I wonder if there are members here who may have already solved this question?
I have several trail camera's set up in the garden to video wildlife, all are 6volt and all take 8 AA batteries, that's 2 banks of 4 batteries. Thats lots of batteries and even using rechargeables which report less than 6volts when fully charged as a pack of 4 its still a pitb to keep changing and charging.
I have been using 12 volt alarm batteries with a 12volt to 5Volt USB adaptor which works well as all the camera's have a jack for outside power, but the batteries are bulky.
I have plenty of 5volt power banks for charging mobile phones, I would like to use these to power the camera's BUT they have a current sensing circuit built in that shuts the power bank down when little or no current is drawn.
So I need a simple way of keeping the packs from shutting down, that means giving it either a constant load of (25mA) seems to hold them open. Or some sort of pulse load of 25mA at say 1 minute intervals for 5 seconds which should keep the pack alive without too much sacrificial current drain like a constant 25mA.
I cobbled together a green LED and 2 resistors which gives me 25mA constant load and I can fit that into a fly lead with a USB male plug one end and a jack for the camera on the other end and I'm fairly sure this will work with the background current drain just shortening the usable time some. The camera's take very little on standby, 5-10mA at most, but get loaded when the camera and lighting are busy.
So my simple circuit is probably flouting all convention, but I am willing to take any advice on a cheap and simple way to do this.
I have several trail camera's set up in the garden to video wildlife, all are 6volt and all take 8 AA batteries, that's 2 banks of 4 batteries. Thats lots of batteries and even using rechargeables which report less than 6volts when fully charged as a pack of 4 its still a pitb to keep changing and charging.
I have been using 12 volt alarm batteries with a 12volt to 5Volt USB adaptor which works well as all the camera's have a jack for outside power, but the batteries are bulky.
I have plenty of 5volt power banks for charging mobile phones, I would like to use these to power the camera's BUT they have a current sensing circuit built in that shuts the power bank down when little or no current is drawn.
So I need a simple way of keeping the packs from shutting down, that means giving it either a constant load of (25mA) seems to hold them open. Or some sort of pulse load of 25mA at say 1 minute intervals for 5 seconds which should keep the pack alive without too much sacrificial current drain like a constant 25mA.
I cobbled together a green LED and 2 resistors which gives me 25mA constant load and I can fit that into a fly lead with a USB male plug one end and a jack for the camera on the other end and I'm fairly sure this will work with the background current drain just shortening the usable time some. The camera's take very little on standby, 5-10mA at most, but get loaded when the camera and lighting are busy.
So my simple circuit is probably flouting all convention, but I am willing to take any advice on a cheap and simple way to do this.