Actually, after borrowing a decent electronic multi-tester (would love to
buy one but if I had that kind of money I wouldn't be selling ironing
boards) I will rig to the power connections inside the camera and wire it to
a makeshift battery pack and test that. I can see how to do it now. I will
probably use some 24 gauge wire from a cat5 cable unless you think that will
not be enough.

As for measuring the way I did already, there are four batteries, two each
that drop down two slots and connect to the power leads inside the camera.
The lid closes the circuit, so I am testing the four batteries and the
camera circuitry I guess, with the lid open. I don't know how valid that
test is, but I am having fun.

Instead of all this testing, I could just get the charger and some
batteries, I just don't want to find out it won't work because this camera,
apparently an older model of the HP215, needs the alkaline voltage rush, so
to speak.

"Dave Martindale" wrote in message
...
"CMF" writes:

Okay, let me ask, how do I test under load? Does this mean see what
happens
to the voltage while in the camera, or when snapping a picture?

Ideally, yes. If you can't do that because you can't reach the camera's
battery terminals with the battery installed, maybe you can use clip
leads to connect the batteries (in a battery holder) to the camera
terminals. And if you can't do that either, perhaps you can measure the
current drawn by the camera, and then use a resistor that draws about
the same amount of current. What's practical depends on the mechanical
layout of your camera.

I was
piddling around with it this morning using an analog Sperry SP-152a
multitester, and it was showing 5 volts when I just took the battery cap
off
and touched the leads, where if I took all four batterys out and laid end
to
end, it showed 6. Remember, I am virtually ignorant of this stuff, and ha
ve
a cheap tester. The same tester shows almost 2 volts per battery, so I am
limited by a silly tester.

What in the camera is taking almost an entire volt even with the camera
turned off?

If you "take the battery cap off", what does the complete circuit with
the multimeter look like? Are you connecting the meter from the same
point where the camera takes its power? Or are you really removing an
inter-battery connection from the "far" end of the batteries and
measuring the voltage between the two exposed battery ends, but with the
camera electronics still in the loop?

If you're just measuring between two batteries in the middle of the
battery string, but the camera is also still in the circuit, the voltage
you measure just depends on the relative resistance of your meter and
the camera electronics in the "off" state, which is pretty meaningless.
If the camera had a mechanical "off" switch, you'd actually measure zero
volts in this case.

Dave