Emergency Back-up Battery for your RED

[Nathan Troutman]

What do you guys thing of this for an emergency source of power for your RED if your two bricks are dead and you've got 4 hours of shooting to go.

http://www.amazon.com/Xantrex-Techn...02-1500/dp/B00005RHQQ/ref=pd_sim_auto_title_1

Obviously I like it because of the price. Kind of like being tethered to an elephant but should run your RED for a really long time.

 

[Shawn Booth]

Why not have two more batteries or another pack for just such an occasion?

 

[Dylan Reeve]

That's pretty extreme.

I was wondering about a small device with a little trickle charger (or even a very big capacitor maybe) - that warns you (visually and/or audibly) when the battery is low, and allows you a 10 second window to swap batteries without power to the camera being dropped.

Dunno. Just something I thought about. There's always a double battery adapter, of course, but that doubles the battery weight.

 

[Wes Printz]

Run down to your local marine shop and pick up a deep cycle marine battery 1/2 the cost and weight.

 

[Paul Lee]

We like DeWalt power drill cells. Can never have too many of those. Haven't tried it on RED yet but it's in the kit just in case!

 

[chuck colburn]

Two 6 volt lantern batteries. lol

 

[Joel Kaye]

What do you guys thing of this for an emergency source of power for your RED if your two bricks are dead and you've got 4 hours of shooting to go.

http://www.amazon.com/Xantrex-Techn...02-1500/dp/B00005RHQQ/ref=pd_sim_auto_title_1

I actually own one of those. What's handy about it is it's got a built in transformer and it's on wheels So you don't have to rig that yourself. I guess you could save $150 making your own though.

I haven't tried it for powering RED. I just keep it around in case of emergency and never really use it. I have used it to power Kino flos or China balls where there was no power. It's silent.

The bad thing is that stupid handle doesn't collapse like most suitcases. Instead it comes apart. The other thing it needs is a handle on the unit so it's easy to pull in and out of a vehicle.

Eh. I wonder how long it would power RED... guess I should test that.

 

[Paris Remillard]

Or you could grab one or two of these as ghetto block batteries. About half the power/weight/cost of the rolling one.

http://www.amazon.com/Xantrex-Techn...Powerpack/dp/B000TKHMWK/ref=pd_sim_hi_title_2

I posted about it here:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10031&highlight=ghetto

And as harryclark points out, it also has a radio! What else could you ask for.

As joelnet was saying, the advantage over the marine batteries is the built in inverter. Seems a bit more versatile. Can power monitors or lights without DC conversions in the field. I think they're a great idea, personally.

 

[Steve Gal]

I don't think that battery will power your Red. I have tried and it boots up and then shuts down off of 12 Volt battery with a Lemo to 4-Pin Power Cable that I made. You need higher voltage. When I run with an Anton Bauer 14.4V Hytron 140 battery off camera with the same power cable, it works fine. I also tried Power supplies that are 12V and they also do not work. You need at least 13.8V and over 5ah supply.

 

[Paris Remillard]

I don't think that battery will power your Red. I have tried and it boots up and then shuts down off of 12 Volt battery with a Lemo to 4-Pin Power Cable that I made. You need higher voltage. When I run with an Anton Bauer 14.4V Hytron 140 battery off camera with the same power cable, it works fine. I also tried Power supplies that are 12V and they also do not work. You need at least 13.8V and over 5ah supply.

It should if you plug an AC adapter or the battery charger + power cable into it. Not as efficient as DC, but should work, I'd think.

 

[Nathan Troutman]

The reason I posted this monster is because of the high-efficiency inverter. I feel more secure using the RED AC-adapter and plugging the camera into one of the AC outlets.

parisrem - I saw your thread. The reasons I like this bigger unit are: wheels, twice as powerful, has the ability to expand using better and larger batteries, great built-in inverter, & because of the extra power you can do all kinds of extra things besides just powering your RED - like running lights, monitors, etc.

Joelnet - Thanks for your first hand user observations and you absolutely need to test how long this unit would run your RED. I'd love to know. This unit has a lot of juice for the buck, in a nice package that saves you the trouble of building your own with your own batteries. For the extra $100 I think it's worth it - especially because of the high quality inverter.