Muvi clone mod, external battery with extended life
mazule
Posts: 54
I broke my Muvi clone (the one that is discussed at length on this thread http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12666507) by over charging it. :evil:
So given that it was already useless I thought I'd have a bit of a fettle to see if I could attach an external battery that could live in a bag/pocket and would give longer runtimes than the 1 hour from the original battery.
What follows below is a description of what I did.
One word of caution though: This worked for me but follow my lead at your own risk. If you end up laminating your children, or melting the dog, don't come crying to me. :shock:
Alas I didn't take any pictures along the way, so you will have to do with words alone.
Parts I needed:
1) the wire from an old nokia charger. flexible, light, long, free.
2) other misc wire
3) one male DC power plug from maplin (code HH60Q)
4) one female inline DC power socket (code JK11M)
5) heatshrink
6) solder
7) one protected 18650 2600mAh cell
8) electrical tape
Tools:
1) soldering iron
2) knife
3) side cutters
4) multimeter
5) drill
Process:
1) Remove the four tiny little screws from the camera. That is all that's needed to take it apart.
2) take off the cover and detatch it from the battery (the battery is stuck with double sided tape to the back cover)
3) cut the battery wires as close to the battery as you can. One wire at a time to avoid shorting anything.
4) drill a hole in the back cover of the muvi the same diameter as the wire you’re using. I made the hole near the top of the camera just below where the lanyard goes. This is so it will still fit in the mounts with minimal modification to the mounts.
5) pass wire through the hole and solder to the power wires of the camera (remembering to thread the heatshrink onto the wires before soldering, D’oh!)
6) wrap enough electrical tap around the new wire inside the camera to prevent the wire getting pulled out and to take up the space of the now missing internal bettery.
7) On the other end of the wire solder on the female DC connector noting the polarity.
8) Check for shorts and continuity with a multimeter
9) Now put the camera back together and check no new rattles have appeared.
10) With another bit of wire solder on the male DC connector.
11) Check for shorts.
12) Solder the other end of the wire onto the battery… check your polarity. Then check the polarity again. And be quick with the soldering. You don’t want to fry the protection circuits.
13) Wrap everything in insulating tape. Although I have left the terminals of the battery exposed so it will still fit into my charger. To ensure it won’t short in my bag I have used an old case that I carry my spare batteries around in.
14) Put it back on your bike and go and ride.
Notes:
If you unplug the battery from the camera it will reset the on screen date.
I can’t advise keeping it the battery attached for long when the camera is attached to a computer.
Be careful when playing with Li-Ion batteries.
Even though the battery will last for hours and hours the file system of the SD card is still FAT32 so the usual maximum file size limits apply. So remember to restart your recording every hour.
More anon,
Jon
So given that it was already useless I thought I'd have a bit of a fettle to see if I could attach an external battery that could live in a bag/pocket and would give longer runtimes than the 1 hour from the original battery.
What follows below is a description of what I did.
One word of caution though: This worked for me but follow my lead at your own risk. If you end up laminating your children, or melting the dog, don't come crying to me. :shock:
Alas I didn't take any pictures along the way, so you will have to do with words alone.
Parts I needed:
1) the wire from an old nokia charger. flexible, light, long, free.
2) other misc wire
3) one male DC power plug from maplin (code HH60Q)
4) one female inline DC power socket (code JK11M)
5) heatshrink
6) solder
7) one protected 18650 2600mAh cell
8) electrical tape
Tools:
1) soldering iron
2) knife
3) side cutters
4) multimeter
5) drill
Process:
1) Remove the four tiny little screws from the camera. That is all that's needed to take it apart.
2) take off the cover and detatch it from the battery (the battery is stuck with double sided tape to the back cover)
3) cut the battery wires as close to the battery as you can. One wire at a time to avoid shorting anything.
4) drill a hole in the back cover of the muvi the same diameter as the wire you’re using. I made the hole near the top of the camera just below where the lanyard goes. This is so it will still fit in the mounts with minimal modification to the mounts.
5) pass wire through the hole and solder to the power wires of the camera (remembering to thread the heatshrink onto the wires before soldering, D’oh!)
6) wrap enough electrical tap around the new wire inside the camera to prevent the wire getting pulled out and to take up the space of the now missing internal bettery.
7) On the other end of the wire solder on the female DC connector noting the polarity.
8) Check for shorts and continuity with a multimeter
9) Now put the camera back together and check no new rattles have appeared.
10) With another bit of wire solder on the male DC connector.
11) Check for shorts.
12) Solder the other end of the wire onto the battery… check your polarity. Then check the polarity again. And be quick with the soldering. You don’t want to fry the protection circuits.
13) Wrap everything in insulating tape. Although I have left the terminals of the battery exposed so it will still fit into my charger. To ensure it won’t short in my bag I have used an old case that I carry my spare batteries around in.
14) Put it back on your bike and go and ride.
Notes:
If you unplug the battery from the camera it will reset the on screen date.
I can’t advise keeping it the battery attached for long when the camera is attached to a computer.
Be careful when playing with Li-Ion batteries.
Even though the battery will last for hours and hours the file system of the SD card is still FAT32 so the usual maximum file size limits apply. So remember to restart your recording every hour.
More anon,
Jon
0
Comments
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that's impressive, I imagine you could probably wire up some 'proper' battery contacts so you could swap it out if required too. I'm almost tempted to get another one and have a go (mine is still working!)Rock Lobster 853, Trek 1200 and a very old, tired and loved Apollo Javelin.0
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Just use one of these type of things but obviously with the right lead http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MINI-USB-Emergency-AA-Battery-Charger-For-HTC-Advantage_W0QQitemZ280340490761 ?0
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Nice work mate. shame no pics, but like you said its only 4 screws.
ive been wondering about the connecting to USB part. When you connect it to usb, and then disconnect the Li-ion, does the camera just run off the usb power no probs?
ta0 -
I will try to take some pics.
As far as I know the camera doesn't work in the normal way of the power comes from the usb socket. I will investigate more.
I am also going to get a size N battery clip that will take cr123a batteries. That would make it easier to charge.0 -
ah I did wonder that, not tried recording when plugged into the PC via usb but worth trying as if something like in my link above does work then it would be a far simpler solution0
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It only took me a few months, but here are some photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49868342@N ... 968437588/
The camera still works well with this mod. No issues at all.0
