Blackmagic Forum

I'm doing an epic 30 day roadtrip across Australia in July. Yes, be jealous

Anyway, I was thinking about charging my BMCC while driving, since we're doing so much of it.

The cigarette lighter in the car is 12V DC, so can't I use a cigarette plug that has a DC jack (already have 2 for some portable lights) and plug that straight into the BMCC? Considering I might need an adapter for the correct size.

Should work right?

Should work, but if you are worried: think about some external batteries for your CC (it's a good idea anyway) and only charge the batteries in the car - so in case something still goes wrong (don't know about in-car temperatures in australia...) you only fry a portion of your investment - and we won't have to miss out on your sure-to-be-great road-trip documentary...

Rent some 190wh batteries and charge when & where you can get power,
or do what I do, use my Toyota Tacoma with Power outlet (Uses gasoline.)
But the cool thing is I can run or charge anything while I'm traveling, just run the power cord through the rear window .

sean mclennan wrote:I'm doing an epic 30 day roadtrip across Australia in July. Yes, be jealous

Anyway, I was thinking about charging my BMCC while driving, since we're doing so much of it.

The cigarette lighter in the car is 12V DC, so can't I use a cigarette plug that has a DC jack (already have 2 for some portable lights) and plug that straight into the BMCC? Considering I might need an adapter for the correct size.

Should work right?

Nothing wrong with 12V DC, cigarette lighter will be perfect....as for a 30 day road trip across Australia, will be a hoot I am sure. See if you can fit in a bit of Baramundi fishing, maybe the Victoria River in the Northern Territory....just watch for Crocs.

Also before I forget, make sure you get the left handed cigarette lighter adapter and not the right handed one, we drive on the left hand side of the road here.

Depending what else you have to charge it may make more sense to go through a small inverter in the front of the truck off of the 12V. That way you can also charge, say, mobile phones, camera, ect. You don't generally want to go over around 150W off of the 12V cigarette lighter, but that should be more than enough to power say a macbook pro laptop (85W if memory serves) as well as a small battery charger.

Generally I would use the cigarette lighter with the most possible caution! There is nothing to prevent your equipment from voltage spikes whilst the engine is running ..... could cause serious damage ...

If you are worried about the sensitive nature of electronic equipment then these can come in handy :-

https://www.jbhifionline.com.au/compute ... yle/537369

I would say go ahead and charge from the cigarette lighter. It may not be the absolute cleanest voltage, but the BMCC allows a very wide swing in voltage there, and all that circuit is doing is charging the battery if you don't shoot when you use it. Most cars will only charge while the ignition is on, which drains the battery if the car is not running, so that is a minor issue. You will be supplying between about 12 VDC (when not running) and around 15 VDC (when engine is running), with minor noise on the line, which should be pretty benign.

If someone does something totally stupid, like disconnecting the car battery while the car is running and charging, well then you are in for a nasty voltage spike, but who is that dumb?

DNomer wrote:If someone does something totally stupid, like disconnecting the car battery while the car is running and charging, well then you are in for a nasty voltage spike, but who is that dumb?

Well, they are Aussies... I keed I keed

I'll just leave this here

https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?vi ... 7730960981" width="568" height="320"