For everybody with a light kit, what do you guys use in your proton packs to power them? Replaceable AA, AAA, C type of traditional batteries? Or rechargeable units? Also who’s kit do you have, or did you make your own?
Right now I’m with a Proptronix kit, both gun and pack. Recommends a minimum of 7V but no more than 12V. I think I’ve found a battery that might be decent but honestly I’m not sure of the longevity.
It runs at a higher voltage that’ll hopefully produce brighter lights, but won’t overpower the circuitry so the board won’t fry. Even peak voltage is only 12.6V so that limits the danger. Not too large, only about 5.6" wide and 1/2 a pound total. 3000maH
But I’m basically wondering if this’ll actually last a whole weekends worth of use, say… 18-25 hours? Or would this maybe only make it 10 hours or less? I’ve heard of some here using phone or laptop batteries, those however seem a bit pricier and I’m not sure if they’d require fabrication for recharging units. This seems like a little soldering and shrink wrap and I have a self-contained unit.
I run off of 7 1.2 volt rechargeable D-cell batteries. The charger I have lets me charge them all at once without having to remove them from the pack. My lights run over 24 hours when fully charged, and supposedly these batteries hold a better charge after they have been discharged and recharged a dozen times.
Well for what it’s worth, I’m using Exoray’s gun and pack kits. Each one has a 9.1v AA rechargable battery pack running it. I can’t remember if they’ve got 2500 or 3000 maH. One of the two. Anyway I can “get away with” something around 20 hours of continuous use. As in flip it on in the morning, later the next morning everything’s getting close to dead.
I kinda wish my battery life was longer, but since they’re rechargable it ultimately isn’t that important - so long as I get a few hours to charge it all!
To get an approx. idea how long your battery will last, connect a multi-meter set to the amp scale in line between the battery and your pack electronics to find out what kind of amperage it’s pulling when on.
For example, if your pack is using 1000 Ma’s (milliamps) with everything on and your battery 3000MAh (milliamps hour), your battery will last approx. 3 hours.
My current plan is to use a part usually used in custom lightsabers - to keep from having to take them apart to replace batteries, we put a 2.1 millimeter power jack on the hilt that gets wired between the electronics and the power supply. Might be worth a look - I plan on drilling a hole in the motherboard somewhere - that way I can charge my pack by simply plugging it into my airsoft battery charger.
I bought a DVDU9 online at about 4 different stores. Why 4 times? Because they’d say in stock, I’d purchase, get charged on my credit card, and next day they cancel and say how sorry they are but out of stock.
It seems that sadly these are discontinued products.
I finally found one though at a local Radio Shack, though it’s the lesser model, the DVDU923. Instead of the 5400maH it is 2600maH. So about 1/2 the battery life. But it was $40 on clearance so I figured **** it and picked it up. So I won’t have 5 days worth of juice. If I can get at least a whole days worth out of this then that’s sufficient. Not like it’s not going on the charger at night even if it still had 7/10 battery life left.
Now I just need to figure out where/how I’m going to put this into the pack. And also how to find the screws so I can relocate the input port for charging.
this sounds like excactly what im looking for! Im sorry to bump a thread!! How do i manage to set up the device so that my batteries can stay outside the pack whilst the circuits are inside. I really dont want to have to tear the pack apart every time i wanna change or charge the batteries! Any advice would be helpful
What I did with my DVDU9 battery was I mounted it inbetween the backbrace and lower side of the ALICE frame onto the motherboard, drilled a hole through the motherboard to run the wires, and spliced the battery wires to the electronics. To attach the battery to the motherboard on the outside, I used some tough-ass Velcro.
i was thinking about using a rc type nimh battery pack
My main concern with this is where do i get a connection that will allow me to plug this into exorays light kits and also have a connection that allows me to plug straight into a charger…the pack im looking to pick up has a fitting on it but i dunno if it will connect to exorays board and if it does i gotta set up another wire to keep outside the pack for charging!! Sorry if this sounds confusing, im doing my best to understand!!
I made a battery holder like the makita setup in the packs. I use a 7.2V RC battery for the lights, and a 9V for the gun since I don’t use a light kit for it.
Have you thought about using sealed lead-acid batteries, as used on alarm panels etc? I have a 12v 7Ah Yuasa battery in my pack, gives me loads of runtime even with the 80w amplifier powered up and all the extra lights on the pack. There are smaller sizes on the market, down to 1.4Ah, and it is easy to attach a charging system so you don’t have to disassemble your pack every time it needs a charge. I have a small charging unit that will charge and maintain the battery over long periods, the charger was small enough to attach to the pack, tucking it into the ALICE pack frame where it is nicely hidden. I chopped the crocodile clips off the end of the charge leads and fitted a phono/RCA plug, and I have a phono/RCA socket mounted on the pack body, which is directly wired to the battery. The mains lead for the charger was chopped short and an IEC 3-pin socket fitted, and I then have a standard IEC mains lead (as used for powering PCs etc) for connecting the charger to the mains. If you are worried about overvoltage (most sealed lead-acid batteries will charge to a nominal 13.8v), then add a 12v voltage regulator on the positive supply lead between the battery and your pack power switch, this will ensure no more than 12v can get to your pack lights & sounds.
This may sound like a lot of hard work compared to NiMh/Li-Ion AA cells, but will deliver long runtimes if you are using amplifiers or power-hungry lights. My pack will run for 2 days when fully charged before the voltage drops below 10v. Just be sure to remember to add a 5amp fuse in the positive lead, as close to the battery as possible.
just get one of the batteries that sock0525 recommends. both mburkit and I have similar ones in our packs and they work wonderfully and last long enough for any convention.
Here is the battery I was talking about, as you can see there are two hookups coming off of it. I cut the plug off of one and ran it to my light kit. The other hookup is for the charger. The Charger itself has an indicator on it(red light/green light) for letting you know the charge status. The only issue I haven’t resolved yet is on the side opposite the wires there is an on/off switch. I’m trying to find a way that I can leave it switched in the on position, but without it actually being on. This way I can only have it on when I’m using the lights and leave the charge port open on the mobo for easy access. I’m thinking of using one of the power jack kill plug Kant Lavar mentioned here: What the hell am I getting myself into now? - Proton Packs - GBFans.com
I don’t know if that will work, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
I don’t think the above battery pack is rated for the amperage you are subjecting it to. The battery pack could explode or overheat. Check out the label or information to see if its rated for decent amp rating situations.
A few LEDs are fine, but once yout start running an amp, lights and sounds… you are looking at an amp of electricity. That can easily fry / cook / heat up / explode a battery that it was not designed for.
my 12.6V CCTV battery runs both my pack and gun lights(proptronix), the 7W amp AND the incandescent light i have behind my thrower vents. the battery runs them all constantly for about 9 hours before finally showing signs of dying.
the battery has never even felt warm to the touch and if the electronics were gonna fry, they would have done so by now.
