Power inverter question for the EE's here.

A charger with 3 stage charging would be best. It'll bulk charge, then absorption charge, then float charge. Each stage is done at a different voltage for a different length of time. The float charge is really the last step designed to cap off the battery so it doesn't run down.

That's the only thing I can think of for the battery charger issue you mention.

I'm seeing a slight issue with my inverter, actaully a very minor issue. The LCD backlight on the control panel doesn't turn off when I configure it to do so after a specified period of time. The backlight stays on indefinitely. I'll be calling Xantrex in the morning to see if the problem is with configuration or if the problem is the panel itself.

Anyhow, as for charging and doing the inverter part, the unit works great.

I too, haven't found the "box" to mount everything in yet, but will begin looking this week after taking measurements, etc.

Finally put everything together today and took it for a spin. I have a few tweaks to perform, caps for the wire ends so I don't short the exposed ends when putting the setup away and another set of 4awg interconnect cables for ease of current flow but for all intents and purposes, this first effort is complete and working like a champ.

When I have the second set of 4awg cables, I'll hook the second power pack up. When the 150w modeling lamp of the M-11 is on, attached to a D-1204 and I trip the flash head with the power pack set on full power, the power inverter uses only 30% of it's capacity; this based on the faceplate amp gauge as the power pack gets ready for the next event. So hooking up a pair of D-1204's should not cause this setup any problems.

For a cart, I picked up a Ames, Lawn Buddy for thirty bucks. It's not the best in custom fits but it holds the battery, charger, inverter and cables quite nicely. Not very custom on the wheels as they all go only straight:(

All in all, I'm very happy with the results. Now I see a pair of Photo Voltaic panels in my next year future:)<div></div>

Stephen.<p>

Good news! The Deltran battery charger has an absorbtive voltage of 14.4v before it switches over to the float charge mode.<p>

<a href="http://batterytender.com/includes/languages/english/resources/Product_Info_BT_Junior.pdf">Deltran Battery Tender Junior PDF spec sheet</a><p>

I think I paid $25.00 (US) for the charger. It's not the fastest charger in the world but for the occational usage where you're not going to need the battery again first thing tomorrow, it's an excellent charger. You can hook several batteries in parallel and keep them all topped off with this little puppy:) Currently I have a solar panel charger connected to one battery and the Battery Tender junior connected to another battery. Just keeping all these batteries charged is becoming a challenge in of itself:)<p>

Can you close the lid all the way?

This little cart looks like it would be easier to "cart" around thatn what I was thinking of using.

Where'd you get it?

BR

SR

Stephen

The cart was picked up from Home Depot in their outdoor garden section. It easily handles the battery and power inverter placed on it's long side. There's enough room for attached cables, battery charger and extra what evers. For transportation purposed, you might want to shim between the battery and the power inverter so they don' do any shifting. There's not a whole heck of a lot of room, just a few inches at the ends and between the two items. Overall it's a fairly nice fit for thirty bucks on the fly. :)

I've sent my 2000 watt inverter back to exchange it for the 3000 watt model.

The 2000 watt inverter couldn't handle both packs simultaneously and would immediately shutdown after the first pop of boths packs.

It would handle one pack with modeling luight on however, but I wanted to use both packs.

BTW, the current drawn from the 12v battery while recharging from connecting only one 2400 watt second pack with one head and set to full power (2400ws) was in the neighborhood of 220 amps. Yikes!

Anyhow, I'm hoping the 3000 watt inverter will fair better with both packs.

BR

And the good news is, those 220amps are only 12V amps:)

Thanks for the heads up. Hope the 3000watt inverter can handle the load as 220 12v amps will equal 2640watts, so you should be fine.

Sorry to read that you had to send the inverter back in as that's an expensive piece of equipment to have to step up to.

I'm curious, what would happen in you hooked your equipment up to a modified square wave inverter. Would it blow the circuits, just not charge the power pack capacitors or what?

Wishing you the best.

OT; Alternators; The old Lincoln's in the early 1960's had a rear window heated element as an option. There wasnt enough poop available from the wimpy alternators back then.; Plus diodes tended to fail sometimes in the hot alternators...Plastic ain't tough?

<BR><BR> So the crafty Ford team added a second alternator; with no diodes; and ran the raw AC from the stator to the rear window coil. Here the higher voltage unregulated output made the wiring smaller; ie lower amps. They turn the rig on with the alternators rotor; the filed coil; about 3 amps at 12vdc.

Profoto specifically stated no modified sine-wave inverter would work.

Still, I'd like to get a beater pack for cheap and try it on that one first as the modified sine-wave inverters are much cheaper.

BR

Maybe you can rent something:)

"Gee, I don't know." "One second it was fine and the next it was smoking like an old time steam locamotive." "No." "I have a pure sine wave power inverter right here." "Strangest thing." "Why?" :)

Or a more ethical way would be to check e-Bay out:)

Received the Prosine 3.0 and it WILL fire both packs simultaneously.

However, both packs at full power (2400ws each) do create a bit of strain at the battery, i.e. I need more juice so another battery or three will be in order. ;>}

I can fire both packs with one head each with modeling lights on full but the battery can't supply all the juice I need and voltage drops to a point the inverter alarms. But, the inverter doesn't shut off.

Still everything works which means after adding a couple more batteries I could use both packs.

BTW - I can use both packs on both fast recycle and slow recycle with modeling lights off just fine. I don't know how many pops I can do with this cfg, but I suspect with only one battery not too many.

Anyhow, I will be doing some testing this weekend with one pack with modeling light on at lower settings and the actual strobe power set to full (2400ws) just to see what happens. I'm now curious to see how many pops I can get with one battery with this cfg.

I hoping for something like 200 full power pops with limited modeling light use (modeling light on lower/lowest settngs). The modeling lamps are 250watt so they suck up some real juice, especially when set to full power. Luckily, the Acute2 pack can set the modeling lights to lower power.

BR

How many amp hours is the battery you're hooking up to?

Also, the next consideration would be to slide a capacitor in between the battery and the power inverter.

Thomas:

"Also, the next consideration would be to slide a capacitor in between the battery and the power inverter."

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Stephen:

Yep, I'm considering that too.

I'm fairly happy the unit works with both packs at full power (2400ws x 2) simultaneously even with modeling lights on (250w x 2 continuous for two heads).

The alarm merely shows the voltage dropping below my alarm threshold of 10.5v but the voltage doesn't drop below the inverter shutoff of 10.0v. These alarm and shutoff points are completely user configurable so I could lower them a bit if needed to reduce the alarm indications.

But, really, I think I need at least one more battery (maybe two for long shoots).

Good news is the inverter works fine and both packs work fine without modeling lights on. Each modeling light draws more than 6-8 amps continuous DC when on full power. But, I can minimize the power settings for the modeling lights quite a bit from the packs' modeling light settings.

Anyhow, this weekend I'm going to do a torture test (my poor kid will have to model) while I try to run the batttery down while using one pack with modeling light on at lower settings.

I'll keep you posted.

BTW - Xantrex who makes the Prosine and Donrowe.com where I bought the original Prosine 2.0 and then exchanged it for the 3.0 have been great. Both good companies to deal with.

I also found out that Xantrex has a new line of inverters the MS-2000(Marine?) and RS-2000(RV?) in 2000 watts and will be coming out in the future with 3000 watt (12V) and 4000 watt (24V) versions as well. Don't know the time frame of the 3000 or 4000 watt versions, but if they offer serial (connect in serial for 220-240VAC) power like the Prosine 2.0 does then I'll be buying a MS version as well.

Then I'll relegate this Prosine 3.0 to house duty.

I've been planning to use the inverter for house power anyhow and have been running T.V.'s DVD's VCR's and lamps off the 3.0 for the last few days. With a single 75Ah battery I can watch T.V. with two 60 watt lamps on for hours and hardy see the battery voltage drop.