Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Nikon DSLR battery project, 3S LiPo testing

I put the Orion 3S 11.1V LiPo cell (2100mAh version) to test. Nikon D200 is directly fed with this battery, no EN-EL3E used at battery slot. Small fuse of 2.5A is used in series to protect camera... I made the test without MB-D200 battery pack.

Power cord I took from my Nikon EH-6 AC supply. A sacrifice to science was made, and wire cut with scissors :-) Starting voltage at 3S LiPo battery, was 12.4V. I will at least run test down to 11.1V, maybe even a bit below that, if D200 still operates correctly.


Settings in the camera, were following:
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Nikon D200
300/4.5 lens (at max aperture)
raw images used
ISO800
menu: high ISO NR, off
menu: long exposure NR, off
"M" mode used
bulb exposure selected
camera at room temp, approx +23C

exposure setup
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MC36 trigger used
delay 10sec
exposure 60sec (1min)
interval 62 (1min 2 sec)
no limit in image count

Results (23rd October)
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Sequnce was run, until voltage under load was 3.5V per cell (overall 10.5V). Totally 145 images were taken. There is capacity increase noticed, when compared to 48 images with single EN-EL3E  and 91 images with dual EN-EL3E (with MB-D200 battery grip).

Results (24th October)
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Orion 3S Lipo battery was charged again. Now it took bit longer than last time, approximately 75min to full charge. Test settings were same as above, totally 149 images taken.

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