[jamesB]

Staff note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means Pentax Forums may earn a small commission if a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase. If you would like to support the forum directly, you may also make a donation here.

---

Hi (I'm new here),

So apparently there aren't any new K-AC84 AC adapters available anywhere I can find, and haven't been for a long time. I want to leave the camera on for about a week for some time lapse macro shots of underwater crystal growth, and really need an AC adapter. Reading on here it looks like the K-AC84 is a kit with a D-AC76 adapter and a D-AC84 insert. So looking at what is available, and what I am comfortable fabricating, I have a few questions that getting answered would be an enormous help:

Is the K-AC76 that B&H is selling the same as the D-AC76 that is kitted with the K-AC84?

I'll guess that it is, but if somebody knows for sure it might save me fiddy bucks. That leads to another question about the D-AC84:

Is anybody that has one of these inserts in hand, good with an ohm meter and can tell me how they are pinned out? I can't tell from the product photos if the voltage from the adapter is going to the two top pins on the battery compartment cover, or to the contacts down inside the camera, or both. I saw where it is properly inserted in the center two batteries, but can't tell much beyond that. I've got good tools for machining a battery sized plastic insert out of a couple pieces of plastic round stock, but don't know how it is wired, or if it is taking 3v or 6v nominal.

Then some other more general questions:

Is there a Samsung equivalent to this AC adapter kit that is in stock anywhere?

Has anybody else done a different DIY solution that works?

(and It probably belongs in the marketplace, but if anybody has a k-ac84 they aren't using I would love to buy it.)

thanks
James B

[gp1806]

How good are you at fabricating? I don't have a K-X, and I won't see the brother-in-law for a while, so I can't test this, I don't know if it will fit. Would a K-R battery adapter work as a starting point? You would have to modify the adapter to fit the K-X and add contacts that matched the battery contacts in the K-X, and you would need a good 6V DC power pack. Solder the wires from the power pack to the contacts on the modded adapter and just let the battery door close over the wires. The adapter is about $10 on ebay.
Brand New Battery Holder Box for Pentax KR K-R Camera - eBay (item 180669498715 end time Jun-18-11 17:50:54 PDT)

[rawr]

The Pentax Km/K2000 uses the same AC adapter as the K-x if that's any assistance.

But I would have thought that simply using a brand-new set of Energizer Lithium's would probably do the job for you. Those batteries last forever in the K-x.

[jamesB]

I'm still working on this but wanted to update. I probed around with an ohmmeter and sketched the battery connections. It looks like the two center battery contacts, on the bottom of the battery compartment (not the hinged lid), take 6V DC and ground. I'm going to take four AAs in a separate battery holder and put the output to those two pins to the camera. If that works, I will get a K-AC84 and make a more permanent solution.

I might solder a little test lead on the (+) and (-) ends of two batteries, then put them in the camera, to double check how I think this should be working.