Vagabond Alternatives! CHEAPER?

So my mates bought alienbees and we were testing them out indoors. The results were great! They were trying to order the Vagabond battery to shoot outdoors but they were backordered.

Rigging up a DIY vagabond would be a breeze and cost effective since we work at electronic shops but has anyone tried something like this?

http://www.homedepot.c​om …15021-_-N&locStoreNum=629

http://www.homedepot.c​om …eId=10051&catal​ogId=10053

Why not order a Vagabond Mini and just wait a little for it. Can't beat $239 even with build your own ones because you have to buy a pure sine inverter otherwise you will trash the lights. Plus its lighter than anything you will build and has a higher capacity as well.

Dave

What is the current wait time on those things anyway? Are we in the weeks yet, or months?

Brandon,
It sounds like they are shortening the back order time as larger quantitates of batteries arrive.
Without calling CS its a guess but other treads on other fora imply its down to 4 weeks or so.

Good to hear David, thanks!

plucks wrote in post #11959836
Rigging up a DIY vagabond would be a breeze and cost effective since we work at electronic shops

If you guys work at electronic shops and understand what's needed, you'd know the VB is probably within $40 of what you'd pay for equivalent stuff (including bag, etc.) and it comes w/ a warranty in case the inverter blows..

Or you could spend $50 going down the DIY road like I did for the learning experience...

I posted a similar thread the other day, and then I ordered all the compnents I need to build my own.

got everything for around £100

and thats a 300W inverter rather than the 150W vagabond use,
and a 35Ah battery

Yeah the total cost of all the components would be $112 minus the cost of a carry case or box to put it all in. I may just try that for the learning experience

Don't forget that the Vagabond Mini Lithium has a modified inverter that keeps the frequency/amps and will decrease the voltage when the strobe request a high power draw. Other inverters may change frequency or voltage sine wave and damage your strobe, or put themselves in protection mode and refuse to work with your strobes.

At the price of the Vagabond Mini Lithium, you don't need to go the DIY route anymore.

plucks wrote in post #11961771
Yeah the total cost of all the components would be $112 minus the cost of a carry case

What components did you use?

The 150W inverter I used was $100 by itself.
And by "$50 learning experience", I meant I learned it wasn't worth building it...fried inverter and repaired it under warranty and sold it and the other stuff I bought for the DIY, then bought a VBII...

plucks wrote in post #11959836
So my mates bought alienbees and we were testing them out indoors. The results were great! They were trying to order the Vagabond battery to shoot outdoors but they were backordered.

Rigging up a DIY vagabond would be a breeze and cost effective since we work at electronic shops but has anyone tried something like this?

http://www.homedepot.c​om …15021-_-N&locStoreNum=629

http://www.homedepot.c​om …eId=10051&catal​ogId=10053

Correct me if I am wrong but shouldn't any battery pack used to power studio lights have a pure sine wave power inverter?

^^that's correct

And if you need multi packs, why not just get an industrial inverter generator? Not only for strobes, it can be used for hundreds of other purposes.

2000 watts
http://www.amazon.com …TF8&qid=1299379​337&sr=8-1

Here is the one that I built....

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=DWLMmhY0YW4

nice vid 43 North..one of the comments on the vid was specs and pricing...you replied that it is all in the vid, but i've watched it twice and only the price of the carrier is included...you have specs and prices on the other pieces? the inverter, battery, etc?