I can’t seem to fit the 6D pack and a bigger speaker (I also have a 6C batt pack inside), so I am looking for battery alternatives to power the sound board. I’ve heard people use DVD player rechargeable batteries or something about a 11.1 LiPo battery. I might be heading today to a RC hobby store to see what they have. I’m afraid to place an order and not get it in time for Halloween…
If I use an 11.1 LiPo, would one battery be enough, or do I need to link let’s say, two of them? Exoray mentions something about “good amp hour rating”. What exactly, or what “amp hour” can be considered good amp rating? Browsing around I found one that says for example “3-cell Lithium Polymer 10000mAh 5C Rechargeable Batteries”. Am I wrong, or is “10000mAH” referring to amp hour?
Or if I find a DVD rechargeable battery, what should I look for in terms of voltage? 11.1 as well? Most, if not all I’ve seen are in the 7.4V range (7.4V and 3800mAh or 8800mAh range).
I did find a laptop battery that was 11.1V. If that should be considered as an alternative, how would one connect the cables? Given that I lack of electronic knowledge, I don’t know if I’m up to perform electronic surgery. Either way, that sucker goes for nearly 100 bucks, and that sucks.
If there are any other suitable alternatives, I’d really appreciate your input! I know nothing about voltages or electronics. I just know how to plug the battery and turn on the switch
10,000 mAh would be the amp hour rating…and 10,000 mAh is a good thing!
Every time you turn your lights and sounds on, it uses amperage from the battery. As an example, let say your light and sound set-up pulls 1000 Milliamps (or 1 Amp). With the above 10,000 mAh (milliamps “per” hour) battery, it would run your system for (approximately) 10 hours. So you can see, the higher mAh battery you get, the longer your run times will be.
But you still need to know how many Milliamps your electronics set-up pulls in order to choose the correct battery for you. To do this you need a voltage/amp meter (Multimeter) set to the amperage scale and you connect it in series with one of the battery wires and then turn your system on to take your reading. My system with full lights and sound (no amp at this time) pulls some where in the neighborhood 200- 400 Ma’s
Lousy picture, all I could find on line in short notice, but it might help.
How can you not fit two battery packs in there? Have you considered sticking one battery pack vertically in the ion arm? And hell, there’s all that space under the booster tube…
That said, if I were you, and I needed to choose, it would be the batteries for the lights I’d replace. The sound board is sure to draw a lot more current, but the lights can probably be powered for days from a few AA batteries.
On the other hand, you can probably safely power the sound board off a 6C pack. I powered a set of computer speakers off one. It lasted for the three days I needed it. And it’s still got juice.
But can you fit the D cells only if you leave the C cells out? Why not power your two kits from the same battery pack? Just wire them up in parralel. I suspect your battery packs have a 9v connector on the end of them, and that is conencted to the kit. So buy yourself three 9v connectors, wire all the black wires together, and all the red wires together, and plug one into the battery pack, and the other two into the electronics.
Also, as far as 10000mAh goes, mAh is milliamp hours, and what that basically means, if I’m not mistaken, is that the batteries can provide 10,000 milliamps for 1 hour, or 5000 milliamps for 2 hours, etc. If you know what your kits draw in amps, then you can multiply that by 1000 and that will tell you how many milliamps it’s using.
Days no hours maybe… You will get about 1/4 the run time with AA vs the C batteries I include…
Just for example what can be running between my two kits 15 powercell, 1 cyclotron, 15 powerbar, 7 misc gun lights… Lets cut the powercell and powerbar in half to get an average so we have 23 lights on at any given time @ 20mA that is 460mA without any consideration for the logic circuits driving the lights… AAs have about 2700 mAh or best case 5 hours, real world case probably 2-3 hours…
Again run time will be drastically reduced, nearly cut in half moving from D to C batteries…
Most computer speakers use a lm386 amp chip rated at .3 to .7 watts depending on the version, my sound kit outputs about 15-18 watts at 12 volts… Lots more juice needed…
Back on track to the original question the 11.1 LIPO packs are a great alternative, they are small and pack a bunch of energy… This would be my first choice on an alternative power source and I actually have purchased several for testing…
For reference the C cell pack I provide with good brand name alkalines will provide about 8000 mAh, the D cell pack about 12,000 mAh
As for voltage rating the kits should all run on 6-12 volts without issue, as you approach 12 volts or exceed it up to about 16 volts then the voltage regulators on the kits will need heat sinks or they will shut down or die… If you use less then 12 volts on the sound kit it will reduce the output, it will still work but you won’t get the same volume out of it…
