Mobile Power Supply

[Alick Ford]

What do you guys think?

I'm going to be selling at a few car shows next year and I want to get myself organised with a point of sale.

Some of these shows are in the middle of a field, and power supplies are out of the question, so...(this is where the help and advice is needed)!

If u needed to power your laptop, 30w Zing, and Epilog air comp, how would you do it? I'll have a car or van available.

Car battery? Silent generator? Batteries?

One of the last shows I was at there was a mobile coffee van. He was powering a reasonably large coffee machine, fridge, boiler and microwave and his van wasn't running, nor did he have a generator!

[Dan Hintz]

That van most likely has a large (and expensive) battery setup if he's running a coffee maker heating element, a microwave, and a boiler. Are you sure the van wasn't running, or at least turned on from time to time?

The laptop isn't an issue, but the laser is going to suck down a lot of power... several hundred Watts when you add in the laser, the fans, the servos, etc. A car battery will last you a few hours before it's severely low on juice, and you don't want to drain a lead-cell battery if you want it to last.

[Alick Ford]

That's what I'm worried about! I don't want to be stuck in the middle of a field with a flat battery!

Do you think a car battery would be able to supply enough power to run the laser smoothly?

[Joe De Medeiros]

That van most likely has a large (and expensive) battery setup if he's running a coffee maker heating element, a microwave, and a boiler. Are you sure the van wasn't running, or at least turned on from time to time?

The laptop isn't an issue, but the laser is going to suck down a lot of power... several hundred Watts when you add in the laser, the fans, the servos, etc. A car battery will last you a few hours before it's severely low on juice, and you don't want to drain a lead-cell battery if you want it to last.

I agree with Dan, the ones I've seen have dual heavy duty alternators, and batteries, and stay running. The other ones I have seen have a gas powered generator tucked away in the back. There is a sign guy I run into at some of the show I do who runs a Zing on a gas generator and it's far from quite.

[Robert Walters]

Honda EU2000i Generator.

It is electronics safe, the quietest generator on the market, has a handle to carry with one hand (apx 47 lbs), and approved for use in areas where a spark arrestor is required.

You can connect two of them in tandem to double the power capacity.


If you get one...

Change the oil every 20 hours of use (I change the oil every one or two gas tank refills).
Check the oil every time you start it.
If the oil is low, change it instead of topping off.
I use Mobile One synthetic oil, one quart will give you 2+ oil changes.

As designed, it can be a bit cumbersome/messy to change oil as seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGPYaBW7_-0

But get yourself one of these, they make changing the oil SUPER easy:

search DOT ebay DOT com/280577005096


What I do is take a 2 liter soda bottle, and pour my used oil in it.
When I get home, just empty it at an oil recycling station.

To prevent from overfilling the generator as well as making a big mess,
I take 16-20oz plastic soda bottles (NOT plastic water bottles) and pre-fill them with a measured amount of oil and use the tube to fill the generator.

I usually have a few of these prepared ahead of time. Just get yourself a measuring cup and funnel from the dollar store to fill the 16oz soda bottles ahead of time and use that ONLY for oil, never food.

To have fresh gas on hand at all times...
When it's time to fill up the car, I just empty the cans of gas I have into the car and refill them at the gas station maybe every month or two.