The reason I'm asking is I have an inverter from the VB 1. It does work (cigarette lighter tested) and was thinking of creating a new 'pak' with it. It has a grounding screw on the front cover by the switch, which was supposed to be used for grounding.
Yukon, I'm gurssing here but I would suggest the grounding screw is ment to ground the entire unit through the case. When using regular mains AC, a short in your appliance (the light) grounds itself to earth using the regular ground method. Since the inverters have a rypival grounded, household output receptical, a short in your light will be grounded to the case. This will do nothing unless the inverter case is connected to a ground. On theory, you should use that screw and connec a groundog wore from the inverter case to earth in some fashion. No one does that.
Using a GFI would also be overkill as it is really a small circuit breaker, but designed to cut the power real fast when your wife throws the toaster in your bathwater. The inverter should have an internal breaker or a fuse built in. This obviously depends on the unit you use but should be present from both a UL safety type standpoint and from surge/current protection for the inverter itself.
The Vagabond unit a modern devices and as such ate required to pass lots of safety parameters. The commercial unit is therefor likely to have the maximum safety precautions, possibly to excess. Anything they did not do, you certainly would not need to.
Personally, Bacilonur's design seems very sound and anything extra you so
is likely unnecessary. The biggest thing is to
make sure the battery is well fused and in such a way that if any wire
came loose in any way, it could not short the contacts and possibly lead to a battery exploding.
The original VB came complete with grounding rod and wires. As for the toaster in the bath-water ....now I know why she always had that disappointed look ... stupid GFI!!!!!
Thank you very much. I just ordered my Aims 180 today off of Ebay. ...batteries and pelican are already in the mail! One more thing, would you be able to grab a part number for the rocker switch? I actually couldn't find it off of the website that you linked - the panel receptical I did find.
brad_s wrote:
Thank you very much. I just ordered my Aims 180 today off of Ebay. ...batteries and pelican are already in the mail! One more thing, would you be able to grab a part number for the rocker switch? I actually couldn't find it off of the website that you linked - the panel receptical I did find.
thanks again,
Brad
I'm afraid I haven't been keeping up with this thread but, if that question regarding the rocker switch was actually intended for me, here's the information:
PH-30-860 $2.65 1 Rocker Switch
PH-8535B $0.89 3 STD 3 hole AC Jack-Panel Mount
Thanks, I just placed the order! Next, I'm going to see if I have left over Dean's connectors from my old r/c days and finally, I will be posting pictures of my final product.
Brad
tetrode wrote:
I'm afraid I haven't been keeping up with this thread but, if that question regarding the rocker switch was actually intended for me, here's the information:
PH-30-860 $2.65 1 Rocker Switch
PH-8535B $0.89 3 STD 3 hole AC Jack-Panel Mount
As an Alien Bee owner, I find this thread pretty interesting. (I just have to get rid of my old Balcar and Norman battery flash systems first.)
Now I understand that I could also power a laptop from one of these. But it seems stupid to go from 12 volts to 120 volts and then back down to 19 volts or so for the laptop. Wouldn't this be very inefficient?
Any thoughts from you engineering types about starting with a 24 volt battery and 24 volt inverter, then how do I tap 19 volts off of it for the laptop. (Is 19 volts that critical?)
My 16.4 inch laptop probably draws more power than most as it uses a large 19 volt 6.2 Amp power brick.
Alan Goldstein wrote:
As an Alien Bee owner, I find this thread pretty interesting. (I just have to get rid of my old Balcar and Norman battery flash systems first.)
Now I understand that I could also power a laptop from one of these. But it seems stupid to go from 12 volts to 120 volts and then back down to 19 volts or so for the laptop. Wouldn't this be very inefficient?
Any thoughts from you engineering types about starting with a 24 volt battery and 24 volt inverter, then how do I tap 19 volts off of it for the laptop. (Is 19 volts that critical?)
My 16.4 inch laptop probably draws more power than most as it uses a large 19 volt 6.2 Amp power brick. ...Show more →
You definitely can, but I wouldn't do it with this pack except in a pinch. For a laptop you don't need pure-sine-wave either, so you can buy a much cheaper inverter.
brett maxwell wrote:
You definitely can, but I wouldn't do it with this pack except in a pinch. For a laptop you don't need pure-sine-wave either, so you can buy a much cheaper inverter.
I'll need the pure sine wave AC for the Alien Bees and just tap directly off of the batteries for 12 volts DC to the laptop. I think it will work as I just tried an old laptop that had a 19 volt power brick and it ran fine off of a 9.6 battery from my electric drill. I can make several size battery packs that I can use either way.
Have you had a chance to test your battery kits with your new Einsteins, to see if their reduced peak power draw (draw is more widly spread while still keeping great recycle times) results in improved recycle times compared to other strobes you are using these with?
