R2 Power consumption

[dongle]

Hi,

Anyone interested in running the R2 from a battery pack may like to know these figures:

R2 connected to 5V power supply...7 mA
R2 "ON" .......................................350 mA
R2 "Record".................................. 480 mA

The consumption may vary between units but I doubt it will be very much. I used a 1GB compact flash card for storage and the highest video settings.

Adding a camera and an 8GB card for long recordings makes the power consumption significant for "portable" applications.

Cheers

[bobkart]

Great information dongle.  I just ordered a 56Wh battery pack for my R2, so at 2.5W that's over 20 hours recording time.

[dongle]

Glad to be of service.

You will no doubt be aware that the quoted capacity and actual capacity are rarely equal and is also dependant on operating temperature. However in temperate climates this is not something to worry about. Also the battery voltage will reduce according to the discharge rate and there will come a point when it will fall quite sharply as it becomes exhausted. This is a dangerous time for equipment (such as the R2) that does not have input voltage sensing that shuts off the unit when the input voltage falls below a certain point - probably around 4V.

A good quality battery pack should have this functionality built in. Another thing to consider is what happens to the current recording should the battery discharge.

I guess my point is to keep the battey fully charged when possible and keep an eye on the remaining battery level.

[bobkart]

Good advice of course.  I rounded down from 22+ "theoretical" hours with that 20-hour estimate.  Trying to get all 20+ hours in a row compared to on-and-off usage is another way to me up short.  That's why they will often quote amp-hour ratings based on some some period such as 10 hours.

And I do suspect it is a good quality battery back, if only based on the price I paid:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=2240427&sku=T120-1026

I may consider monitoring it with a dummy load as it gets low the first time to see how it deals with the "end of charge" situation you describe (if it's not covered in the User Manual).

[dongle]

Looks like a nice device, the indicators on the top for remaining capacity will help and I would be interested to hear how your test goes.

[bobkart]

I'll certainly report my findings here, although that may have to wait until Neuros swaps my R2 out with one that doesn't have hosed audio.

I think the LEDs across the top are for selecting/indicating the output voltage, although they may double as capacity indicators.

[bobkart]

Yes the 8 LEDs acrosss the top double as battery level indicators.  So far I've recorded over an hour's worth of video and have yet to see anything but full power levels from the gauge.  This is with the MP3400 with 56WH specified, compared to the 40WH of the smaller, MP3300 model.  56WH is about 11AH at the 5V level.  It actually puts out about 5.2V, almost exactly what the Neuros-supplied AC adapter puts out.

[dongle]

Thanks for the feedback.