Portable Power Supply

[bloc004]

I wanted to share the box that I put together to bring power into my portable.

I have the cords of my rope lights tipped with 2 prong plugs so I can just plug and unplug them into the outlets, which is nothing more than a glorified black and red hookup to the 12 volt. I run my ipod radio off one of the inverter's outlets, while the ipod charges off the USB port on the inverter. I needed something to do during the week related to ice fishing, and this was it!

[hartner62]

Nice work and cool idea. Are you taking orders?

[deadeye]

Hey, thats a good way too kill some time! Nice setup. I have been thinking about doing something like that with some old army ammo cans. What you did is a little more professional looking then what I had in mind but it gives me some ideas. Thanks for posting that. Amazing what people will come up with when it involves making fishing more fun!

[JimBuck]

Nice mod! I tinker a lot with things to so it's always nice to see someone getting there hands dirty in some d.i.y. You gave me some nifty ideas for a future project....cheers.

[Sandmannd]

That's very cool. So is the outlet you have there a 12v outlet then?

[fishwater]

bloc004, nice box there. I did something pretty similar the other day with a Frabill Min-O2-Life container I stopped using for bait because it leaked.

I put two 12volt 9ah batteries inside setup in parallel and added two switches mounted through the side of the box controlling separate circuits that run out of the hole for the aerator hose. I used plain male spade connectors on the two switched circuits for hooking to lights or flashers. I also mounted a pair of cigarette plug adapters for running and charging hand held gps, ipod and other devices inside the box.

[Shack]

Cool deal

[bloc004]

The standard house outlet there is just hooked to 12v battery, so it wasn't necessary, but it made a cleaner look. Also, you are correct, the inverter puts out 115/120V, with the USB port putting out around 5V I think.

Fishwater, the cigarette plug in might be the next step.

[BartmanMN]

Very nice work.

[Jordyn Kaufer]

I wish I was a good craftsman!!

But to know some people Are talented at things.

Like for duck hunting one time my dad says we need a blind.

So I go back inside from the garage and I go back out there twenty minutes later and he's got our old trampoline in parts laying out on the boat and says that it was easy. I say how the heck did you get a duck blind out of this?? I I back inside again and come back out twenty more minutes later and he's got this whole blind set up with canvas draping over the sides and it actually looked legit and all it needed was some camp paint!!

It's trueky amazing what 3% of our brains can do, just imagine what we could do with the other 97%!!!

[Northlander]

Now all ya need is a little stereo and some speakers out the sides of that bad boy.

Can I ask how much $ you have into it? I would love something like that in my Otter Lodge but Im not good with electricity.

I can barely change a lightbulb.

[DTro]

I was thinking that a couple of external posts might be handy for charging.

[bloc004]

Tool Box.....$8.00

Battery......$24.00

Inverter.....$29.00

Outlet and Wire...$2.00

Carpet and Wood I had laying around

My Time......Priceless:)

$63 total

I left the clips on the inverter, and left the inverter unmounted so I can charge my batteries off the truck. But I will probably continue to add to it, the outside posts is a good idea!

[aanderud]

Darren needs one of those and then he has to being his charging cord for his marcum, he's always running out of battery while on the ice

[DTro]

That's because of the location I set up on. It has so many fish on it that the extra lights drains the battery faster.

[Sifty]

Great Idea.

Sifty

[Ride_Red]

here is my power supply, I have a power inverter, 2 cig lighter ports, and 3 12 volt batteries inside the box, I ripped the tower apart and robbed some parts from it, it was just too big, the power box is great...

[Tom7227]

I'm not an electrician but I would think putting a fuse or two in there may be a good idea. I also don't understand the need for an inverter, but I also don't understand the need for an IPod. Ok, I'm over 50 and wouldn't know how to run an IPod. But I still think some fuses would be a good idea.

I also rescued one of those car starter kit things recently and found a 20 amp gell cell inside. Maybe those of you who run out of juice with a regular Vex size battery should looking into buying one of these larger rigs.

[hondarider550]

That is a great idea... gives me an idea of how to bring in some portable power... Thanks...

[Ride_Red]

Each battery is fused, as is the inverter box. It has come in handy many times, I can run my tv at camp for 3-4 hours with the box fully charged. I can also run my aqua-vu all day, several days in a row, along with big buddy heater fan, cell phone charger or anything else. I also used it twice to jump start my buddys polaris atv, with no recoil, by a jumper cable I made with 2 male cig adapter cords on it. just don't crank the atv with the cable plugged in, it would blow fuses.

[tisosy11]

I have a quick question on setting something similiar up in my portable.

I want to set up two vex batteries side by side and connect my LED rope lights to switches and then directly to the batteries.

I am not good with wiring, how would I go from the two batteries to the two switches?

[fishwater]

tisosy11 - Do you want to run the batteries in parallel or separately?

Either way you need to hook one lead of your switches to the + side of a battery and the other lead of the switch will go to your device. It is a good idea to wire a fuse in-line before or after each switch for protecting your electronics. You will also need to run a ground from the - side of the battery going to the device to have a complete circuit.

[Ride_Red]

Here is a pic of mine with the lid off, showing the batteries, fuses, power inverter and wires. The grey lines are foam tape to compress and hold everything tight when the lid is on.

[WallyGader]

Just gave me something to do with my free time!! Thanks for posting...

[riverview]

The power boxes you guys made look great. All i have is a cheap one of those booster boxes $22.00 it has a 12v acc plug that i have a doubler installed. I run my rope lights off it and can charge by vex if need be. These have a gell battery that last forever running small loads.