Why did the Super Scope eat up 6 AA Batteries so quickly?

[ACiD]

Just curious if anyone knew why.

[wiggyx]

Mine seems to last a good long time on a fresh set. Don't know what you tell ya.

[Aussie2B]

Does it? I can't claim to use it a ton, but I've gotten a good amount of play on a fresh, cheapo set. I ended up putting the batteries into other stuff before they ran out of juice. May as well use rechargeables these days.

[sloan]

I've always wondered if someone ever tried modding a Super Scope to run off an A/C adapter. Wouldn't seem to be that hard if someone were to try.

[Emperor Megas]

I never knew that they took batteries. They're wireless, then? I don't think I've never used one before.

Actually, you know, I may have played one briefly on a kiosk in Macy's back in the day, but I don't remember much about it.

[wiggyx]

I've always wondered if someone ever tried modding a Super Scope to run off an A/C adapter. Wouldn't seem to be that hard if someone were to try.

I haven't, but it would take about 5 minutes to mockup a mod like that. 9V @ 1.5-3A AC adapter would do it. I bet most everyone has an old cell phone charger sitting in a drawer somewhere with similar specs

[jb143]

I wouldn't use a cell phone charger as a power supply. Li-ion battery chargers muck about with the current and such to charge batteries properly...not provide a continuous current to a load. But yeah, adding an AC adapter port to a Super Scope would be incredibly easy.

I'm guessing it's using a 7805 regulator (or something similar) to create 5V from 9V worth of AA's. A regulator like that typically needs 7 to 7.5 Volts to operate. That means that once each AA dissipates to around 1.25V then the Superscope is going to start acting like the batteries are going dead when they're really still at half capacity.

[wiggyx]

I wouldn't use a cell phone charger as a power supply. Li-ion battery chargers muck about with the current and such to charge batteries properly...not provide a continuous current to a load. But yeah, adding an AC adapter port to a Super Scope would be incredibly easy.

I'm guessing it's using a 7805 regulator (or something similar) to create 5V from 9V worth of AA's. A regulator like that typically needs 7 to 7.5 Volts to operate. That means that once each AA dissipates to around 1.25V then the Superscope is going to start acting like the batteries are going dead when they're really still at half capacity.

I was of the impression that the phones themselves regulate what power to take from the charger and when, not the other way around.

[jb143]

I was of the impression that the phones themselves regulate what power to take from the charger and when, not the other way around.

Many probably are but not all. You would certainly want to make sure of that fact first. They're also more likely to have a weird plug making it harder to find a suitable match for the mod.

[wiggyx]

I was just planning on cutting the connector off either way and making a faux battery pack with the adapter soldered to some leads that would make contact with the battery tray in the gun. How are you picturing the mod in your head?

[jb143]

How are you picturing the mod in your head?

Slick and clean

If I were doing it, I'd probably get a spare battery door and install a standard power supply jack in it. And then have that attached to a faux battery pack as you mention. Though maybe cutting a power supply cable would be better than drilling a hole in a battery door from a collector point of view.

Actually, a better idea would be to find a lithium-ion battery pack that fits and "mod" that instead. Still wireless and would last a lot longer.

[jperryss]

Does it? I can't claim to use it a ton, but I've gotten a good amount of play on a fresh, cheapo set. I ended up putting the batteries into other stuff before they ran out of juice. May as well use rechargeables these days.

I remember chewing through batteries on mine. But then again, I also remember forgetting to switch it off when I wasn't using it. Some type of power LED would've gone a long way.

[Shulamana]

I have seen a li-ion battery mod for one sometime in the past six months, but it was pretty messy and didn't fit neatly inside the Super Scope.

[wiggyx]

Slick and clean

If I were doing it, I'd probably get a spare battery door and install a standard power supply jack in it. And then have that attached to a faux battery pack as you mention. Though maybe cutting a power supply cable would be better than drilling a hole in a battery door from a collector point of view.

Actually, a better idea would be to find a lithium-ion battery pack that fits and "mod" that instead. Still wireless and would last a lot longer.

Clean is always the name of the game IMO. I'm not into hot melt blobs and whatnot. That's not how I do things either

Could always just make a pack with some AA Li-ion batts and some heat shrink

I think I'm gonna have to make one of these up tonight. This sounds like a quick, fun project...

[jb143]

Could always just make a pack with some AA Li-ion batts and some heat shrink

Gotta be careful with Li-ion's. They don't like to be charged in series. Also keep in kind that they are going to be closer to 4V per cell so you might not need to use 6. It shouldn't be too hard to locate a pre-made battery that would fit in there and meet the voltage requirements. Otherwise you should be able to make something that works really well and gets good battery life.

Let us know how it goes.

[wiggyx]

Gotta be careful with Li-ion's. They don't like to be charged in series. Also keep in kind that they are going to be closer to 4V per cell so you might not need to use 6. It shouldn't be too hard to locate a pre-made battery that would fit in there and meet the voltage requirements. Otherwise you should be able to make something that works really well and gets good battery life.

Let us know how it goes.

Hmm, didn't know that (about being wired in series), thanks.

I've got it mostly mocked up right here. It's a rough template at this point, and I'm just trying to figure out the best way to make the faux battery mount. I'm aiming to avoid cutting anything on the Super Scope. I have no desire to chop it up. Right now it seems like a plastic door/faux batt combo is gonna work the best, just eliminating the original door altogether. I'll post come pics in the morning.

[wiggyx]

Seemed like just making another door was the best route to go. There's no obvious way to run the wire through the door/opening without cutting the SS or the original battery cover. So, here's where I ended up tonight.





Fits pretty well so far. I'll mockup the faux battery tomorrow and then make a revised prototype after I'm sure that everything fits and is working.

Off to eat a snack and take a nap.

[eggwolio]

Wow. That's amazing work. When you succeed, you should make some kits or even just sell these spare doors. Hell, I'd think there's a huge market for replacement battery doors for lots of things. If this is as easy for you as it looks, you might have a whole new side business.

[sloan]

Nice work on that battery cover. I would probably just drill a hole through that cover and hard-wire a spare A/C adapter right into the existing battery terminals and call it good. If the A/C adapter cord is long enough, then it will not bother me during game play.

[jb143]

Good job on that battery cover.

Hmm, didn't know that (about being wired in series), thanks.

Yeah, the charging can be be unbalanced. It can be done but you should use a charger designed for that specific battery configuration that takes charge balancing into account. This is especially true if you decide to use some parallel configuration for double the mAH. I think sometimes a balancing circuit is built into the batteries though, it just all depends on the specific cells and charger you chose.

Circuits using Li-ion's will also typically also have some type of over/under voltage protection built in. It might be something to think about since loosing too much charge can actually lead to it not holding a charge anymore. You can buy a small voltage protection circuit for fairly cheap, or I'm sure there a schematics for them out on the net.