Portable power for Studio/Strobes/Mono lights

I've recently come into a pile of lighting equipment.

4 PCB White lightning Ultra 600's
2 Ultra 1200's
1 Ultra 1800.

I have at least 2 sends for each light, backdrops, literally everything for a studio...except the building.

I've been having a lot of fun using them over the last 10 months or so. Most of the time I'm within reach of an outlet, so power has never been much of an issue. The lights all take the standard PC power cord. Being in IT, I have boxes of these. But I've had a shoot where I was miles from an outlet and needed to being my generator. Not that it was a big deal, I was at a racetrack (results here https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=18893945). I was asked to take some maternity photos for my sister in law, but the location got shot down (pumpkin patch) because we couldn't bring a generator. I'm using a small Ryobi 1800 inverter generator. Its very quiet after as generators go. But its still a gas powered engine and not as quiet as a, portable battery.

All that to ask. Is there a battery pack that yall would recommend? I've seen the PCB Vagabond ii and Mini ($250 or so) and they seem pretty well suited for my needs (2 of the 600's MAYBE 3). And I don't recall ever shooting more than 200 shots at a time. More or less just picking minds. The spec sheet on the Vagabond mini say that it will give 2 of my 600's around 300 Full Power shots. If I did my math correctly lol.

The older PCB strobes can tolerate voltage drop well, they should work with different brands of battery pack, but I only have experience with the Vagabond Mini. With the Einstein (640W), I could shot all day if I don't use the modeling light. But when I plug more strobes into the Mini, the recycle time is quite slow. I tested 3 PCB strobes (total about 1000W) plugged with the a single Mini, recycled around 10 seconds at full power.

Some of the newer digital strobes ( other than PCBs) would not work with the Mini.

If I have to get more than one Mini, and don't have any PCB trigger and receivers, I think its better to get the dedicated battery power strobes for outdoor shooting, and leave the Ultras for indoor.

I'm using the knock-off wireless trigger/receivers and they work well, under 1/200th. I've also go the controller box for the strobes, which works on the same wireless setup. Using that, I would need 1, cat3 cable for each strobe (not a deal breaker). That being said, I don't know how the recycle times would affect me. Outside of the kids in the family, I don't shoot people. The one time I used the 2, 600's on the generator, it bogged pretty good. I wouldn't even be able to tell you what the recycle times were. I'd take a shot, check it. Move. Shoot again. My involvement was > than the recycle time.

What other batteries packs would you recommend? I've tried looking real quick, but all I keep finding are strobes with built-in batteries. And, all the threads here are 8+ years old, and a lot of the links are broken.

Elinchrom and Profoto both have battery packs, no idea how they work.

The built-in battery systems are now the norm. If you are serious about portability, I would seriously consider selling everything and going GODOX or one of the higher end brands. They have built in receivers too so everything is much more simple to transport and set up.

Yeahhhhh. Thats the feeling I'm getting. Thanks for the info, I'll see where that takes me. I appreciate it.

I have assembled mine it is not portable. But I can fire two 400ws Elinchrom with no problem.
If you looking for portablility, Godox LP-800x may work....

I previously used the Vagabond Mini with Einsteins and White Lightnings on location. No issues and PCB was great with any support because they know all the specs. However, if mixing with other brands they might say “should work” but not guarantee it. Today, strobes with built-in batteries are the way to go when shooting on location regularly. The PCB strobes remain workhorses and were built to last, so I still keep a wired set up for table top product photography.

Dynalite products have been reliable lightweight pro grade studio lighting packs and heads, and the Jackrabbit model has been around as a battery powered portable using the same heads as their studio packs, for several decades.
More recently, they have added Baja battery powered monolights, and XP-800 battery powered sine wave inverter (AC) sources

XP-800 Pure Sine Wave Inverter

• Weight: 14lbs
• 3 AC Power Outlets
• 3 USB ports for electronic devices
• 1.6 Second Recycle For Full Power with MP800
• Lithium-Ion Battery • Battery Capacity: 12000mAh
• Full Charge achieved in under 3 hours
• Output Power : 750 – 1400w peak

[edit: Hmmm...no longer available; I wonder if a new product in nearing release...the XP-800 is still on the Dynalite website!]

Adorama still carries couple of the lower price packs..

https://www.adorama.co​m/panom100.html

https://www.adorama.co​m …0.html?rfkref=p​roductPage

The PCB Mini is more compact. I still have a DIY pack with the pure sine way inverter, but have switched to the Godox/Flashpoint for my location setup because of HSS and their remote system.