game cam voltage reducer

[BKtul]

I have a Bushnell Model #119935 Trailscout camera and it eats
D cell batteries so I want to use a riding lawn mower battery and reduce
the voltage to 6V for the camera. I went to Radio Shack and they had no
idea. EBay lists a ceramic looking rig to do it but I don't know about the
amperage on my camera. Neither did Bushnell. If all else fails I'll put that
rig on my cam and hope for the best. I do have the new small Bushnell that
uses 8 AA batteries and it works great. Thanks for any help guys.

 

[Zombie]

why not get the appropriate sized battery or ghetto engineer something else

 

[338Shooter]

Buy a 6V battery?

 

[BKtul]

I can't get a 6V auto battery anymore unless I sell a grandkid to pay for it. I like the automotive type batteries as they last about a month w/o a recharge. I'm trying to recruit some of the ghetto engineers here to help me rig it.

 

[338Shooter]

http://mwbattery.com/6v12ahsealedleadacidslabatterywsconnector.aspx

 

[338Shooter]

Get some good NiMH d cells and it will last longer. A car battery isn't going to give you more capacity because it is bigger. That one I linked is a 12Ah battery. Typical alkaline D-cells hold that much. The big lead acid batteries just give you high current draw where alkaline batteries don't. You don't really need that. If you want more capacity get a bunch of 1.5V d cell NiMH battery cells and make your own pack. 4 in series to get 6V. Then just make multiples of the 4 batteries in series and connect each group in parallel. That will give you more and more capacity the more groups of 4 you make.

 

[alank2]

Hi,

I've got a 6V 12AH battery I'm not using that is perhaps 2 years old. I bought it for a project and never used it. I'd sell it for $15 if your are interested and want to meet me in Broken Arrow at my favorite meeting spot (Atwoods in BA @ 193rd/71st).

Let me know if you are interested and I'll test it for capacity to make sure it is still solid and good. Do you have a 6V charger?

BTW, alkaline D cells according to wikipedia are 12AH as well, so you would likely get similar performance out of a 6V 12AH battery.....

And, to answer your original question, if you find out the minimum voltage your camera, you would want what is called a dc-dc switching power supply that would convert a higher voltage into the lower voltage efficiently. This would allow you to use a 12V battery and make the most of its stored energy. DC-DC converters can be pricy though...

Thanks,

Alan

 

[doctorjj]

Get some good NiMH d cells and it will last longer. A car battery isn't going to give you more capacity because it is bigger. That one I linked is a 12Ah battery. Typical alkaline D-cells hold that much. The big lead acid batteries just give you high current draw where alkaline batteries don't. You don't really need that. If you want more capacity get a bunch of 1.5V d cell NiMH battery cells and make your own pack. 4 in series to get 6V. Then just make multiples of the 4 batteries in series and connect each group in parallel. That will give you more and more capacity the more groups of 4 you make.

A car sized 6v battery will absolutely give you more capacity. The link to the 6v above is to a tiny battery. A typical
6v golf cart battery, which is basically car battery size, is a 220+ ah battery or 183 times more capacity than 4 D cells hooked together.

 

[tyromeo55]

If you have a way to charge it Alank2's battery would not be a bad option since your lawn tractor battery most likely is not designed to be charged and totally drained so it might be killed in a year. and its an easy fix

That said, using a 12 volt battery does have its benefit's too. It's Amp/Hr rating (for the most part) gets doubled when drained at 6 volts. They are generally cheaper and the same size as their 6 volt counterpart. Also, most people already have a way to charge them

8 Amp hour batteries like the one in this picture...

[Broken External Image]

Are fairly cheap ( Like 10 bucks or so ) and small enough to be carried though the woods easily

Alkaline D batteries ( I think ) are more like 8 amp hours at best. So, the above should double the run time your experiencing. and a 10 Amp hour version should multiply your run time by 2.5

If I remember, Tomorrow Ill see if i can find a CCTV voltage splitter I know I have hiding somewhere. If I do then I'm sure we could work something out in trade if you want it

 

[dieseltech09]

I thought those AA bushnell game cams were supposed to last a year on one set of batteries?