Portable AlienBees w/Vagabond battery

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 03:33:26 GMT, "zeitgeist"
wrote:


Subject: Portable AlienBees w/Vagabond battery


The whole Vagabond thing is very expensive. Does anyone know of a
cheaper
alternative?



buy a UPS battery backup system to power your AC lights, though I'd like to
find one that didn't shreek the warning beep.

or find a Norman 400b and use an LH head with a modeling light.

I use a 400b with a Quantum X flash for 400 W-S. With a variety of
reflectors and a few spare batteries this makes a pretty nice rig. I
presume the batteries are NiMH for these, since the label on them
touts "no memory." Has anyone pried one of the batteries apart to see
what's in them? I'm guessing it's just a bunch of 10 C-cells with
solder tabs that could be re-celled easily if you could get the case
separated.


this reply is echoed to the z-prophoto mailing list at yahoogroups.com

If you look at the details on the Vagabond you'll see that its a 15AH 12
volt battery and either 1 or 2 true sine wave inverters. The inverters are
coded CU150 - so that may mean 150 watts.

If you look around you may find 150 watt true sine wave inverters for $150
or less and 12 volt lead acid batteries 12AH less than $50 or 18 AH at less
than $75 but then you'd have to add some kind of charger.
As an alternative you might try something like this:

http://www.xantrex.com/products/product.asp?did=565

for as low as $100. The caveat is that it is a modified square setup. I've
not seen any definitive answers as to whether Alien Bees or for that matter
any AC flashes require true sine wave input or may run on modified square
wave.



"KBob" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 09 Jan 2004 02:47:59 GMT, "Patrick L."
wrote:


"Alan Browne" wrote in message
.. .
Bobs wrote:

On Wed, 07 Jan 2004 18:42:13 GMT, "Patrick L."
wrote:


The whole Vagabond thing is very expensive. Does anyone know of a
cheaper
alternative?

I've often thought that these Vagabond gadgets could be easily cobbled
together from a common DC-AC converter, and a great many of them now
produce quasi-sinewave output, so should in theory work all right.
The problem that I see with these is the very large inrush current
that occurs during the first period following each flash. Studio
flashes can draw upwards of 80 amps and more during these short
transients--usually to short a period to blow fuses, unless you fire
in quick succession. So my concern would be that an inverter of this
type may need to have higher capacity than expected in order to handle
these transient inrush currents. I'd be anxious to hear if anyone has
any luck with this.

Also consider that D-size NiMH cells having a 9 amp-hour capacity and
solder tabs are available (on eBay and elsewhere), and 10 of these
might make an ideal battery for this.

Maywood wrote:

If you look at the details on the Vagabond you'll see that its a 15AH 12
volt battery and either 1 or 2 true sine wave inverters. The inverters are
coded CU150 - so that may mean 150 watts.

If you look around you may find 150 watt true sine wave inverters for $150
or less and 12 volt lead acid batteries 12AH less than $50 or 18 AH at less
than $75 but then you'd have to add some kind of charger.
As an alternative you might try something like this:

http://www.xantrex.com/products/product.asp?did=565

for as low as $100. The caveat is that it is a modified square setup. I've
not seen any definitive answers as to whether Alien Bees or for that matter
any AC flashes require true sine wave input or may run on modified square
wave.

1st off your top posting doesn't make your reply very readable in context.

2nd: 150W sounds like enough until you consider the current draw in the
couple seconds after the flash is fired plus the load of the modeling
lamp. I don't know how much it is, but probably on the order of 5 - 6
amps. For two strobes, double that amount.

3rd: the AlienBees site __clearly__ specifies true-sinewave is required.

Alan

--
e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.