D100 AC Adapter home made

Estuardo, thanks in advance for your interest and information.

The big questionl of making the AC adapter isn´t getting an external battery, I´ve got a D100 and the MB-D100 module that allows you using two batteries Li-On, each of them can really take near a thousand pics before recharging.

The question is, that in order to clean the CCD, you need to get the mirror and the shutter up, and I don´t want to do it having the CCD charging (like you´d get it shutting in bulb position) You have to have connected the camera to the AC adapter, via its external plug in, in other case, the menu option for CCD cleaning is not selectable. The reason is probably avoiding and accident in case of having the batteries off and something touching the CCD, because in that very moment the rear courtain of the shutter will fall down and we all know what happens when something hits the shutter.

What I´m probably going to do, once Øyvind has kindly sent us a pic of the adapter, is to build myself something to plug in the two pins that really matters.

The two electronic addresses are very interesting anyway

Regards
--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

Gabriel Lago said:

I woke up this morning and saw such a stunning pic in the forum!

Thank you very much Øyvind, I´m going to try it right now

Click to expand...

Just to make sure you won't fry your camera:

The drawing on the sticker shows the pinout of the connector (looking into it from the front), not the receptacle on the camera.

On mine the unloaded output voltage is 9.38 V, BTW.

It is also totally ripple-free while unloaded. Loaded with a 15 ohms resistor (approx 0.6 A) it ripples with 40 mVp-p. That's pretty good!

I am unable to measure it while connected to the camera without prying it open, and I won't do that. It is quite heavy, suggesting that it is molded. No screws.

--
-Øyvind

If you could find the four pin plug, I would think that you could do away with the AC adapter altogether and simply wire the plug to a (fully charged) battery. This would provide a very stable supply of presumably the correct voltage.

Then of course, you could activate the mirror lock-up and clean the uncharged CCD. It obviously wouldn't last as long as the AC adapter but would likely last plenty long enough.

What do you think?

Rich

Gabriel Lago said:

Has anyone yet get to know which of the pins is + and which is - ?

And second, and quite a harder question, why they have four pins?

In an older message I found that someone wrote that D60 adapter
also worked with D100. Has any body else tested?

Thanks and regards

--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

Click to expand...

I second the suggestion. Since we've already identified the pin outs and determined that it's DC, I see no reason you could not simply wire a battery to the AC adapter input.

I would guess that the voltage would be the same as the camera battery. That would be easy enough to confirm by checking the battery rating against the AC adapter output rating.

If both voltages are the same, the easiest solution would be to simply use the camera battery and attach two wires to the output contacts and connect them (observing proper polarity) to the camera AC adapter input. If you use 24awg solid wire it should be easy to insert the two wires individually and forget about having to find the plug - after all, it'll only be connected for a few minutes. Just ensure that they're attached firmly.

If a battery must be present in the camera when using the AC adapter they another battery(s) will be needed. You could either make one up or get another for the camera which will be needed sooner or later....

Besides, you'll be getting pure DC and you won't have to worry about regulating it, etc.

Stu

Yes you are right, what´s really difficult is to get a plug.
I´ve tried it with cable this morning but I didn´t succeed.

The input voltage needed is 9v, it isn´t the battery voltage (7,4v), but it is almost the voltage of the 6 AA alkaline batteries you can use with the MB-D100 module.

What is really interesting is to measure the outputs of the four pins of the camera when the camera is on with the battery. I´ve confirmed (obviously) the voltage graphic from the pic of the adapter, but instead of 9v I´ve got 4,5v. The camera is halfing the voltage to work.

--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

Thanks again Øyvind.
I had understood the diagram that way.3

I´ve been thinking about using the 6 AA adapter to the MB-D100, that´s 9volts too. Do you think that it could work?

Anyway the big problem is to buil something to replace the plug.

Regards
--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

I´ve just got to get mirror up without the EH-5!

I used the 6 alkaline batteries adapter for the MB-D100 and I plug it following the diagram from the pic.

The problem is to get something to plug.

I did it with a thin telephone cable without its plastic cover, I enclose a needle with it, apply some soldering and got something that could fit inside the hole of the camera´s plug, and could make contact with each pin without any shortcut.

That was enough for getting on the camera and selecting the cleaning CCD option, but it isn´t safe enough to clean the CCD, because any of the cables could get away and the rear courtain will inmediatly fall down, and I don´t want even think in the disaster.

So, any suggestion about how to build the a good plug?

--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

Gabriel Lago said:

I´ve just got to get mirror up without the EH-5!

I used the 6 alkaline batteries adapter for the MB-D100 and I plug
it following the diagram from the pic.

The problem is to get something to plug.

I did it with a thin telephone cable without its plastic cover, I
enclose a needle with it, apply some soldering and got something
that could fit inside the hole of the camera´s plug, and could make
contact with each pin without any shortcut.

That was enough for getting on the camera and selecting the
cleaning CCD option, but it isn´t safe enough to clean the CCD,
because any of the cables could get away and the rear courtain will
inmediatly fall down, and I don´t want even think in the disaster.

So, any suggestion about how to build the a good plug?

Click to expand...

Get yourself a Dremel or similar, and a solid block of plastic. Take the Dremel and grind the plastic block to shape. Doesn't have to be exactly like the original plug, but you must get the four holes to align properly. Then you put something (flat, thin wire maybe) into the two correct holes in the plastic block, and voila.

Should be doable.

Alternatively you could mold yourself a connector with epoxy glue. Maybe a even better solution.

I would hovever advise against using alkalines. Use Ni-MH or Ni-Cd cells, and use bigger than AA too. These batteries can handle high currents much better than alkalines. 7 cells, and you are set.

--
-Øyvind

Thanks Øyvind

I´ll keep trying
(as a matter of fact just for fun)
--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

I have a D1x, unfortunately I don't have a D100 so it's hard to picture excacty what the AC connector looks like.

If it's anything like the D1x, to make a connector, I would consider placing a sheet of waxed paper over the connector and insert two long pieces of thin solid copper wire (24awg or whatever size fits appropriately) through the wax paper and into the D100 connector (socket). The wax paper is just to protect the camera from the next step.

I would then use an expoy or cement to keep those two wires in the proper position as well as insulated from one another by applying the cement/epoxy around the (bare) wires.

Once dried, I would try to shape this epoxy/cement (files, Fordom or Dremel tool, etc.) as best I could to fit as far into the D100 socket.

The best plastic cement I found (in the U.S.) was made by Devecon called "Plastic Expoy" or something similar.

If the resulting connection is not all that secure, I'd wrap the wires around the camera body and then plug in into the camera. I'd secure the wire on the camera with some rubberbands to prevent movement and loss of contact. It'd look ugly (chinchy) that doing it this way, but it may be a good solution to the problem. Afterall , it would not have to be done that often.

Stu

Thanks Estuardo

I was thinking how to do it in the way you have suggested us.

I had doubts in this two posibilities:

1- Shaping a solid thig like plastic or wood with the Dremmel to fit inside the plug

2- Making something with exposy or silicon, as you have suggested us, what needs to take some cares with the camera.

I´ll think about it during my working week and the next weekend I´ll try it, and I´ll tell you.

Thanks again for your suggestions

Regards
--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

Gabriel,

Its been two weeks since the last input on this thread - have you managed to locate a 4 pin plug to fit the socket on the D100 yet ?? I did read somewhere - that the connector is also used on a laptop (external DC connector) either NEC or Toshiba. But so far I have not been able to track it down. Still no Nikon D100 AC adaptors available in my local photographic store either (where I bought the camera)

Gabriel Lago said:

Yes you are right, what´s really difficult is to get a plug.
I´ve tried it with cable this morning but I didn´t succeed.

The input voltage needed is 9v, it isn´t the battery voltage
(7,4v), but it is almost the voltage of the 6 AA alkaline batteries
you can use with the MB-D100 module.

What is really interesting is to measure the outputs of the four
pins of the camera when the camera is on with the battery. I´ve
confirmed (obviously) the voltage graphic from the pic of the
adapter, but instead of 9v I´ve got 4,5v. The camera is halfing the
voltage to work.

--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

Click to expand...

Zorpie said:

Gabriel,

Its been two weeks since the last input on this thread - have you
managed to locate a 4 pin plug to fit the socket on the D100 yet ??
I did read somewhere - that the connector is also used on a laptop
(external DC connector) either NEC or Toshiba. But so far I have
not been able to track it down. Still no Nikon D100 AC adaptors
available in my local photographic store either (where I bought the
camera)

Click to expand...

No I didn´t. I just manage to fit to little cables in the two pins and that worked, but it isn´t safe enough.
It´s interesting what you say about the laptops, i´ll try it.

Regards
--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

Gabriel,

Thanks for your reply. I have been searching around the Web sites that provide external, higher capacity (non-camera manufacturer) batteries to see if any of them do anything for the D100. So far there has been nothing. I will keep you informed if I find a source of this 4 pin connector. There MUST be someone out there somewhere - who makes them. They are not unique to just Nikon equipment. There is another thread somewhere that refers to someone who swaps his AC adaptor between his laptop and his D100. But the person who input this information into the thread, did not know if it was an NEC or Toshiba laptop and did not respond to my request for more information.

Gabriel Lago said:

Zorpie said:

Gabriel,

Its been two weeks since the last input on this thread - have you
managed to locate a 4 pin plug to fit the socket on the D100 yet ??
I did read somewhere - that the connector is also used on a laptop
(external DC connector) either NEC or Toshiba. But so far I have
not been able to track it down. Still no Nikon D100 AC adaptors
available in my local photographic store either (where I bought the
camera)

Click to expand...

No I didn´t. I just manage to fit to little cables in the two pins
and that worked, but it isn´t safe enough.
It´s interesting what you say about the laptops, i´ll try it.

Regards
--
Gabriel Lago
Madrid

Click to expand...