I love Canon cameras, but sometimes their insistence in limiting what people can and can't do with their equipment really pisses me off. This is one of those times.
Alright, so in another thread I was talking about what I was learning about powering and using my EOS R to take long time lapses. But this topic will apply to a lot of different cameras, and will hopefully have a lot of useful info for people, so I'm starting a new thread.
I've been trying to use a cheap third party AC adapter to power my EOS R to take a series of long time lapses. What I've discovered is that the camera seems to still recognize this AC adapter as a battery, not a continuous power source. So long story short, if you leave the camera on for long enough (like 12+ hours) it will still shut off due to a "dead" battery.
My hope is that the official Canon adapter will be properly recognized by the camera as an AC power source and never shut off. So I forked over the $50 to buy a genuine Canon DR-E6 "DC coupler." It is essentially a dummy battery with a cord that is supposed to run to the AC-E6N AC adapter, which then plugs into the wall.
However, there's one problem with the AC-E6N AC adapter. First, it's an additional $80-$100. (Yeah, for a simple AC adapter!) Second, it's out of stock pretty much everywhere right now. I figured that wouldn't be a problem because the DR-E6 shown above appears to have a standard barrel style power connector. I've probably got a similar sized connector around the house that I could splice onto my existing AC power adapter to allow it to plug into the DR-E6.
Or so I thought! The DR-E6 I ordered arrived in the mail today. And guess what!? Canon has decided to eschew the common power connector that everyone and their mother has been using for decades in lieu of this monstrosity...
Yeah, looks like a normal barrel connector until you look inside, and there's a tiny little pin in the middle. Normally that space would just be open, and a larger pin in the mating connector would slide in there. I have never seen this bizarre power connector before, and I definitely don't have the mating connector for this laying around the house.
I came very, very close to just chopping the end off of the DR-E6 and splicing on a connector that I would have a proper mating connector for. But I don't like the idea of taking wire cutters to the power adapter that I just spent $50 on. So I went back to the internet to try to do some more research and see if there was any possible standard this weird connector adheres to. I found this thread on an astronomy forum where someone ran into this exact same problem...
Just in case that link ever gets broken, it included photo of the connector on the AC-E6N that plugs into Canon's "DC couplers." One weird thing about this photo is this AC-E6N seems to have the connector for the DC coupler right on the side of the adapter itself, while the one I've seen for sale online has a little pigtail wire coming out of it with the connector. Not sure what the deal is there.
After a lot of trial and error, the author finally found this connector for sale online. The connector is known as a JSBJ4 connection. The outer diameter is 5.9mm, the diameter of the inner barrel is 3.0mm, and the diameter of the center pin is 1.05mm.
After looking around online, I found this for sale for those of us in the US:
That connector's outer barrel is listed as 6.0mm instead of 5.9mm, but hopefully being 0.1mm too large won't be a big deal.
Also, it seems like Canon wants to keep the actual specs of the AC-E6N a state secret so you'll buy their $100 adapter, but I also managed to find a photo of the back of the genuine Canon AC-E6N adapter online.
The text is a little hard to read, but it looks like it outputs 8.0V at 3A.
So there you have it! Instead of paying for Canon's $100 AC-E6N adapter, you can splice that connector onto any AC adapter that puts out 8.0V at 3A, and it should power the DR-E6 properly, which you can then use to power any camera that takes an LP-E6 or LP-E6N battery.
Once my connectors come in the mail, I'll try this myself, and report back if this works.
One last thing that threw me for a loop... I also found this youtube video that shows a guy using a commonly found connector coupler to plug an external battery into what appears to be a genuine Canon DR-E6. So now I'm wondering if at some point Canon did use the much more standard barrel connection on the DR-E6 and the AC-E6N. Did they change it just to lock people into buying their $100 AC adapter??
Alright, so in another thread I was talking about what I was learning about powering and using my EOS R to take long time lapses. But this topic will apply to a lot of different cameras, and will hopefully have a lot of useful info for people, so I'm starting a new thread.
I've been trying to use a cheap third party AC adapter to power my EOS R to take a series of long time lapses. What I've discovered is that the camera seems to still recognize this AC adapter as a battery, not a continuous power source. So long story short, if you leave the camera on for long enough (like 12+ hours) it will still shut off due to a "dead" battery.
My hope is that the official Canon adapter will be properly recognized by the camera as an AC power source and never shut off. So I forked over the $50 to buy a genuine Canon DR-E6 "DC coupler." It is essentially a dummy battery with a cord that is supposed to run to the AC-E6N AC adapter, which then plugs into the wall.
However, there's one problem with the AC-E6N AC adapter. First, it's an additional $80-$100. (Yeah, for a simple AC adapter!) Second, it's out of stock pretty much everywhere right now. I figured that wouldn't be a problem because the DR-E6 shown above appears to have a standard barrel style power connector. I've probably got a similar sized connector around the house that I could splice onto my existing AC power adapter to allow it to plug into the DR-E6.
Or so I thought! The DR-E6 I ordered arrived in the mail today. And guess what!? Canon has decided to eschew the common power connector that everyone and their mother has been using for decades in lieu of this monstrosity...
Yeah, looks like a normal barrel connector until you look inside, and there's a tiny little pin in the middle. Normally that space would just be open, and a larger pin in the mating connector would slide in there. I have never seen this bizarre power connector before, and I definitely don't have the mating connector for this laying around the house.
I came very, very close to just chopping the end off of the DR-E6 and splicing on a connector that I would have a proper mating connector for. But I don't like the idea of taking wire cutters to the power adapter that I just spent $50 on. So I went back to the internet to try to do some more research and see if there was any possible standard this weird connector adheres to. I found this thread on an astronomy forum where someone ran into this exact same problem...
Canon DC Coupler DR-E6 socket
Hi all. I've got a Canon DC Coupler model DR-E6, which I want to use at my scope to power my camera instead of using a battery. (I've heard that this means there will be less heat in the camera, not to mention that running from the internal battery on a cold night isn't the best thing to do for t...
stargazerslounge.com
Just in case that link ever gets broken, it included photo of the connector on the AC-E6N that plugs into Canon's "DC couplers." One weird thing about this photo is this AC-E6N seems to have the connector for the DC coupler right on the side of the adapter itself, while the one I've seen for sale online has a little pigtail wire coming out of it with the connector. Not sure what the deal is there.
After a lot of trial and error, the author finally found this connector for sale online. The connector is known as a JSBJ4 connection. The outer diameter is 5.9mm, the diameter of the inner barrel is 3.0mm, and the diameter of the center pin is 1.05mm.
After looking around online, I found this for sale for those of us in the US:
4840.2221 SCHURTER Inc. | Connectors, Interconnects | DigiKey
Order today, ships today. 4840.2221 – Power Barrel Connector Jack JSBJ4 Panel Mount from SCHURTER Inc.. Pricing and Availability on millions of electronic components from Digi-Key Electronics.
www.digikey.com
That connector's outer barrel is listed as 6.0mm instead of 5.9mm, but hopefully being 0.1mm too large won't be a big deal.
Also, it seems like Canon wants to keep the actual specs of the AC-E6N a state secret so you'll buy their $100 adapter, but I also managed to find a photo of the back of the genuine Canon AC-E6N adapter online.
The text is a little hard to read, but it looks like it outputs 8.0V at 3A.
So there you have it! Instead of paying for Canon's $100 AC-E6N adapter, you can splice that connector onto any AC adapter that puts out 8.0V at 3A, and it should power the DR-E6 properly, which you can then use to power any camera that takes an LP-E6 or LP-E6N battery.
Once my connectors come in the mail, I'll try this myself, and report back if this works.
One last thing that threw me for a loop... I also found this youtube video that shows a guy using a commonly found connector coupler to plug an external battery into what appears to be a genuine Canon DR-E6. So now I'm wondering if at some point Canon did use the much more standard barrel connection on the DR-E6 and the AC-E6N. Did they change it just to lock people into buying their $100 AC adapter??