Topic: The answer to festival charging...Hopefully!

[Bdifr78]

So I just picked up one of these from the Black and Decker Outlet store for All Good this weekend.  http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGuide/Product-Details.aspx?ProductID=16896

It's basically a 19 amp hour SLA that has a inverter built in with two AC outlets, two 12V outlets, and a USB powering outlet.  Oh yeah and it is a jump starter.

Right now I am testing it by charging 3 of my Walmart Style Batts I use for my V3.  About an hour and a half into charging I have 3 out of 4 lights light on the batts and the Black and Decker still has 2 of 3 lights left.

I will report back if it get's all of the done and how quickly it does so.

Joe

[strangetapes]

I'm interested to hear how this does.

[Bdifr78]

I'm interested to hear how this does.

Ok so my test at home was flawed.  I think I did not have it charged all of the way. 

At the festival it charged two of my walmart style dvd batteries for the V3 overnight.  Then in the morning it charged a 722 battery for about 2 hours.  Then I left my phone charging on it for the rest of the day.

It charged everything just fine and still has 2 out of 3 battery level indicator lights.

[rowjimmy]

I took a similar device to bonnaroo last year. kept it in the camper for charging and loved it.
Now if only my deck hadn't shit out on me.

[strangetapes]

Thanks for the update, I might grab something like this.

[Bdifr78]

And if you want to use your car's power, you have a jump start in a box just in case you kill the car battery.

[SmokinJoe]

That's cool, and I thought about doing getting of of those.  Last festival I took the poor man's equivalent... a spare car battery and an inverter, and tried to do the same thing, but it didn't work nearly as well as I had hoped (maybe my old car battery is junk).  I think maybe Inverting from 12VDC to 110VAC, then using a 110V > DC wallwart to charge batteries is inherently inefficient.

Alternately, you could take a cord from the cigarette lighter plug on the B&D and run it into the DVD player batteries (one of my wall warts puts out 12V so they will take that).  I suspect you can charge many more batteries this way than you can by DC > AC, and AC > DC because it skips that extra step.  I haven't done this yet, so I don't have any real data to back it up, but I think it makes sense from an EE standpoint.

But kudos for trying this, and if it works great I may do the same thing.

[thekittycatt]

So I just picked up one of these from the Black and Decker Outlet store for All Good this weekend.  http://www.blackanddecker.com/ProductGuide/Product-Details.aspx?ProductID=16896

It's basically a 19 amp hour SLA that has a inverter built in with two AC outlets, two 12V outlets, and a USB powering outlet.  Oh yeah and it is a jump starter.

Right now I am testing it by charging 3 of my Walmart Style Batts I use for my V3.  About an hour and a half into charging I have 3 out of 4 lights light on the batts and the Black and Decker still has 2 of 3 lights left.

I will report back if it get's all of the done and how quickly it does so.

Joe

Have you done anymore tests?

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

Looks freekin' sweet!  And it even has a radio for tunes between sets!

Terry

[Bdifr78]

Looks freekin' sweet!  And it even has a radio for tunes between sets!

Terry

No more tests yet.  Sorry.  Just what I have reported from All Good.

[Gutbucket]

Thing is great.

I keep it in my trunk for a jump and take it to festivals to charge batts.  When the battery in the Benz went bad I kept it hooked up for a week until I could get a new one (battery is under the back seat like an old aircooled VW) and just used the ON/OFF switch to turn it on before starting the car.  I could check charge level and alternator function too.  Cool.

I have the same one except without the built-in radio.  I've recharged two 9v DVD batts for the V3 multiple times over a 3 day and a 4 day fest without a problem using the DC (cig lighter) jacks.  I didn't deplete the charge on the B&D by more than a couple LEDs.  I'll do the same for some fests this October & November but also plan to use it to charge AAs and possibly 9.6Vs too.  Since the DVD batts arrived at the last minute before the first fest, I considered carrying in the whole B&D thing to power the V3 as a last resort.  Luckily didn't have to do that. 

I only use the DC jacks. Since have chargers that run on 12vdc so it's an obvious choice.  I haven't used the AC converter much.  I did run a laptop from the AC converter section once as a test for dumping SDHC cards but the draw from the computer recharging its own batt shut down the converter.  I may try it again sometime. But there are multiple conversion losses and an internal cooling fan in the inverter also eating power. Consider the losses of the cooling fan, the inverter efficiency, the (likely) transformer at the appliance side converting the AC back to DC again, etc..