then did the same with another screwdriver but also dremeled a bit off the sides of the top so it would fit in the negative contact of the battery holder. Then some shrink tubing to insulate the bottom of the “plugin battery” from touching the other side of the contact.

The bottom right picture shows how I figured out where to stick the contacts. I then wired a five fold ac adapter to it and plugged it in.

Now it power ups and I am not afraid to use the light function on it. I have a version two idea that would incorporate the leads coming off of the top of the wire along with maybe a little arduino project to test which leads to use without opening up the device. From my experience most are kind of standard like this one or alternate top left to bottom right however there might be some other combinations out there that I am not aware of and the arduino project would be make it a bit easier to find and then perhaps we can have a universal “plugin battery” for most devices. Leave a comment tell me what yah think!