Powering your rig or directors monitor off a single V-mount/Gold mount battery solution sounds great, but in practice, this necessitates a clunky battery charger that is not very transport friendly. Especially if you want to travel light. However, the good people at PAG, the British designer and manufacturer of the PAGlink system of lightweight, intelligent linking batteries (that I reported on a while back in this post here) has introduced a new version of its ultra-compact travel charger.
The new PAGlink V-Mount Micro Charger features a tougher, injection moulded housing, and is designed to accept 5-20V DC input from a variety of sources. This added versatility makes it an even better location charger for all shooters aiming to travel with lightweight gear.
Similar to its predecessor, the new PAGLink Micro Charger is still small enough to fit in your pocket and simply clips onto the V-Mount contacts of a single PAGlink battery, which can be linked to additional PAGlink batteries of any rated capacity, in any state of charge.
The Micro Charger is intended for charging up to 4 linked batteries. At the moment, the charger is compatible with PAG and Sony batteries only, according to the manufacturer.
PAGLink Micro Charger Features
- Still the world’s smallest and most economic, single-position, multi-battery V-Mount charger!
- Accepts DC input in the range 5 -20V, and can be powered from a variety of sources
- Includes a Power Supply Unit that converts 100-240V AC to low-voltage DC:
- an In-Car DC power lead for powering from a 12V vehicle battery (via the dashboard lighter socket)
- a USB DC power lead for powering from a USB charger (2A)
- Designed to charge simultaneously up to 4 x PAGlink V-Mount batteries
- Designed for light travel and fits easily in your camera bag
- Fully-charges one fully-discharged 96Wh PAGlink battery in 4 hours
- Compatible with V-Mount Li-Ion batteries manufactured by PAG and Sony
The charging unit comes with its Power Supply Unit that enables charging from AC supplies worldwide (100-240V); it also features interchange-able power plugs that allow direct connection to the AC supply without the need for adaptors.
The new charger can also be powered from 5V-20V DC supplies. DC power leads are included that allow charging from a 12V vehicle battery, via the dashboard cigarette lighter socket, or a USB charger (2A). The charging times will be similar when powered from either an AC mains supply or a 12V vehicle battery.
The ability to charge multiple batteries using one charging channel was developed by PAG and is unique to the PAGlink system. The Micro Charger will address the most-discharged batteries first, until all the batteries are in a similar state of charge, it then fully-charges them simultaneously, without intervention. A single fully-discharged 96Wh battery will be fully-charged in 4 hours, 3 batteries in 12 hours. Charging time will be substantially less when the batteries are only partially discharged.
The Micro Charger features LED indication of charging, charge completion, an absent battery, and a faulty battery. PAG batteries offer accurate, high resolution state of charge information, on their own display. This allows you to monitor closely their capacity, during charging.
The ultra-compact lightweight charger, its PSU and DC power leads, will fit easily in any camera bag. PAG claims it is the broadcast industry’s smallest, most economic, multi-battery charger. A Gold Mount version is also available.
The new PAGLink Micro Charger (model 9713V) replaces the previous PAG V-Mount Micro Charger Model 9710, which is now discontinued. The new PAGLink Micro Charger model 9713V, which has its own Power Supply Unit, plugs and DC power leads, that are unfortunately not compatible with 9710 and vice versa.
However, it is worth to point out that the Power Supply Unit and plugs for the previous Micro Charger (model 9710) are still available from PAG as spare parts for those who still own the 9710 model.
The new V-Mount PAGLink Micro Charger has a list price of £150 + VAT and is currently available to order from authorised PAG dealers.
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