Construction | GoPro | Cliff's Long GoPro Timelapse Page

Instructions on Connecting the Components - i.e. How to Do It.

Before proceeding you should check out the About Batteries section. You will learn a lot about the various types of batteries and their respective benefits. I have put some really interesting charts in there to show the discharge cycles of various types.

The images below are all you have to achieve to get your system working. The top image shows the full setup with the battery, and the DC-DC converter feeding into the GoPro camera inside the case. The bottom image below shows the Hero3 inside its case with the Cam-Do Intervalometer attached. Click on either image for a better look. The Cam-Do Blink is shown for size comparison.

Describing this process in detail is a lot more difficult that actually doing it. You should have a soldering iron or other means to connect wires, a voltmeter and a working brain as pre-requisites. The image at top is virtually self-explanatory.

1: Choose your external battery which should be a 12V 18Ah (or bigger) LiFePO4 (or alternative) battery.

2: Remove the internal battery from the rear compartment of the GoPro camera. Do NOT insert the battery eliminator into the camera at this stage! It is essential to get all wiring and voltages correct before inserting the battery eliminator into the camera and powering up. Don't panic. All will become obvious.

3: Connect your chosen DC-DC converter to the external 12V battery with a pair of clips, making sure the polarities are correct.

4. Check that the output of your DC_DC converter is 4.5V. This is easy on the Manson SDC-5203 1.5V-12V selectable DC-DC converter.

5. Remove the clips from the external battery.

6. Connect the 4.5V output of the DC-DC converter to your battery eliminator.

7. Reconnect the clips to the battery. Your battery eliminator should now be powered up.

8. Put a charged GoPro battery next to your battery eliminator as shown below, with the 3 pins at the top right. Holding one lead of the voltmeter in each hand, check the voltage across the outside pins - they should be similar, and polarities identical. If you get the polarities incorrect your GoPro will go up in smoke. I know, I did it!