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First of all, I'm passionate about electronics, but that's just like a football fan saying he's passionate about the sport but can't actually play. I'm a programmer, so since I'm on the tech side I can get pretty ambitious, but I do need your help.

I have the Kinect with the crazy proprietary cable and no adapter. I can hack it or just buy the adapter from Microsoft to use it with my laptop, but I want to be able to use it without keeping the Kinect plugged in a socket in wall.

The Kinect needs 12v, 2A. Some people reported it should work with 1.5A as well. I found this question that should sort out the voltage problem, but there's no way I can get 1.5A, is it? Get 12 volt power supply from Dell Laptop

Ideally I'd like to be able to power the Kinect from the laptop (I realize that would drain the battery very quickly) but alternatives are welcomed. I suppose a battery pack would do as well, but it would be great if I could avoid paying $40 for one...

How do you think these guys pulled it off? http://www.kinecthacks.com/navi-%E2%80%93-a-kinect-powered-vision-aid/

Thanks, Claudiu

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Claudiu
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  • I think this is the standard issue we see. If you have a 12V 2A power supply it will work with a device that requires a 12V 1.5A supply. The 1.5 is specifying a maximum of current that can be sourced, not an amount that must be used. Let me find the question. – Kortuk Jun 02 '12 at 11:46
  • Hacks or not, if you attempting researching this, extra $100 is least of troubles. Better to start worrying about budget after may be 1st $1K –  Jun 02 '12 at 17:39

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Instead of trying to find 12V in a laptop (you may not be able to do it), how about buying a small 12V sealed lead-acid battery? Get a battery that is just big enough so it lasts the same as your laptop and you're set.

The battery when fully charged can be up to 14.5V (if just off a fast charger, 13.8V if charged by slow charger), so you may need a low drop voltage regulator that bypasses itself when the voltage drops below, say, 13V (I do not know what is the maximum power supply voltage for Kinect).

As for the videos - the AA battery pack is shown in the video. 10 NiMH batteries give 12-14V total.

Pentium100
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  • Hey. Sorry for the late reply. I did a test with two 6V batteries - the Kinect ran for almost 2hrs which is good enough for now. Thanks for the tip on the voltage for the 12V battery, no way I would have known that! – Claudiu Jun 13 '12 at 03:16