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How to mount a Kinect with my laptop without any AC Adapter [closed]

asked 2011-05-02 04:43:08 -0600

updated 2016-10-24 09:10:02 -0600

ngrennan gravatar image

Hi team,

I would like to use Kinect without any AC Adapter. Turtlebot use use energy from roomba, but I would like to use other platform to navigate so I need to learn something similar to this image:

image description

Does anyone any reference to give energy to Kinect?


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Closed for the following reason the question is answered, right answer was accepted by SL Remy
close date 2017-07-21 01:57:08.918542


I have seen it stated in a university tutorial that the kinect will operate reliably down to 8V,
This could alow regulated power from a 12v battery,
Haven't tried it myself.
The original turtlebot power gyro board uses a regulator with a enable pin to alow turning it off for charging

Rizz gravatar imageRizz ( 2018-03-13 14:42:23 -0600 )edit

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answered 2011-05-02 09:07:31 -0600

mmwise gravatar image

updated 2011-05-02 12:34:33 -0600

tfoote gravatar image

Depending on what voltage battery you have I suggest getting a linear voltage regulator. You should not hook the power cable from the kinect directly to the battery, you will get variations in voltage which will break your kinect. This tutorial will show you how to wire up a voltage regulator for a kinect, make sure to buy a voltage regulator that will down convert from you battery voltage, and then connect the power side pigtail to your battery: Tutorial.

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answered 2011-05-02 05:57:12 -0600

Murph gravatar image

This is not an answer, but a warning.

A 12v lead-acid battery of that size has the strength to literally melt your face. The amperage it can put out makes it very dangerous. It is likely able to spot weld metal if you drop something across the contacts, and poses an explosion hazard. If you don't know what you're doing with soldering/wiring/managing power, do not learn with trial and error.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with these things, but please, be safe :)

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Upvote for face-melting. Somebody dropped a wrench across the terminals of one of our batteries (12V, 32Ah). Needless to say, that wrench doesn't exist anymore. The terminals on the battery aren't in good shape either. Always pay attention!
mjcarroll gravatar imagemjcarroll ( 2011-05-02 07:31:20 -0600 )edit

answered 2013-01-26 06:21:16 -0600

You might want to use the Asus Xtion sensor.

It only needs USB power.

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answered 2011-05-02 05:28:15 -0600

dornhege gravatar image

updated 2011-05-02 05:30:41 -0600

You will need 12V Power from somewhere.

Take the kinect splitter cable and cut the part connected to the power supply. The safest way is to measure the voltage to determine which is positive in case yours has different cabling then ours. For ours there is a brown and a light-grey cable inside, where brown is +12V.

It might be a good idea to put a plug in between so you can connect the kinect to either the on-board power source or the original power supply.

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answered 2012-12-15 05:54:19 -0600

There is a tutorial on the Adept/Mobile Robots wiki on how to mount a Kinect on a Pioneer robot.

The concept is essentially the same here, except you should at the very least a voltage regulator between your battery and the sensor. In fact, all power used by your robot should probably be regulated. Since the Pioneer robots already have a dedicated power board with that and more, that isn't mentioned in the wiki.

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answered 2011-05-07 05:19:10 -0600

Rainer Hessner used in his project about ROS with Arduino the following product to use Kinect:

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Yes, something like this would work. The only thing you need to check is that the batteries provide the given input voltage. 10 NiMH or a 11.1V LiPo should work.
dornhege gravatar imagedornhege ( 2011-05-10 00:34:10 -0600 )edit

answered 2011-05-02 09:48:48 -0600

Hi Melonee,

Tutorial is great and many thanks by the comment about voltage regulator.

I am trying to find some batteries for Kinect.

On ebay I found 3 kind of batteries:

Gel battery: 12v 33Ah Lead battery: 12V 18 Ah Li-Ion battery: 12V 4800mAh

With your experience what is better? In my personal opinion, Li-ion battery seems to have less weight. What is effect about Ah values? Previous products have different values.

In relation to voltage regulator, I will search a electronic friend to build a homebrew voltage regulator


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These batteries seems to be way overkill unless you want to run it for hours (or days). Kinect uses about 1A @ 12V.
dornhege gravatar imagedornhege ( 2011-05-03 04:02:15 -0600 )edit
I would say that the last link is an okay one, the kinect will run for about 6-8 hours on the 4800mAh battery.
mmwise gravatar imagemmwise ( 2011-05-19 12:44:22 -0600 )edit

answered 2012-12-15 00:03:53 -0600

Charel gravatar image

Did the Li-ion battery 12v 4800 mAH work with the Kinect?

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Please use the comment functionality if you don't answer but comment on sth.

felix k gravatar imagefelix k ( 2013-01-27 23:27:25 -0600 )edit

@felix k: You're right, but the comment functionality is only available when you have > 10 karma.

Martin Günther gravatar imageMartin Günther ( 2013-02-04 22:23:47 -0600 )edit

Oh, that again, sorry. But now he might.

felix k gravatar imagefelix k ( 2013-02-06 00:00:50 -0600 )edit

I have it now working with a miniGorilla lithion battery connected to the Kinect, works fine.

Charel gravatar imageCharel ( 2013-02-11 05:57:25 -0600 )edit

answered 2011-05-05 09:08:56 -0600

Hi dornhege,

Do you know other batteries in the market with better features and price?


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A very rough estimate is that - ignoring any losses - using a 12V battery with XXXAh gives you XXX hours of runtime. So that lead battery you posted should work for a day. Normal NiMH/NiCd accumulator or a 11.1V LiPo should work. The LiPos are a bit more tricky to handle correctly.
dornhege gravatar imagedornhege ( 2011-05-10 00:38:18 -0600 )edit

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Asked: 2011-05-02 04:43:08 -0600

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Last updated: Apr 20 '14