I thought about ordering a spare AC-L15A and splicing in an
extension since I will have a multiwire cable anyway.

I don't even see a external battery charger on the bssc.sel.sony
website. Batteries "talk" to the camera so I don't think a battery
replacement is an option.

I don't think there's a power connector on the 170 for that AC adaptor.
What you need for the 150/170 is the AC-V700A.
See it heres: http://www.globalmediapro.com/do/product/1156/

Note the 'dummy' battery connector, thats how we get external power into a number of Sony cameras, Sony even make an adaptor to run a camera off a car battery using the same approach or as I said you can roll your own.
Bob.

Not sure I'm understanding what you want to do, but you could cut the power cord that came with the PD170 and put a connector on it so you could either power from the AC adapter or from a battery pack giving 8.4 volts at 1.5 amps...

RalphM:
Thanks for replying.
Getting the needed voltage from the 12 volt battery for the pan/tilt
motors won't be a big problem. The plug is a custom molded
part by Sony and is hard to find.

The DK-215 cable from the AC-V700A might be the one!

Thanks Bob! Buy this to charge the extra battery
and use the cable on the jib.

You'll probably need to extend the cable but nothing that a length of figure 8, a soldering iron and a bit of heatshrink wouldn't fix in a few minutes.
Sony also have a unit to run cameras off 12V, comes with a cigarette lighter plug on the end, might be more suitable if you're away from main power.
Bob.

Perhaps you don't need external power. The 970 battery will power the PD170 for hours, particularly if you don't have the LCD panel open or recording to tape.

John

RCourtney,

I'm making an assumption that the 170 has essentially the same plug as my VX2000, but regardless, my point is that you have some type of battery charger that came with your PD170 and it charges the batteries while they are on board the camera. That charger has the type of plug that you need,

Cut the cord going from the charger to the PD and put a male power connector of some convenient type onto the PD end of the cut cable. Put the female connector onto the charger end.

Now, get another identical female power connector and put it on the end of the power cable running up your jib arm. The Sony connector gets switched to whichever power source you wish to use. This assumes that you have been able to fabricate the 8.7 volt supply source the camera is looking for.

However, John Cline is right - with a fully charged high capacity battery, you can shoot for 8 hours, more or less, if the LCD door is closed.

Yes,
I was wrong! The 150/170 does have that oddball Sony DC input connector. It's so well hidden under a little rubber flap I'd never noticed it before. Still the charger / DC power supply unit is a good buy despite the price as you can charge a battery off the camera and use it to power the camera although not at the same time.
Try to not make the mistake I made once, switch the thing to Camera and wonder why the battery wasn't charging :(
Bob.

Thanks for your comments.

Remember on a jib weight is everything.

You have the weight of the camera and all its lenses, BATTERY, mic, etc.
The jib arm and head has to be balanced (remember see-saws
as a kid) so there is a counter weight. The tripod must support
everything, so keeping the weight down equates in a lower cost tripod.

Here is a site I am following:
http://homebuiltstabilizers.com/MembersRigs/Jibsncranes/carloscamarena/index.htm

That looks like a serious effort!
Apart from weight, damping of the arm becomes another engineering challenge if you want to avoid wobble cam. Some smart control logic is also a good thing, for example getting the head to compensate as the jib rises so the shot tracks a point.
One thing, I'd think a C1 or or A1 would be the ideal camera for this kind of application.
Bob.

"Remember on a jib weight is everything"

Yes, but mass can also mean increased stability.