DIY: Portable Power On Location for 200 or less. Read how inside.

Intro:
I’ve been searching for a portable power system to power up my studio lights on location but didn’t want to pay the full price of a brand name system i.e. a Vagabond White Lightning power system. I searched the Internet to try and create a DIY kit for a reasonable price and came across some problems and solutions along the way. The system is portable, safe, easy to carry, rechargeable, and has a power gauge.

Parts list:
Pure Sine Wave 12V Inverter (the wattage will equate to recycle time) – I used a Samlex Pure Sine Wave 300 watt inverter - $130
Jumpstart Portable Battery 12 Volts w/Cigarette lighter plug (autozone, kragen, target) - $60
12 Inch or larger Bolt (lowes, home depot, etc.) - $2
Inline Fuse w/12Amp fuse

Inverters:
Choosing the right inverter is important. A Pure Sine Wave Inverter is the ONLY type of inverter you should be using for your portable battery system. These inverters provide a clean current which your strobes will require. If the box or title of the product does not say Pure Sine Wave, then that is the wrong inverter for the system. Also, pure Sine Wave inverters tend to have a higher price but the benefit is that your lights won’t burn out due to unclean power, have a built in low battery warning, and you can hook up the system to a car cigarette lighter plug.

Update: The Samlex PSWI does come with all the cables needed. A cigarette lighter plug, and two cables with clamps. You can use one of the clamp cables as a new ground for the system as seen in the photo below. Cut off one of the ends and attach a connector for the grounding on the system. The clamp will clamp onto your grounding bolt.

From my understanding, the wattage of the inverter will either shorten or lengthen the cycle times for the strobes, so purchasing a 150 watt inverter would work with a 500 watt strobe since the strobe draws energy, in this case at a rate of 150 watts, until it has stored 500 watts of energy until fired.

Do not use the cheap Wal-Mart/Auto store inverters = modified sine wave inverters. When used, these modified sine wave inverters will destroy your strobes because they give out unclean, “dirty” energy. Some devices work fine with this type of energy, but your strobes will definitely not. My first attempt at putting this together was with a modified sine wave inverter, and an audible hum/buzz could be heard from the strobes.

Jumpstart Battery:
You can choose any type of jumpstart battery that’s 12V and has a cigarette lighter plug (you will plug the inverter into this). There are many benefits of using this type of battery. The battery is sealed, portable, has a built in charger, rechargeable, and has a gauge to test how much juice is left…and yes, it can jumpstart your car if you ever get into that situation! – I thought these were such cool features in a build it yourself kit!

Caution: As with any batteries, these can be dangerous or deadly to yourself and others if handled improperly. Grounding is equally as important. Please understand how to ground your setup outdoors as well as indoors.

Results:
I have used this system in two outdoor shoots with one strobe at 160 watts and got 120 pops with full power to spare. I did not have the chance, or need to fire more, so at the end of the shoot, I checked the battery gauge and it was still at full power. A mistake I made from this experience was using a small 3 inch bolt as a ground, which was not long enough to penetrate deep into the ground, which in turn gave me a few awakening electrical shocks while shooting. Make sure you properly ground the system. Now, I’m using a 12 inch bolt as a grounding rod w/clamp. The system is pretty simple to put together, has a lot of great features, and works great. If there’s something I forgot to add, then please contribute your knowledge. I hope this write-up expands your photography Have fun!

Battery and Inverter:

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not bad. personally, i took the easy way out and bought the innovatronix battery for 249. sure, you cant change the battery on location, but it works for me.

Nice do it yourself job.

I would suggest something even longer than 12 inches for the ground rod.

Check the hardware store for copper plated rod, this is used for general purpose AC grounds. It is relatively inexpensive. You can get a grounding clamp that fits right on it to secure the grounding wire.

I suspect the rod comes in standard nominal size, so if you would rather connect the ground wire with cinching nuts, you should be able to cut threads on one end.

Enjoy! Lon

Imadethis,

That's great work. In fact, I have placed a couple of posts on here requesting if there was a way.

After working out some calculations, for amps, watts etc, I popped out earlier (before I read your post) and picked up a 300w invertor from Maplins (uk) for 29.99 (Bargain). It come with croc clips along with another set of leads which has a cigar lighter on the other end.

All I now need to do is get myself a sealed 12volt battery and then put the battery and invertor in a small case / bag. The battery should cost about £30, putting the total to approx £60 and the bag, probably £10

The invertor itself is is 6x3x3 inches.

As for charger, I already have a car battery / motorcycle battery charger, so this will save me some cost. So just like yourself, I should be up and running well under £100 and for approx £70.

I will post some piccies if I get time of the progress. I have a wedding this weekend, which I am keen to try all this out. I have my lights with may anyways for indoor shoots and could do some test shots outdoors.

how many strobes can you use on this one inverter? Are 2 possible (AB 400's)

Thanks for the information! You explained it well!

Cam

moviemaker wrote in post #2824228
Imadethis,

That's great work. In fact, I have placed a couple of posts on here requesting if there was a way.

After working out some calculations, for amps, watts etc, I popped out earlier (before I read your post) and picked up a 300w invertor from Maplins (uk) for 29.99 (Bargain). It come with croc clips along with another set of leads which has a cigar lighter on the other end.

All I now need to do is get myself a sealed 12volt battery and then put the battery and invertor in a small case / bag. The battery should cost about £30, putting the total to approx £60 and the bag, probably £10

The invertor itself is is 6x3x3 inches.

As for charger, I already have a car battery / motorcycle battery charger, so this will save me some cost. So just like yourself, I should be up and running well under £100 and for approx £70.

I will post some piccies if I get time of the progress. I have a wedding this weekend, which I am keen to try all this out. I have my lights with may anyways for indoor shoots and could do some test shots outdoors.

But is your bargain inverter the very specific type indicate in the instructional post above ("A Pure Sine Wave Inverter is the ONLY type of inverter you should be using for your portable battery system.").

Enjoy! Lon

Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments.

Good catch there Lon and advice on the rod. Moviemaker got an amazing deal if it is a PSWI! Share some photos of the final setup too.

I can't stress this enough, a Pure Sine Wave Inverter is the only type of inverter that should be used with strobes. Pure sine wave inverters give the equivalent, if not, cleaner power than a wall socket from home.

CanonCam, as for hooking up multiple lights, here's a test I ran with a 3 light setup. You can use a surge protector or wall socket expander to give multiple outlets to hook up multiple lights.

More information on wattage vs. cycle times.
Quoted from White Lightning's website:

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Why not just get a battery backup system for a computer and use it. It would be a all in one setup. Sure it might run a little more but it would have everything in one box and the gound would not be needed as everything would be grounded internally ( maybe it would work) these can be bought in a variety of wattages to meet your needs , they have all the safety feature to provide pure clean power to a computer which is more sensitive than the lights would be and has the built in charger, thing to get is one without the alarm

Blackey Cole, a UPS could work and would be about the same price, but UPS's can get quite heavy. If you could find one that's lightweight, weather resistant, disable the alarm (shouldn't be too hard), and figure a way to ground the system, then it would be a great power supply.

The same rules apply for UPS's--you would have to purchase a UPS that has a Pure Sine Wave output, which companies do sell as Audio/Visual UPS's for i.e. DLP tv's and senstive electronic devices.

Edit: mbellot shined some light on UPS's, post below, so it looks that they will not work for this specific type of application

imadethis wrote in post #2828509
Blackey Cole, a UPS could work and would be about the same price, but UPS's can get quite heavy. If you could find one that's lightweight, weather resistant, disable the alarm (shouldn't be too hard), and figure a way to ground the system, then it would be a great power supply.

Not to mention that not all UPS's bootstrap operation (start without AC present on the line cord). Many are designed only to start up AFTER being operational and then sensing a loss of AC power.

I've owned several ( > 5 ) in the last several years and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which do and which don't, nor have I ever found a definitive "spec" to look for that defines that operational condition.

I've looked at a system like this.

Conceptually the only problem is that while charging the capacitors, at the very start the load on the system is way more than 300 watts.

I don't know how an inverter would handle it and what it does to the strobes.

imadethis,
What exactly were you touching when you were shocked?

one huge issue liability.
Someone even if they are at fault gets shocked your insurance will likely not cover you and the fact you used none UL certified equipment can be used to pierce your llc.
Even if every part is UL listed the power generation system will not be and your SOL.
Talk to your lawyer and an insurance agent ( not your own) and you will find out how much of a world of hurt you would be in.

The same goes for homemade light stands.

Looking at the OP's pics...I would definitely remove the clamps on the battery and inverter and replace them with plugs. I would make an insulated overhang on the male end to ensure that the male prong was only exposed once it was completely disconnected. Just clamping the two units together is too dangerous.

I would still like to know what the OP was touching when shocked. I'm guessing it had to be one of the open clamps.

A lot of great information guys. Keep it going! Ihoney2, I got a shock due to wet grass, a small bolt with a bad ground, and touching the PC cord end. I'll add some more to the warning in the original post.

We could go all day on safety precautions. Let's try to improve on design because yes, this method works and it is being sold at twice the price under different companies.

Thank you Ihoney2 for bringing up the safety issue of open clamps, and the idea of plugs. You just got me thinking some more, and I came up with this solution. The inverter came with a cigarette lighter plug. If you look in the pics, the portable battery HAS a cigarette lighter plug input. Voila, no open cables to worry about, and better yet, the cigarette lighter plug has a built in fuse inside of it as well!