Possible to override battery charge detection?

[BlueToast]

Greetings,

I have a Canon t3i. By itself, it takes 1x 1200mAh Canon battery. With a battery expansion pack, it takes 2x 1200mAh EP8 batteries. With battery expansion pack using AA battery cartridge, it can take 6x AA batteries. I have 8x 2400mAh Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable NiMH batteries, and 4x 2600mAh LaCrosse rechargeable NiMH batteries. So, 2400mAh (2x1200 EP8) vs 14,400 mAh (6x2400 AA) vs 15,200 mAh (4x2600+2x2400 AA).

Unfortunately, when I use AA's instead of EP8s, my t3i will give a message "Change the battery pack" when I turn on the camera. I can't get passed this message and I know of no way to bypass it. It appears that it will read the memory card (lots of blinking after I insert memory card with ML2.3). Is there a way or is it possible to bypass this via ML or something? It would certainly beat the EP8 batteries. It's pretty sad that batteries smaller than the EP8s can outdo in capacity and performance. I haven't been able to find an EP8 that is anywhere near the competency in both capacity and size (or density to put it short).

Thanks!

[1%]

I just buy the $3 packs from ebay. They work great for photos, so so for video.

I'm interested in seeing a battery voltage readout and a power meter based on that. Also setting of the threshold for where that warning comes up. I tried to use 60D's battery meter long time ago but it didn't work. Have to check the firmware and see where/if that stuff is reported.

[BlueToast]

Turns out my 'precharged' batteries aren't charged at all. Ha. Charging now. Will let you guys know how it goes.

This will be like running a DSLR on portable nuclear power.

[BlueToast]

Greetings,

OK, it works fine. Just had to charge the batteries, that's all. This is awesome, because now I have around 14-15,000mAh of battery juice. Wish there was a detailed report ML could give me.

[1%]

Thats why I want a voltage readout... my after-market batteries report full, 1 bar then nothing. I imagine using rechargeables gives the same results.

[Roman]

I'm waiting for a battery grip to arrrive, I'm planning to try convert the 'AA' tray into running an external wire to an RC car battery.

As you can get 7.2v lipo batteries with 6000Mah each, mounted externally would mean I can put them behind my shoulder on a shoulder rig as a (rather light) counterbalance instead of having to lift that weight all of the time.

It will also make changing the batteries a million times easier.

I didnt realise that rechargable AAs had so much more grunt than the EP8s though , sticking to AAs may well be the best solution.

[Audionut]

This is awesome, because now I have around 14-15,000mAh of battery juice.

It doesn't work like that.  Canon LP-E8 batteries run 7.4v.

Rechargeable AA's run 1.2v.   It takes 6 AA's to get to 7.4v, hence why the caddy takes 6.  But running the 6 batteries to increase voltage to 7.4 means the mAh stays the same (2400 or so).

You can wire the batteries to increase the mAh rating as you thought, but it means the voltage would be 1.2v.

[ilguercio]

+1.
It takes three sets of 6 batteries of 2400mAh to make a 7200mAh pack, if properly wired.

[1%]

Why not buy cells that fit in the AA slots but are higher mah and voltage?

[ilguercio]

Why not buy cells that fit in the AA slots but are higher mah and voltage?

Best you can do is buy 2700 mAh SBS AA batteries, as the ones i have in my flash.
Or, you could buy a 3rd party wall adapter for your camera, one of those over9000mAh 12V lithium batteries from China and build something to lower it to 7.4V.
That's the best option.