Recharging Red Bricks in Car?

[Tom Lowe]

If I want to charge Red Bricks in my car on the go with two Power Packs is there any special type of inverter needed? I think right now I have a couple of simple 200W inverters, but I am thinking of trying to hardwire a more powerful inverter (400W? 600W?) in my truck if need be.

Also, do you guys have any suggestions for multi-battery chargers? Maybe something like this? http://www.abelcine.com/store/Switronix-XC-4LSRED-Quad-Fast-Charger-for-RED-Bricks/

Sorry, Mitch, but that item does seem a little expensive! :blush:

 

[Peter Strietmann]

Hi Tom,

Check these out (see attached url), the main factor in choosing an inverter will be to match the wattage you need to pull from it. It is far better to have an inverter that is over rated to your power needs. Also on the West Marine site there are other alternatives.

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wc...=true&storeNum=5002&subdeptNum=9&classNum=678

Best, Peter

 

[Curran Giddens]

It is worth it! Remember, the Red Charger only charges one Brick at a time.

With the Quad you can put 4 Bricks on and then call it a night.

 

[Tom Lowe]

If I do get a 4-battery charger to use with Red Bricks, which one should I get? Can anyone beat Abel's price? :biggrin:

Does anyone have any experience with these 150Wh batteries and chargers from "Batteries4broadcast"?

http://www.batteries4broadcast.com/red09.htm

 

[Steve Murray]

Hey Tom,

I use a regular 1000 watt in my Suburban plugged into one of the cig lighters with my IDX charger. The 400-500 watt ones cannot put out what the battery chargers need and they shut down. Similar to this one on eBay: 180465611412 or 400078767230 . Also you can only charge when the engine is running.

I would get 2 chargers instead of one 4x.

 

[Tom Lowe]

I didn't think 1000W inverters even worked directly out of cig lighters?

Why two 2x chargers instead of one 4x?

 

[Curran Giddens]

I recommend Abel. They have a good relationship with Switronix. They carry one of Switronix's battery hot-swap mount exclusively.*
http://www.abelcine.com/store/Switronix-V-type-Hotswap-Adapter-For-RED-ONE-w.-Lemo-Connector/

If I was going to buy new batteries for my Red One I would get ones safe for Airline carry-on or luggage.

http://www.abelcine.com/store/Red-P...ries-and-Hotswap-Adapter-with-Lemo-Connector/

 

[Steve Murray]

I didn't think 1000W inverters even worked directly out of cig lighters?

Why two 2x chargers instead of one 4x?

Well they are supposed to be hard wired... but it does work for the chargers. Would not plug a 1K into it but it keeps the chargers happy and I can plug in 2 IDX chargers in at once and therefore charge 2 batts while I'm driving. 2 chargers are usually cheaper than one fancy one, if one craps out you still can charge and you can charge 2 batts at once. A 4 batt simul charger will probably be too much for your truck unless you hard wire the converter.

 

[Isaac Babcock]

I've monkeyed around with this quite a bit, and done a number of things before settling on the following: buy a 12v SLA battery, I think mine is about 60Ahr or so (costed $50 I think) (an even bigger SLA battery will allow you to charge camera batteries longer w/out starting car obviously), and wire it to your car's 12v supply system via a relay. Control the relay with a toggle switch on your dash that can only be energized when the car is running (or key is in the on position). When the toggle is switched on, and the car is running, it is charging your SLA battery. There may be some subtle differences in proper voltage regulators for SLA vs. flooded Car batteries, but in a couple years, I haven't had any issues. Of course my cars are from '61 and '87 so their electrical systems might be more forgiving.

This allows you to charge camera batteries whether the car is running or not, and due to the relay, it won't draw down your primary car battery. Also, because you are running off a different battery than your car's start-up battery, you shouldn't have to worry about low power/inverter shut off when you are actually starting your car.

I like the RED Charger because it has the DC input, so using the red DC adapter (I think it might be re-called and don't know if it is discontinued or not) I maintain DC-DC-DC rather than DC-AC-DC. Using and inverter to go DC-AC-DC works fine though, might lose a tad of efficiency, but I don't know what the draw of Red's DC adapter is, so its probably negligible.

It's really a lot simpler than it sounds, keeps you from blowing fuses, overheating your adapter/inverter, and running your car battery down. Of course, use fuses, proper gauge wire, bolt down your battery, make sure the terminals are protected, proceed at your own risk, etc.etc.

McMaster car sells good wire connectors, molex type and weather pack type. Make a good connection scheme coming off the battery and you can charge everything. Solar works well this way too. I'm about 100 miles from a car, or I'd attach a photo. But if I can round up my foldable solarpanel/battery charger set up I'll post a photo of it. It's similar, just no relay and powered from the sun instead of your engine.