This is the third iteration of my homemade enclosure for the Ricoh Theta X, to leave the camera outside and powered for hours at a time, to capture the northern lights and do timelapse photography.

I got tired of the stability problems with the external USB powerbank that disconnected randomly.

Also, I wanted to free up the USB port to connect an ethernet adapter, or a USB intervalometer.

And I wanted to shoot photos at a faster clip than one every 30 seconds, but the USB charge circuit can’t keep up with the power consumption.

So I needed to ditch the USB powerbank altogether.

To that end, I 3D-printed a fake DB-110 battery with copper strips to bring the pins at the bottom of the battery compartment outside of the camera without modifying it in any way. That way I can power the camera from a larger battery and the camera is none the wiser.

The fake battery also has a 102kΩ resistor between the ground and the middle strip to simulate the temperature sensor at 25°C. Without it, the camera refuses to boot.

With that, I can power the camera reliably from the outside without tying up the USB port:

The camera even charges an external lithium-ion cell without any problem:

I made a large 1S10P 50Ah battery pack to power the camera on battery for a long time. It’s charging now:

Nevermind the multitude of XT-60 connectors: they’re there if I want to change the number of cells in the pack without having to desolder anything 🙂

The problem is, the only 1-cell charger I have lying around only pushes 2.7A into the cells, so it’ll take over 18 hours to charge the thing. And the camera itself sure won’t charge that beast in a hurry either… I need to buy a fast RC charger that handles 1S packs. But for the time being, it’ll do.

This battery pack is slimmer than the USB powerbank I used to use. Also, I wanted to route the cable entirely within the enclosure. So I ditched the previous battery compartment mast and made a new one out of 80mm PVC pipe, and 3D-printed a new camera holder / glass dome base that fits directly on top of the PVC pipe.

I should be able to test this new rig tomorrow. The forecast calls for a clear night: With any luck, we’ll have nice auroras. Stay tuned!