I'm planning for a long trip away with no power available for two weeks in the Arctic. Currently I use an SLA with an Inverter and the Nikon AC adapter. I've read that this method though safe for the camera is inefficient. In order to maximize battery power, I'm thinking about setting up a DC only system.

My first question is it better to make a dummy battery or should I take apart my AC adapter and use the DC input plug on the camera?

Second, is since the Nikon D3s is rated for 11.1/13.5 Volts, can i just run it straight 12 volts, or should I regulate my power to 11.1? Im guessing the Battery method is using 11.1 volts and the DC plug is using 13.5 volts.

Appreciate any input.
Michael

I tried making a dummy battery and failed. I believe that all I did was solder two wires to the +/- output on the PCB, and now the camera won't use the battery at all. I have no idea how it can tell it has been tampered with, I guess something must have gone wrong unnoticed in the process. Will never know, gave up on it.

Plugs for the AC socket are hard/expensive to come by, so I used a mini Tamiya connector to fit over the +/- pins and run that to a 6600mAh 11.1V Li-Ion pack. You already have one though; you can cut the wire on that and put some standard connector on it so you can use it with either your AC adapter or a battery pack... if you deem it necessary to go that route. I did that out of habit, but really, you'll rarely shoot a timelapse where the in-camera battery won't suffice, even in the cold, and you can't beat the simplicity/convenience of using that. I think I'll end up buying a couple of "cheap" extras (around $25 a piece on eBay) and a charger that takes 12V input (also found on eBay) so I can charge them directly from a car battery without the lossy 110V conversion. Of course, in terms of efficiency nothing beats hooking an SLA directly up to the camera. I just tried connecting to a 12V NiMH pack measuring 13.84V, and the camera didn't seem to mind. But 11.1V spares sure are easier to carry around...

Hi
the best way is to use the plug and cable from your Nikon Power supply, you are lucky to have one.

If you want to make a dummy battery, use a broken battery, take out the cells und connect the cables to the elektronics you find inside the battery.
Then you can use e.g. high power NiMD (e.g.13000mAh) 8 cells, or any other battery.
If you connect + and - only, the camera is doing nothing (talking about D3x, same on a D3s I guess)

I once used up 3 nikon battery packs at minus 5°Celsius working for about 12h and the batteries where connected via cable to the camera (external battery wrapped in some warm cloth)

The camera was a D700 with a battery dummy made from the battery cell holder which comes with the camera. The external battery was a Nikon en4a pluged in a modifid charger housing which I used as a battery holder.
I mention this, so you get an idea what power you need in cold environement

sorry for my english and spelling.

all the best
Juergen

I've come into possession of a generic EN-EL4 battery case. I'm looking to construct a dummy battery for my Nikon D3.
Can anyone give me some direction on the polarity of the contacts inside the EN-EL4 case? I am assuming the two on the right are positive and the two on the left are negative.







Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

No success yet.

Wired an 11.1V Li-Ion battery to the circuit board found in the generic EN-EL4a battery case. The Nikon D3 will attempt to power-on but shows a flashing blank battery symbol.







I have previously tried to wire the battery directly to the contacts, without the circuit board, with the same result. I assumed the camera would not recognize the battery without the circuit board.

I measured the voltage during my latest attempt. Results were 11.38V. Is this a voltage issue?

Potentially the circuit board was damaged? Or the connection between the circuit board and the contacts?

Oh well . . . guess I'll wait until I find another discarded battery to experiment on.

Found a generic EH-6 adapter and hacked it. EH-6 adapter lists the output at 13.5V. Camera doesn't seem to ming the 12.52V measured here. Even tried some long exposures with no adverse effects.

Hey guys, I am working on a solar powered stand alone timelapse rig. I am planning on using a Nikon D5000 and I have a 12 volt dry cell (being charged by the solar panels) to power the camera.

Now the issue is that the camera doesn't like to be connected directly to the needed 7.2 - 9 volts. The Nikon EN-EL9a has three terminals; a positive, a negative and a seperate terminal that states "S".
I have made a dummy battery with all three poles wired. I do have DC-DC converters available to use.

Does anyone know how wire up the "S" terminal so the camera will accept the dummy battery?

Cheers,

Stan

The safest way is to adapt a Nikon AC Adapter for DC.
You will need two pieces

Nikon EP-5a Power Supply Connector
and
EH-5A AC Power Adapter

The S terminal is most likely some sort of sensor data, either tracking battery voltage or temperature. It also could be a separate battery charge terminal to allow the cells to be charged individually for faster charging.

dln, I couldn't tell from the photo if the DC adapter from the EH-6 plugged into your D3s is connected directly to the battery terminals. I assume it is, but wanted to verify. You basically just used the plug as an adapter for your battery. Have you had any issues with this setup? I'm considering the same thing using small portable 12V batteries (like those standards found in computer UPS units). Don't want to fry my 5k camera!

Thanks,
Griz

I know this is a very old post but I may have the answer to some of the problems. Nikon in its infinite wisdom has installed "special" software into their new camera's and updates and their Genuine Nikon Batteries. If a second hand battery/card without this info is installed it wont work. Also the leads to each series connection are nessesary to keep the board from throwing an error. That would be a total of 4 connections for 11.1 volts or three batteries.
On the Nikon D2X the connector for outboard power "DC IN" 12.5v~13.5 it is the middle connection and the lower connection for the DC power. The middle is positive. The lower is negitive. The lower negitive is common with the body metal. If not, do not use this configuration. For instance D1's are different and use a lower voltage. For a connector I used Red Model RC craft power battery connectors I used one and a half of another and glued the two togeather. It works well. With a power supply it works forever.

Hello,

I have a similiar problem with my Nikon D750.

I have used this kit:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/191515880725?_tr ... EBIDX%3AIT

It is not the original from Nikon.

As a supply, I have tested a XTpower powerbank. The camera can be turned on and works fine, but as soon as I want to take a picture or switch in Liveview-Mode, it displays "ERR" and abort this process.

With the power supply(for power outlet), which comes with it, it seems to work properly.

I also did a test with the original camera battery as power supply (just connected + and -), and the camera also fails.

So there seems to be a problem with the chip in the battery adapter. But I can´t figure out, why it is working only with the power supply and not with the powerbank or original battery.

The powerbank has been setup to 12V and I use a LM2596 as DC-DC-Converter.

I will now order a original Nikon EP-5B battery adapter and see if this is the problem.

Did you had success? I'm in the same point right now with my D750
For now I have an external battery that outputs 8,4v with a dummy battery. The camera powers on but getting Err message when trying opening the shutter or liveview.
So I'd go for an external battery pack with 12v output and try a voltage converter, what I'd like to know it's if I need the EP-5B battery adapter or just use my dummy.