Accidental power supply for Canon A80

Someone gave me a dead Casio Cassiopeia PDA (it runs Windows CE).
The PDA is indeed dead, but the AC charger/power supply that came with
it is rated 5 V at 2 A. It appears to be a nice little switching power
supply. Moreover, its cord ends with the right size and polarity of
coaxial connector to fit my A80.

The A80 manual recommends a particular Canon external power supply which
is rated at 4.3 V and 1.5 A. The Cassiopeia's power supply is slightly
higher voltage but I know from past experience that's OK, and current is
more than adequate. It is a regulated supply, not a cheap unregulated
wall wart. So I decided to try it on my A80.

It seems to work just fine. It would probably be fine for other Canon
Axx models with similar external power supply specs. And I can't beat
the price.

Dave

Dave Martindale wrote:
Someone gave me a dead Casio Cassiopeia PDA (it runs Windows CE).
The PDA is indeed dead, but the AC charger/power supply that came with
it is rated 5 V at 2 A. It appears to be a nice little switching power
supply. Moreover, its cord ends with the right size and polarity of
coaxial connector to fit my A80.

The A80 manual recommends a particular Canon external power supply which
is rated at 4.3 V and 1.5 A. The Cassiopeia's power supply is slightly
higher voltage but I know from past experience that's OK, and current is
more than adequate. It is a regulated supply, not a cheap unregulated
wall wart. So I decided to try it on my A80.

It seems to work just fine. It would probably be fine for other Canon
Axx models with similar external power supply specs. And I can't beat
the price.

Dave

You don't have enough information to know the answer.

Batteries and power supplies are rated to give a specific voltage at a
specific load. Increase or decrease the load and the voltage usually
changes. Unless you want to take a chance, I suggest not trying to outguess
the manufacturer and stick with their products. The cost of making a
mistake can be high.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

"Joseph Meehan" wrote in message
...
Dave Martindale wrote:

The A80 manual recommends a particular Canon external power supply which
is rated at 4.3 V and 1.5 A. The Cassiopeia's power supply is slightly
higher voltage but I know from past experience that's OK, and current is
more than adequate. It is a regulated supply, not a cheap unregulated
wall wart. So I decided to try it on my A80.


You don't have enough information to know the answer.

Batteries and power supplies are rated to give a specific voltage at a
specific load. Increase or decrease the load and the voltage usually
changes. Unless you want to take a chance, I suggest not trying to
outguess the manufacturer and stick with their products. The cost of
making a mistake can be high.

He did, he did. This is a switching regulator, which means it sticks very
close to 5.0 volts all the time, regardless of load. A cheaper 5-volt
wall-wart, without regulation, would not be safe.

What kind of batteries does the A80 use? If it's a 4-pack of NiMH cells,
then the true voltage is about 4.5 to 5.6 volts depending on state of
charge.

The AC power supply for my Toshiba E350 matches exactly the
specifications required for Fuji S5000. right down to the plug size
and polarity.

Paul

(Dave Martindale) wrote in message ...
Someone gave me a dead Casio Cassiopeia PDA (it runs Windows CE).
The PDA is indeed dead, but the AC charger/power supply that came with
it is rated 5 V at 2 A. It appears to be a nice little switching power
supply. Moreover, its cord ends with the right size and polarity of
coaxial connector to fit my A80.

The A80 manual recommends a particular Canon external power supply which
is rated at 4.3 V and 1.5 A. The Cassiopeia's power supply is slightly
higher voltage but I know from past experience that's OK, and current is
more than adequate. It is a regulated supply, not a cheap unregulated
wall wart. So I decided to try it on my A80.

It seems to work just fine. It would probably be fine for other Canon
Axx models with similar external power supply specs. And I can't beat
the price.

Dave

"Paul Dougherty" wrote in message
m...
The AC power supply for my Toshiba E350 matches exactly the
specifications required for Fuji S5000. right down to the plug size
and polarity.

Paul

(Dave Martindale) wrote in message
...
Someone gave me a dead Casio Cassiopeia PDA (it runs Windows CE).
The PDA is indeed dead, but the AC charger/power supply that came with
it is rated 5 V at 2 A. It appears to be a nice little switching power
supply. Moreover, its cord ends with the right size and polarity of
coaxial connector to fit my A80.

The A80 manual recommends a particular Canon external power supply which
is rated at 4.3 V and 1.5 A. The Cassiopeia's power supply is slightly
higher voltage but I know from past experience that's OK, and current is
more than adequate. It is a regulated supply, not a cheap unregulated
wall wart. So I decided to try it on my A80.

It seems to work just fine. It would probably be fine for other Canon
Axx models with similar external power supply specs. And I can't beat
the price.

Dave

The 4.5 v unit used to power a portable cd player works fine in my A40. It's
rated at 400 ma. Open circuit voltage is 4.5v so there is no way it can hurt
the camera, if current capacity were insufficient it wouldn't work. It does
work when used, which is never since I don't see why anyone would want to
bother with an external ps anyway unless they were viewing camera images on
tv
Dave Cohen

In article ,
says...
You don't have enough information to know the answer.

Batteries and power supplies are rated to give a specific voltage at a
specific load. Increase or decrease the load and the voltage usually
changes. Unless you want to take a chance, I suggest not trying to outguess
the manufacturer and stick with their products. The cost of making a
mistake can be high.

--
Joseph E. Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math


Joseph, Im following up on YOUR post because I dont have
the OP's post on my server.

To the OP


Volts are volts, and amps are amps.

If the power supply you are using is "slightly" higher than
recommended, then something inside the camera is getting
hotter than it should. There is no "Free Ride" and those
extra volts go SOMEWHERE! (usually into heat).

Having the SAME voltage and extra amperage is OK.. Having
HIGHER voltage with the equall or higher amperage may very
well damage the camera.




--
Larry Lynch
Mystic, Ct.

On Mon, 8 Nov 2004 14:11:32 -0500, "Dave Cohen"
wrote:


The 4.5 v unit used to power a portable cd player works fine in my A40. It's
rated at 400 ma. Open circuit voltage is 4.5v so there is no way it can hurt
the camera, if current capacity were insufficient it wouldn't work. It does
work when used, which is never since I don't see why anyone would want to
bother with an external ps anyway unless they were viewing camera images on
tv
Dave Cohen


Dave Cohen,
as a retired E.T. I will add my opinion on this issue.
Potential problems of an over voltage are rather easy to understand
but the same can apply to an under voltage situation as well. Also
unlike a CD player which draws a fairly constant amount of power when
running, aside from a bit extra to get the CD up to speed, a digital
camera draws a reasonably steady amount of power punctuated by short
busts of higher power for certain operations. This is largely true
when it writes to it's memory card, when the lens is zoomed in or out,
when the flash is charging, when the LCD come on & etc....

This is the reason why higher capacity alkaline "AA" batteries
don't last very long in digital cameras compared to lower capacity
rechargeable Ni-MH which seriously out perform them in this
application. This is not simply a function of the capacity in mah
ratings but the way the chemistry of the battery responds to brief
high drain loads. Most CD players are fairly low drain devices &
alkaline "AA" cells usually outperform rechargeable Ni-MH "AA" cells
in this application.

As to why your CD wall power supply is working on your A40
(yes, I own an A40 also), likely it may be due to what functions you
are using with it & the likelihood that it has a fairly large filter
capacitor within it that is providing most of the peak demand voltage.

Two additional related notes, just because something works for
a while, does not mean that it will continue to do so in the long run
or that it is the equal to a part or product that it is being used to
replace. Everybody knows that a blown fuse can be replaced with a
coin or a bolt & the circuit might work, but who would conclude that
doing so proves that there is no need for the fuse or that the coin or
bolt will perform the same function as the fuse?

With all of this said, if money is tight 1 can often find or
modify an existing "regulated & filtered" power supply to run a
digital camera rather than buying an expensive power supply from the
manufacture.

For the Canon Axx line a "regulated & filtered" 5 VDC power
supply, either with a linier or switching voltage regulator should
work fine if you add a general purpose silicone rectifier diode in
series with 1 lead. This will result in a fairly constant voltage
drop across the diode which in turn will reduce the voltage output
that the camera see's to about 4.4 VDC. This is much closer to the
stated 4.3 VDC of the Canon power supply & certainly much safer than
feeding the camera 5 VDC, +0.7 VDC higher than specified.

All of this is just my opinion, it's your camera & you can do
what you believe is OK, but I would be remiss if I did not input my
opinion & reasoning for your consideration & for other's who might
read this. I'm not a big fan of Radio Shack, however you should be
able to find both the (regulated & filtered wall wart) "power supply"
& a general purpose silicone rectifier diode "50PIV @ 3A" should due
at a reasonable price, or check with on-line electronic surplus supply
vendors.

Hope my post does not sound like any kind of insult, if it
does, that was not my intent. Just wanted to point out that in some
cases an under voltage situation can be just as big a problem as an
over voltage problem, though it may take longer for a device to fail.
Lastly, I don't have the schematics of Canon Ax cameras, so I don't
know if they use the same internal voltage regulation or monitoring
that is used with the batteries. It's likely that they do not because
they may assume that the supply is already regulated & should not drop
below safe a operating voltage the way "AA" batteries will, thus the
camera informs the operator & they will power down to prevent damage
if the batteries are not replaced.

Respectfully, DHB


"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President,
or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong,
is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918

"Larry" wrote in message
ews.com...

Volts are volts, and amps are amps.

If the power supply you are using is "slightly" higher than
recommended, then something inside the camera is getting
hotter than it should. There is no "Free Ride" and those
extra volts go SOMEWHERE! (usually into heat).

Having the SAME voltage and extra amperage is OK.. Having
HIGHER voltage with the equall or higher amperage may very
well damage the camera.

May well, which is why I was inquiring about the original batteries. The
difference between 4.5 and 5.0 volts is not large, especially when the
latter is coming from a well-regulated supply.

But I would not risk frying my camera before inquiring further.

On Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:59:14 -0500
"Michael A. Covington"
wrote:

What kind of batteries does the A80 use? If it's a 4-pack of
NiMH cells, then the true voltage is about 4.5 to 5.6 volts
depending on state of charge.

The A series are supplied with 4 AA Alkalines in the box, giving
6V, so the 5V should be just fine. That said, Canon aren't
gonna do anything under warranty if they find out!

-Chris D

"Chris D" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:59:14 -0500
"Michael A. Covington"
wrote:

What kind of batteries does the A80 use? If it's a 4-pack of
NiMH cells, then the true voltage is about 4.5 to 5.6 volts
depending on state of charge.

The A series are supplied with 4 AA Alkalines in the box, giving
6V, so the 5V should be just fine. That said, Canon aren't
gonna do anything under warranty if they find out!

In fact 4 AA cells, brand new, will deliver 6.4 volts.