My trusty old Canon S60 has been in service since August 2004. I originally bought it in preparation for the year I spent overseas. Originally, I had two NB-2LH Canon brand batteries and one non-name brand battery. The two Canon batteries still function although at a reduced capacity. The off-brand battery no longer holds a charge. Recently, I’ve become interested in time-lapse photography. The other evening, I made a time-lapse film at Chip Ross Park. The reason the photo session ended when it did is because the camera ran out of juice. That got me to thinking about developing an external battery pack for my camera. The above picture shows the off-brand battery in its original state.
It took a little convincing with a sharp box-cutter knife to open the case. The case was either plastic welded or glued together. Inside there are two Li-Ion batteries and some electronics.
The electronics were covered by a thin strip of insulating and damping material.
The electronics and three conductor patches removed and disassembled. I’m not really sure what that circuit board does but I suspect it’s related to charging the camera and perhaps provides a low-power signal to the camera via the middle terminal.
I glued the terminals and plastic battery spacer back into the bottom of the battery case. Were I to do it again, I would use a two-part epoxy rather than super glue. The super glue still wasn’t dry eight hours after I initially applied it.
Next, I soldered wires into the appropriate receptacles. Black to the negative terminal, red to the positive terminal, and nothing to the middle terminal. I cut out a hole in the back corner of the case to be able to feed the wires out when it is inserted into the camera. The two AA battery packs below were modified so that I have 8 volts going to the camera. That means five AA batteries will be used.
Wires in place and a hole cut in the back of the case.
After gluing together the top of the battery pack and the lower half, I put it in the camera and lo and behold, it works! I now have an extended-life battery pack that can be upgraded later to longer run-time batteries or rechargeable batteries. As long as the camera is getting between 7.4 and 8 volts, it seems to be happy. I will be trying it out with a long time-lapse in the next day or two.
