Jump to content

Cheapest cart power solution


Beta Sound

Recommended Posts

I have a cart with 788t/cl8, blackmagic smartview duo monitors, rackmount venue fully loaded and samson headphone amp. Trying to avoid spending 1500 for meon life, whats a good option for me? I would like something that could be used as uninterupted power supply in case i get disconnected by mistake, and also if i have to work w/o genny.

Any thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 64
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

A Pelican 1200 case can take a 24 Ah SLA battery (i used 2 x 12 Ah). You can put up to 4 XLR4 connectors on the side. You can choose to put in self-resetting poly fuses on each output.

I built a couple of these for a friend here two years ago.

Vin I'm just a bit curious as to how you charge the two 12A/h batteries assuming the batteries are in parallel to give you the 24A/h. Just putting a charger across the two batteries will only charge the one that has the lowest charge state.

Incidentally you can fit a 35A/h SLA into a Peli 1300.

Malcolm Davies. A.m.p.s.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Malcolm,

I've been using a three stage smart charger and it seems to do the job pretty well.

In fact, i have some 18 Ah in 1150 pelicans for four years now, working perfectly well - again it is a 2 x 9 Ah in parallel combination.

Ideally i should be using an isolator, i know. I will explore this after my current project.

-vin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use a PSC Cart Power with two IDX lithium NP-1 batteries in a twin holder. If I'm on battery power, I can swap the batteries one at a time without interrupting power. Really light weight and it works great.

NOTE: The PSC Cart Power unit I'm using was specially made by PSC with a 15v supply (nominal -- it's internally adjustable) since the IDX NP-1s run well above 12v. The standard PSC Cart Power units are 12v for use with (heavy) SLA batteries.

The way the Cart Power units work, they'll draw from whichever is the highest voltage, so if you used lithium batteries with a standard 12v. unit, it would drain the batteries first -- exactly the opposite of how you need the unit to work. Originally, I ran my Cart Power at 16v since the IDX lithium NP-1s charge up to a tad over that, but have since settled on 15v. for the Cart Power's internal supply. Under a load the discharge curve for the lithiums swings down to about 15v. real fast so I'm not losing any appreciable amount of run time from the batteries.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use a PSC Cart Power with two IDX lithium NP-1 batteries in a twin holder. If I'm on battery power, I can swap the batteries one at a time without interrupting power. Really light weight and it works

.

Hey John, that sounds like a cool setup. Would you mind posting a picture of what that looks like? Is the double NP1 holder an off the shelf part or a custom job?

Thanks in advance,

E.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our gracious host started a thread on here about LifePo4 batteries, its worth a read. I have subsequently switched to one recently and use it with a dc distribution unit similar to the Remote Audio Hot Box.

A 24Ah LifePo4 easily powers my cart setup (Smartduo monitors, Deva, Octopack and AD255 mixer) for a day. The best thing is they are extremely light in comparison to their SLA counterparts

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey John, that sounds like a cool setup. Would you mind posting a picture of what that looks like? Is the double NP1 holder an off the shelf part or a custom job?

Thanks in advance,

E.

It's one of the standard Sony double holders that you'd use on the back of a camera. Mine has a pigtail with a standard 4-pin XLR. IDX makes some, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a cart with 788t/cl8, blackmagic smartview duo monitors, rackmount venue fully loaded and samson headphone amp. Trying to avoid spending 1500 for meon life, whats a good option for me? I would like something that could be used as uninterupted power supply in case i get disconnected by mistake, and also if i have to work w/o genny.

Any thoughts?

I use a 1200 pelican box with 2 12 amp hour gel cells in parallel for 24 A/H with a Guest 10 amp charger across them all the time. I can pull the AC power with no problem. I also have some 33 A/H 1300 pelicans as well for when I do not have power. I replace the 12 A/H batts about once a year.

Darrell

Darrell

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My battery feeds the hotbox via a Turnigy Amp Watt meter (so I can monitor how much Ah has been used from the batt) that I've wired inline and the hotbox distributes dc to my gear.

I can no longer 'float charge' the battery, ie supply it with mains whilst there's a load as the internal battery management system doesn't like it, and I'm not clever enough in the ways of batteries to have overcome that problem. However, since switching to LifePo4 this hasn't been a problem and I can happily go all day off batteries. Battery comes with its own lightweight charger and fully charges in about 4 hours.

Hope that helps

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lithium Iron Phosphate is the future, the system of electric cars,1400 charge cycles and the Meon LiFe is an off the shelf solution - pay for it, plug it in and use it. I will head for a LiFe system when I build a new lighter cart but in the meantime I use a simple lead gel solution. A lead gel battery with a PSU across it. That is it: A 44ah battery in a strong bag (mikesfilmsound.com/new_itemB12.htm), an XP Power AC to DC PSU, (JPM120PS13, www.xppower.com/pdfs/SF_JPM.pdf). It is fan free, 85 to 260v input, so works both sides of the pond, adjusted to 13.7v so it charges and floats the battery without needing regulation and none of my gear is upset with 13.7v. It is smooth and free of noise. It also works as an uninterruptable power supply when the mains is pulled and fully charged it gives a day in the field without AC power. I also use the odd DC DC converter that take 9 - 18v input and give a steady 12v for equipment that does not like a lead gel giving 10.5v at the end of the day. If you used a DC DC converter to regulate all of your power, then rather than float the battery, you could use a fast charger - knowing that the higher boost charge voltage will not get through to your equipment. The battery costs £105 / $168 and the PSU £50 / $80. Simple and reliable - many of us have used this system for years. I also have a fast charger that I use overnight if I have been mains-free all day and the battery needs a complete charge - about $100. Remember that lead gel batteries are rated using a low discharge rate. With a higher discharge rate a 44ah might actually be a 38ah. Expect capacity to drop over the years and if it is frozen outside bring your batteries in overnight as a lead gel at freezing will halve its capacity and will not fully charge when that cold. Cold is when Lithium chemistry comes into its own and I am looking forward to a lighter higher capacity future - admittedly, at a higher cost.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm also waiting for a Shorai LFX batt which is 36Ah, having been made aware of them by Jeff on this forum

DANGER "Soundman Stu" regarding the Shorai "36 Ah" battery. The quality of construction and the quality of the cells Shorai is using is terrific but this line of batteries is designed for an entirely different purpose than ours. Shorai uses a spec they call PbEq (Pb being the symbol for lead, Eq meaning equivalent) that is very misleading if you want to use the battery for something other than crank starting racing motorcycle engines. The PbEq spec of 36 Ah means that the battery will perform exactly like (or may even exceed) the equivalent 36 Ah lead (Pb) battery when used as a starter battery for motorcycle engines. The actual amp hour rating of their 36 Ah battery is considerably lower and is no where near the true spec of a LiFePO4 battery block (collection of cells) with a 36 Ah rating. Sorry to burst your bubble on this (and I hope you haven't shelled out a lot of money yet --- I did, and I'm now sitting on several batteries, real beauties to look at, that just sit on a shelf in my shop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

are these the correct batteries to look at?

http://www.batterysp...d3acharger.aspx

I am now using several different batteries from batteryspace.com (Powerizer "brand") and they have all worked out well.

Most of the batteries I am using, for cart power supplies, have been found in the section for 12.8v packs 19.8Ah - 200Ah

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...