Battery And Inverter

[salmonboy]

Forgive the newbie question, but does anyone have a recomendation on a portable light set up for dock fishing in Puget Sound? I am thinking of trying Edmonds which does not have electrical outlets.



I have seen guys with car batteries on dollies. Do I need an inverter and if so, where do I buy?



salmonboy

[Fried Walleye]

Hey Salmonboy,



I don't use an invertor, instead I have the following:



I bought a heavy duty marine 12 volt battery.



I then bought a set of bright white, auxiliary car lights (the type you attach to your bumper).



I attached the lights to a board, which I clamp to the dock rail, and I used the wiring harness that came with the lights, to hook up to the battery.



No matter what type of setup you use, make sure you charge your battery, after each use. If not, you can cause a premature battery death <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' /> .



Also, the first set of lights I bought, had a yellowish tint; these were not as bright as I wanted, and did not attract the squid too well.



I bought everything I needed at Wally's World.



Good luck,



Chris <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':o' />

[squidjigdotcom]

Battery setups are not too difficult for a basis setup.



For your best success, and least cost, a good deep cycle 12v battery, with about 700 watt power inverter.



For light, a halogen light works well, but consumes a fair amount of power, so the battery goes dead faster. There are quite a few people that have gone to using fluorescent lights, which are not as bright, but use much less power.



My personal setup is a dual deep cycle 12v, with 1000 watt power inverter. I have this set up in a wooden box that I wheel down on a cart (VERY HEAVY). Along with that I use a 400 Watt Metal Halide Flood Light. The light puts out about 6x more light than a 500 Watt Halogen light, and has a color that closely resembles natural sunlight. Works very well. I can get about 2 1/2 hours before the batteries go down.



Jon

[glen]

hi jon,



i am just curious why you need 1000w inverter for a 500w globe. wouldn't a 500w inverter do the trick? would the 1000w inverter cause the battery to go flat quicker than necessary? i have never seen inverter's for sale over here (in Australia) but i guess you can buy them from hardware stores? its an interesting idea. i might give it a go.



also, how big is an inverter? if you have any photos that would be great.



thanks for your help, cheers, glen

[Guest]

[quote name='salmonboy' date='Jan 20 2005, 09:55 AM']Forgive the newbie question, but does anyone have a recomendation on a portable light set up for dock fishing in Puget Sound?  I am thinking of trying Edmonds which does not have electrical outlets. 



I have seen guys with car batteries on dollies.  Do I need an inverter and if so, where do I buy?



salmonboy

[right][post="3997"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]Get an heavy-duty MARINE battery instead. You will need an inverter ... 400, 800, 1200 watts. By the way, Edmonds pier has been closed for a few weeks now !?!? I've seen few of the regulars frome Edmonds coming down to piers 62, 63 & 69 in Seattle. By the way, the season is pretty much over ....... let me know if I am wrong. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/zorro.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[betta]

[quote name='SQUIDFREAK' date='Feb 3 2005, 04:36 AM']Get an heavy-duty MARINE battery instead. You will need an inverter ... 400, 800,  1200 watts. By the way, Edmonds pier has been closed for a few weeks now !?!? I've seen few of the regulars frome Edmonds coming down to piers 62, 63 & 69 in Seattle. By the way, the season is pretty much over ....... let me know if I am wrong. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/zorro.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[right][post="4077"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]





I have an Emergency car startup system with flourecent light. There is 12V cigarett light, but unable to find anything bright like holigen light. Any tips for the newbie would be appreciated.

[Hilly Down Under]

[quote name='glen' post='4002' date='Jan 21 2005, 07:59 AM']hi jon,



i am just curious why you need 1000w inverter for a 500w globe. wouldn't a 500w inverter do the trick? would the 1000w inverter cause the battery to go flat quicker than necessary? i have never seen inverter's for sale over here (in Australia) but i guess you can buy them from hardware stores? its an interesting idea. i might give it a go.



also, how big is an inverter? if you have any photos that would be great.



thanks for your help, cheers, glen[/quote]





Helo Glen,

the reason you would need a greater capacity in the inverter is really as a safety margin. You need a little extra capacity "Up your sleeve" just in case something draws a little more current than you anticipated. With some types of gas vapour or gas discharge lamps they draw a lot more power than they do when they are running.

You can buy inverters from places like "SuperCheap Auto" but bear in mind that you need a big battery if you want to draw some real power. There is this funny thing called "Internal Resistance" in lead-acid batteries that can be a big problem when you get into the higher wattages.

I live on a solar powered power system and after about 15 years I seem to have sorted most of the problems that you usually come across.

Dennis.

(Up near Port Macquarie, NSW)

[glen]

hi dennis, thanks very much for those tips. i will check them out in super cheap auto next time i am down there!



cheers, glen

[squidster]

Guys, as for the inverter question, if you do go that route, you might wanna check here: www.batterytex.com



They have a lot of good power inverters, modified sine wave inverters, &tc. Good prices, also. And I think they can ship pretty much to any spot. They carry Power Bright, which I think is a good company for inverters.



-s man