Power pack for camping?

[Paul Tomblin]

I'm going to be in plane camping at Oshkosh this year, and I'm wondering
how I'm going to keep my camera batteries and iPod charged. I know from
harsh experience that keeping the airplane master on to use a cigarette
lighter adaptor runs down the plane battery pretty damn fast, so that's
not a good idea. Is there such a thing as a battery powered portable
generator?

--
Paul Tomblin > http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Quality Control, n.:
The process of testing one out of every 1,000 units coming off
a production line to make sure that at least one out of 100 works.

[Dave Stadt]

"Paul Tomblin" > wrote in message
...
> I'm going to be in plane camping at Oshkosh this year, and I'm wondering
> how I'm going to keep my camera batteries and iPod charged. I know from
> harsh experience that keeping the airplane master on to use a cigarette
> lighter adaptor runs down the plane battery pretty damn fast, so that's
> not a good idea. Is there such a thing as a battery powered portable
> generator?
>
> --
> Paul Tomblin > http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
> Quality Control, n.:
> The process of testing one out of every 1,000 units coming off
> a production line to make sure that at least one out of 100 works.

Paul.....where are you camping.....north 40, vintage, other? If vintage I
might have a solution for you.

[Joerg]

Hello Paul,


> I'm going to be in plane camping at Oshkosh this year, and I'm wondering
> how I'm going to keep my camera batteries and iPod charged. I know from
> harsh experience that keeping the airplane master on to use a cigarette
> lighter adaptor runs down the plane battery pretty damn fast, so that's
> not a good idea. Is there such a thing as a battery powered portable
> generator?
>

We have one of those here in case the power fails, mainly to keep the
wood stove fans running for a few hours. It is a yellow "Portawattz"
unit that can be charged at home or from a cigarette lighter adaptor
(comes with it). A little larger than a six-pack and with a nice handle.
On our version they claim it could also help starting an engine in a
pinch. Well, I don't know about that, I guess it won't turn over a big
Lycoming. Anyhow, they even threw the starter cables in.

Bought it at Sam's Club but that was years ago, slightly under $100. The
18Ah battery in there is lead-acid. Of course that means the unit weighs
as much as a motorcycle battery.

It also has a 300W inverter mounted on the side if you need 120V. But
don't hang sensitive electronic gear onto that, it does not produce a
clean sine wave. It's probably not recommended but once we did run a
little TV set from it.

Nowadays these come in various sizes:
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/8/type.asp

I guess for Camera batteries and iPod stuff you don't need one as big as
ours.

I don't know about the rules and regs for aircraft in this case but one
solution that is popular in RVs is to have a separate battery mounted
somewhere. This aux battery gets topped off gently by a charge
controller and is completely disconnected from the vehicle power rail
when parked.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

[Paul Tomblin]

In a previous article, "Dave Stadt" > said:
>"Paul Tomblin" > wrote in message
...
>> I'm going to be in plane camping at Oshkosh this year, and I'm wondering
>> how I'm going to keep my camera batteries and iPod charged. I know from
>Paul.....where are you camping.....north 40, vintage, other? If vintage I
>might have a solution for you.

North 40. I'm flying our club's PA-28-236 Dakota which is currently
grounded to get a new engine, new prop, and new Garmin 530.


--
Paul Tomblin > http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
I treat shops as military objectives to be penetrated and stripped of needed
resources in as little time as possible. She has adventures in them.
-- Joe Thompson

[Ron Natalie]

Paul Tomblin wrote:
> I'm going to be in plane camping at Oshkosh this year, and I'm wondering
> how I'm going to keep my camera batteries and iPod charged. I know from
> harsh experience that keeping the airplane master on to use a cigarette
> lighter adaptor runs down the plane battery pretty damn fast, so that's
> not a good idea. Is there such a thing as a battery powered portable
> generator?
>

I carried one of those remote jumpstarters to keep things charged up.

However now I just volunteer and one of the fringes is to be able to
use the electricity at the volunteer facility.

You can always plug in at the showers if you're real trusting.

[Dave Wewers]

I've used something like this for years at Oshkoah:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/logicalplus/redc12vopobr.html

Small, fairly light - take a couple and you'll have all the power you
need for iPod, cell phone, etc.



(Paul Tomblin) wrote:

>I'm going to be in plane camping at Oshkosh this year, and I'm wondering
>how I'm going to keep my camera batteries and iPod charged. I know from
>harsh experience that keeping the airplane master on to use a cigarette
>lighter adaptor runs down the plane battery pretty damn fast, so that's
>not a good idea. Is there such a thing as a battery powered portable
>generator?

[Kyler Laird]

(Paul Tomblin) writes:

>I'm going to be in plane camping at Oshkosh this year, and I'm wondering
>how I'm going to keep my camera batteries and iPod charged. I know from
>harsh experience that keeping the airplane master on to use a cigarette
>lighter adaptor runs down the plane battery pretty damn fast, so that's
>not a good idea. Is there such a thing as a battery powered portable
>generator?

I like the looks of a small inverter generator.
http://store.xtremegadget.com/si10diinge.html
http://www.mayberrys.com/honda/generator/models/eu1000i.htm

You could run it on avgas from your tank (so you could carry it dry)
and connect it directly to the plane's battery. That would allow you
to use the plane's power and then just charge it occasionally.

The bigger benefit for me is that it could be used to power my block
heaters and top off the battery in non-camping situations. That could
be very handy.

--kyler