Comments on: DIY: Alien Bees Power Pack — Lose Weight on Location for ‘09 — pt.2

By: FreeDome

FreeDome — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:22:43 +0000

-TK,
How much did you spend per unit?

By: Guru Gunaratnam

Guru Gunaratnam — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:31:36 +0000

Hello,

Thanks for this great information, it has been very useful for me, portable strobes have not been a viable option for me due to the weight of the battery packs available, this diy is perfect.

I was looking at LiFePO4 batteries and ran across this ebay seller, can you tell me if any of these batteries fit the specs?

http://cgi.ebay.ca/LiFePO4-Battery-Pack-12V-15AH-with-BMS-and-2A-Charger_W0QQitemZ290408372253QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCycling_Parts_Accessories?hash=item439db0181d

Though the price does seem high, it does include the charger and the main attraction is the light weight. The batteryspace cant deliver to me!

If there are any other potential vendors, please pass them on.

By: Ryan Jackson

Ryan Jackson — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:57:37 +0000

An update to my February 8th post. I plugged the inverter that I bought on ebay into my car battery (not the car battery booster pack that I was using before) and I get 4 second refresh time at full power and the inverter didn’t shut down or crap out at all.

I did a dozen or more full power pops in a row and it didn’t even beep.

I think the problem before was that the car battery booster limits the current that can come out of it’s cigarette lighter port. It wasn’t that the inverter couldn’t handle the White Lighting but rather the battery couldn’t handle the inverter.

Unfortunately you can’t hook the inverter up through the jumper cables either as it has a safety shut-off circuit. You can only hook it up to other car batteries for a boost.

So now that I know my inverter can handle a White Lighting 1600 without problems I just need to buy a good NiMH or LiIon battery like yours.

By: manny

manny — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:00:34 +0000

Has anybody tried these diy packs on a profoto system? I’m interested because I have an acute2 1200 pack and head. Would the lithion iron batteries work? Which inverter should I get? Thanks.

By: Ryan Jackson

Ryan Jackson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:48:37 +0000

What is the actual refresh/recharge rate with your setup when the AB1600 is set to full power?

I bought a “PURE SINE WAVE POWER INVERTER 300/600 WATT 12V DC TO AC” on ebay for $100 and plugged it into my 700A car battery booster http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/4/Auto/SolarPortablePower/PowerPacks/PRDOVR~0111591P/Motomaster%252BEliminator%252B700A%252BBooster%252BPack.jsp and it takes about 6+ seconds to refresh a White Lighting 1600 which usually takes 2 seconds when plugged into the wall.

Also the inverter can only handle two or three pops in a row before overheating and turning off.

I’m wondering if this is due to a cheap inverter or if it is the wrong kind of battery and it won’t put out enough amps through the cigarette lighter port.

What is your refresh time?

By: tim_kemple

tim_kemple — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:54:50 +0000

^ The weight is the biggest issue. Also I don’t know if the UPS has any issues with discharge rate. In general for the Alien Bees the battery/system needs to be able to withstand a very short draw from the flash unit of about 20amps. tk

By: Muhammad

Muhammad — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:15:21 +0000

Excuse me but does anyone know the difference between a vagabond system and a regular UPS. I’m just saying there is the prospect of going through all of this trouble wouldn’t it be easier to just use a UPS?

By: tunin

tunin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:15:20 +0000

Thank you. I will look in to this, the one I found locally writes “Modified sine wave” whatever that means?

By: tim_kemple

tim_kemple — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:19:55 +0000

@Tunin
Ha – If those sites were in spanish I might have a shot! All you need is a Pure SINE wave inverter, connect that to 12V NiMH battery and you are good to go! Good luck – tk

By: tunin

tunin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:13:59 +0000

Thank you for a quick reply. I would consider buying the Explorer or the A.B. Va. II but it is like 400 – 500 Euros in Europe… I was going to buy an inverter and a bat. and do it my self…

I found several inverters… not sure if the specs meet my needs but I would rather go with 1000W than 400 or 350…
http://www.amazon.de/Skytronic-Spannungswandler-Wechselrichter-Belastbarkeit-1000-2000/dp/B000NCHP3A/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&s=ce-de&qid=1263761817&sr=8-24

http://www.amazon.de/LAS-KFZ-Spannungswandler-230V-1200Watt/dp/B002HEBABA/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=automotive&qid=1263761793&sr=8-12

http://www.amazon.de/Spannungswandler-Inverter-12V-220V-600W/dp/B000R8RVZW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=garden&qid=1263761304&sr=8-3

What do you think of the inverters above? Thank you.