BL> Why don't you just buy a 6V battery? And trickle charge it off
BL> your 12V system with a 12V/5W light bulb?

DD> I don't know if it will run off straight 6V - I should test
DD> that....

 Of course it will! Unless Idon;t understand what you've got.

DD> I could also get a small mains inverter and use the original
DD> 100-240V SMPS - with the resultant inefficiency. I'm trying to
DD> minimise battery load.

 Jeeze! How many inverters do you have running this VCR?

 I assumed that you had a standard VCR (that runs off 100-260V
50/60Hz mains, and had bought (or had caught when it fell off the back
of a truck) a 6.3V to 240V inverter. Does the VCR actually run off
6.3V, directly? (probably with a regulator down to 5V) 

 *IF* you're using a 6.3V inverter, there is *another* possibility...
maybe your 6.3V inverter will run off 12V! You'd have to get a
circuit, but if it's a straight 6.3V to 240 AC inverter, it's almost
odds-on that it'll run perfectly well off 12V.

Regards,
Bob


 

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