12 minutes ago, insomniac said:

For the Sony, I bought a GoPro 3 housing many many years ago that had an external battery holder for 1x 18650 battery (at the time it was like over $500, and it came with a custom aluminum gopro case that I didn't even need). Anyways, I cut the wire on the battery holder and then soldered a USB cable to the other side. Before connecting the wires I ran it through a Nauticam Socket Extension and then I just made sure my wires were split up pretty good and fully inside the socket extension and epoxied it inside. This worked amazing for about 6 years, and then I started getting an insanely small vacuum leak (only on land, stayed sealed when testing with some toilet paper and a 5 gallon bucket). I ended up just using a Dremel to remove about 2cm of epoxy and epoxied it and hasn't been a problem since.

It's a super simple cable that could have any tip (Micro USB, USB-C, etc), and because it's magnetic it makes it super easy to install in the housing (there's a million on Amazon, here's an example), mine has a little light that comes on so you know it's connected. The battery has an on / off switch which can be annoying but it's been so nice. You get an entire day without having to open the housing and swap batteries.

Here's some pics of that...

Wow - this is amazing. An external battery pack would really, really change my life.

Since we're derailling the thread (maybe these posts can be moved to the DIY forum), I'd love to have your opinion - My NALX10 housing has a single M14 port, which I use for vaccum.so really not sure what can be done.

I seem to remember that there was some option to have dual output bulkhead (vaccum + one cable) but can't seem to find that.
A dummy battery does exist for the cameras - battery requires 8.4 V .


main issues for me would be solving the bulkhead issue, best battery for UW use and cannister...

I'd given up but your post is giving me hope!

thanks

ben

24 minutes ago, bghazzal said:

Wow - this is amazing. An external battery pack would really, really change my life.

Since we're derailling the thread (maybe these posts can be moved to the DIY forum), I'd love to have your opinion - My NALX10 housing has a single M14 port, which I use for vaccum.so really not sure what can be done.

I seem to remember that there was some option to have dual output bulkhead (vaccum + one cable) but can't seem to find that.
A dummy battery does exist for the cameras - battery requires 8.4 V .


main issues for me would be solving the bulkhead issue, best battery for UW use and cannister...

I'd given up but your post is giving me hope!

thanks

ben

If you want to take the risk and forgo the vacuum (scary), you could for sure do it. I would recommend keeping your battery; and just charging it through the USB port. The RX100 can charge and be powered on at the same time. Some camera's only charge when off (but still, just turn off the camera between dives and it will charge up). The Canon actually runs off my custom battery pack (when turned on, and my pack has juice); and when the camera is off it charges the camera battery. You really don't want to use a dummy battery unless you have no other choice; as you are giving up additional capacity and redundancy.

The issue I'm having is that battery life is very limited. I shoot 1 minute clips tops, to edit, and turn off the camera to save battery as recommended by Panasonic, but still don't have enough for one dive. I did a two hour dive this morning, and the battery died out on me. I haven't opened the camera yet, but I probably have around 20 minutes of footage.

I've never tried filming continuously, but based on the footage length I'm getting I think I have enough juice for about 20 to 30 minutes of filming or so before the battery is empty, and this is being very very careful with battery life, fully charged, new batteries.

Charging is not an option unfortunately. I desperately need more runtime underwater. It would completely change my life if I could have say one full hour of shooting or even a little more.

The point of the dummy battery is to power the camera from it, either from DC or a battery pack.

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by bghazzal

6 minutes ago, bghazzal said:

Wow - this is amazing. An external battery pack would really, really change my life.

Since we're derailling the thread (maybe these posts can be moved to the DIY forum), I'd love to have your opinion - My NALX10 housing has a single M14 port, which I use for vaccum.so really not sure what can be done.

I seem to remember that there was some option to have dual output bulkhead (vaccum + one cable) but can't seem to find that.
A dummy battery does exist for the cameras - battery requires 8.4 V .


main issues for me would be solving the bulkhead issue, best battery for UW use and cannister...

I'd given up but your post is giving me hope!

thanks

ben

Hi Ben, perhaps you could hop over to this thread, it has some of the missing details.

Unfortunately many of these types of solutions require some skills in electronic assembly, not sure how you are with this and selecting proper components for battery packs like charge monitors etc.

For your case there are probably a few solutions - the simplest would be some sort of USB-C bulkhead. I believe you can charge the LX10 via the USB port which seem to be a mini USB. If you had this you could recharge the battery between dives without any sort of UW housing for the battery.

If you go for an UW housed battery - The first thing to consider for an UW battery housing is if you can charge the battery while the camera is running via USB, many cameras cannot. In this case this is where the dummy battery would come into play.

You might be able to find a second hand monitor housing to hold batteries, you could install something like some 18650 or 21700 batteries in a holder and just cut off the HDMI cable plug and use that cable for getting the power down to the camera housing. Something like this:

battery holder

This way you could use a land based 18650 charger to recharge the batteries and not need to build in a charging circuit. It would probably be fiddly using the fine wires in the HDMI cable for power and terminating them so they don't break and you would need to have some means to plug the USB cable in - inside the housing. The biggest barrier might be the M14 thread, many bulkheads for this sort of service are at least M16.

I see Backscatter has a used Ninja housing on sale currently: used housing

There's probably a few other items about you could utilise, for example subtronic have external batteries built into strobe arms which might be adaptable, but likely expensive.

Thanks Chris, I'd forgotten about this thread, and sorry for derailing this one - in my case the LX10 cannot be charged by USB, it's data-transfer only, so dummy battery / DC coupler is the only way.
I don't think there really any vaccum-safe practical option with my camera + M14 bulkhead housing combo, though this thread had given me hope!

1 hour ago, bghazzal said:

Thanks Chris, I'd forgotten about this thread, and sorry for derailing this one - in my case the LX10 cannot be charged by USB, it's data-transfer only, so dummy battery / DC coupler is the only way.
I don't think there really any vaccum-safe practical option with my camera + M14 bulkhead housing combo, though this thread had given me hope!

If you could find a Nauticam 26526 m14 offset vacuum valve you might have a chance but I think they are discontinued. With enough money Dive and see might be able to do something custom??

We really should move this thread to a new forum regarding custom battery solutions, but oh well here we are... This might work (as the 16mm isn't discontinued yet). And actually they still might be able to make the M14 one as the description says they are manufactured on demand.

It would be "clunkly-ish" but you could maybe do this:

Nauticam

M16 to M14 Step-Down Adapter ~for Electrical Bulkhead

Allows for the use of M14 electrical bulkheads in M16 housing sockets.

and this

Nauticam

M16 Offset Connector with Dual Activation Vacuum Valve ~C...

This dual-activation offset vacuum valve supports creating a vacuum with either the hand pump or via a low pressure inflator. The offset allows the bulkhead to be used for another purpose such as an e

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by insomniac

29 minutes ago, insomniac said:

We really should move this thread to a new forum regarding custom battery solutions, but oh well here we are... This might work (as the 16mm isn't discontinued yet):

It would be "clunkly-ish" but you could do a this

Nauticam

M16 to M14 Step-Down Adapter ~for Electrical Bulkhead

Allows for the use of M14 electrical bulkheads in M16 housing sockets.

and this

Nauticam

M16 Offset Connector with Dual Activation Vacuum Valve ~C...

This dual-activation offset vacuum valve supports creating a vacuum with either the hand pump or via a low pressure inflator. The offset allows the bulkhead to be used for another purpose such as an e

I thought the same but he would need the other way around. He has an M14 threaded hole on the housing.
Anyway, as Chris suggested, this should be ok:

https://www.backscatter.com/Nauticam-M14-Offset-Connector-w-Vacuum-Valve-II-Pu

Once we have an M16 thread hole, what kind of connector do we need on the cable?

P.S.

I'll try to move part of this thread to DIY forum. Bear with me!

On 5/1/2024 at 8:43 AM, boduoguo said:

If your housing has a space reserved for flash trigger. It can be used to install a lithium polymer battery. It's a rudimentary method, but it works and will last for a day's diving. No need to open the housing.
battery are cheap and can be recharged over and over again .

Old post but... From your photos I see you are using a 3,7V Lipo battery pack. 3,7V are enough to power your A7? camera?
I shot video only so I'm thinking for a similar out of the box solution for my GH5M2 that can be powered via USB-C...