7.2 V Wireless Transmitter on 12V power Jack Steadicam Pilot

[Chris McKissick]

Hey there!

I hope someone can help me with this one...

I own a Steadicam Pilot and just bought a cheap Wireless Transmitter, hoping to somehow make it work using the power jack on the Sled. The manual says it supplies voltage directly from the battery which are Sony BP-Gl65s  ---- 14.4 V, 4.4 Ah ----

The wireless transmitter runs on 7.2V and 200mA.

Is there any way I can use the power jack on the sled to power the transmitter or am I going to have to build some kind of other battery system? My small handycam batteries are 7.4V...

Soldering is not a problem for me.

Thanks alot in advance!!

Cheers
Chris

[David L. Holmes]

Hello Chris,

What you need is a DC to DC converter.  Here is a link for a unit that should fit the bill perfectly for only $25.00!

http://www.powerstream.com/dc6.htm

Have a nice day

[Chris McKissick]

hey thanks for the link!

i just took an amperemeter and found out that the output voltage of the power jack on the stage equals the battery voltage which means i have between 15 and 10 volts to get down to 7 (6 works as well) 

is there a variable converter i can use? or some way to make my own?

thanks a bunch!

[David L. Holmes]

That same company makes other DC/DC converters that are adjustable.  The one I purchased works with 12VDC in and can output anything from 5-13.5VDC.  The problem is, when your battery load drops, the current goes up.  It's the inverse law of electricity.  So after a while, the current draw starts to heat up the battery and connections and everything   This should not be much of an issue with your setup because of the low voltage output.

Another thing to remember is, your transmitter/receiver works fine with AA batteries right? (Most do)  If you use regular batteries (Duracell, Energizer, etc.) the batteries output 1.5V each.  But if you use rechargeables, like NiMH, then the batteries only output 1.2V, a 20% drop in voltage!  So your 7.2 V would only be only 5.7V.  This shows that your electronic devices work well within a range of voltage, and not just one specific voltage all the time.

Try anything that you can find with a fixed output of between 6-8VDC and you should be just fine.

Good luck!

[Chris McKissick]

Hey,

So what I ended up doing is buying a DC-DC transformer like this :http://www2.westfalia.de/medien/scaled_pix/300/300/000/000/000/000/000/046/17.jpg

Mounted it into a small casing with an input and output jack, soldered everything together, soldered together some custom cables - one from the stage to the converter and one from the converter to the transmitter and voila!!

Works like a charm

It gets kind of hot though but not like its going to burn up so it's fine.

Pretty simple actually.

Thanks for the replies!

Happy flying!

Chris