Portable battery?


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Old 06-22-14, 08:32 AM
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Portable battery?

Ok, this might sound like a silly idea but hey, I'm trying to think of creative ways to add more surveillance and security to my life/house/car etc.

My car has a 2 channel camera system in it (front and rear cam) that record all the time while I'm driving and parked. The problem is that sometimes I'm worried about draining the car battery if I don't drive for 2 or 3 days. My cam system does have a SAFE SHUT OFF as it detects when the car battery is getting low, it will stop recording and shut down on its own so as to not make the car battery dead and unstart-able. But I was thinking of possibly
adding 1 or 2 more cameras in the car without hooking it up to my car battery as there's already a lot of devices draining it while parked (i have a keyless smart system also which has to be able to communicate with my remote transponder).

Is there any such thing as a giant portable battery with AC plugs? What I mean is, I was thinking about using my cheap digital camera or camcorders, setting them up in my car via clamps or brackets and recording to SD/mini SD media. Now the cameras would have a fully charged battery (Li-ON) but as we know, cameras can only record around 1 to 2 hours continuously until the battery is completely discharged. 1 or 2 hours is not enough for a 24 hour day. Rather than to constantly recharge those small batteries in the camera devices, I would rather recharge say a GIANT ASS portable battery all day then at night put in my car, hook up my camera to it, and it could record say 6 or 8 hours straight using the giant ass battery instead of it's own tiny lithium ion battery.

Does anyone know if such a battery exists? I know they have those portable batteries for smartphones or other devices to recharge your phone or tablet etc. But don't they have portable batteries 20x that size (like the size of a UPS battery used for home computer systems). Or is that my answer? A UPS? Should I just use a UPS as my portable battery and plug in my camera to record all night?
 
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Old 06-22-14, 09:37 AM
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Easiest way is to install another deep cycle 12 volt battery in your car. A deep cycle battery is better for long continuous discharges and recharges. Use this accessory battery to run all your "extra" devices in your car.

You could also add this battery to your existing changing system on your car. However you should check to see the output of your existing alternator to see if you might need to install a high output one.
 
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Old 06-22-14, 08:00 PM
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thanks for the response. I don't fully understand what you wrote. Do you mean, install a 2nd car battery? Where would I put this battery? I don't think a 2nd one would fit in the engine compartment as it looks crammed already.

Also, you know if I am able to use a UPS as a giant battery to carry around in my car to plug in devices like digital camera or camcorder?
 
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Old 06-22-14, 08:09 PM
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I am able to use a UPS as a giant battery to carry around in my car to plug in devices like digital camera or camcorder?
You can use a UPS in a car but it still needs to be charged. What are you going to do to.... carry it inside every day to charge it ?

I'm not even sure a UPS supply could run all night on a charge..... especially with something plugged in and drawing more power.
 
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Old 06-22-14, 11:12 PM
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Thanks PJ for your reply.

Actually, yes. I would plan on bringing it everyday in and out of the car to fully recharge it.

But, I wasn't thinking of a UPS since UPS batteries are mainly for surge protection and only maintaining a computer system for 5 to 10 min (enough time to safely shut down the system(s)).

I think UPS don't hold a lot of charge anyways for their size/weight. I was hoping there would actually be a real battery the size of a UPS that could say be equivalent to like 25 lithium ion batteries or something like that so that it could fully power my camera all night as it records night vision footage.

I'm just having a hard time trying to find and figure out how to keep a camera powered and recording WITHOUT plugging it into my car's 12V battery.
 
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Old 06-23-14, 10:34 AM
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You can use any 12v battery. Your UPS most likely has a 7AH battery which is fairly small. You can get those types of batteries in any size up to a regular car battery. I left you a link to one site. You'd probably want a 21AH or larger battery.

If you know what the current draw is for your equipment.... the size of the battery based on hours needed can be computed.

12 Volt Sealed Lead Acid Batteries | 12 Volt SLA Battery - Battery Mart
 
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Old 06-23-14, 05:04 PM
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Thanks, those 12 V batteries look like what I need, but I'm still confused as to how to use these kinds of batteries? From the pictures, it doesn't look like they have a simple AC adapter plug like the ones you'd find on wall sockets. Do these batteries use another connector/plug? How would I be able to plug in a camera/camcorder to one of these?

Also, how do I recharge these batteries? Does it have a simple AC wall socket plug that I can just plug it into overnight and let it fully charge?
 
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Old 06-23-14, 05:14 PM
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You will probably have to make up some adapters to attach the cameras to the batteries.( Observe polarity) As to recharging the batteries, you will need a battery charger made for the size of battery you decide to use.
 
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Old 06-23-14, 07:48 PM
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To get AC from a DC battery you will need to have an inverter. There are plenty of them out there. Or you could skip the AC power and just get some 12v USB connectors to plug your cameras into. Most cameras run off DC anyway. I think adding A/C power to the mix is unnecessary.

I would suggest installing the deep cycle battery in your trunk. Then run a set of wires to the back of the car (with inline fuse) so that the cars alternator will charge the battery at the same time when the motor is running.
 
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Old 06-23-14, 08:41 PM
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thanks all for the advice. I'll have to study about this as I don't know much about batteries.
 
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Old 06-23-14, 10:34 PM
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What you should do is check with an RV center near you. Plenty of tow vehicles have dual battery set-ups with a circuit that allows them to charge from the vehicle electrical system, but when stopped disconnect the starting battery from the auxiliary battery used for the camper lights and 12V accessories. No worries about running down the main battery. Depending on the size and draw of your cameras, I doubt it would require all that much juice to recharge each day, of course if you only drive 10 min each way, yeah, that could be a problem. You could probably wire in a small solar panel that would charge all day if you park outside. My neighbor does that when he goes out in the boonies camping for weeks at a time. He said he only has to run his Honda generator every few days. He uses the batteries for lights, a radio, and to charge a few electronic devices, no big draw items like TVs.

I have to ask, why the cameras? Just for fun, or???
 
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Old 06-25-14, 04:58 PM
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Thanks again for those tips. I got another recommendation to powersonic batteries. A tech guy there told me 12v at about 22 - 35 amps of output and a 100w or 110w power inverter for my small digital camera to run/record approx. 8 hours continuously.

I was hoping to add more cameras to my car (when parked) but I didn't know how I would be able to have an additional camera or two running in the car without putting more drain on the car battery itself as there is already a 2 channel car cam hooked up to the car battery. So then I thought the only other way would be to somehow get a large portable battery that can power another camera independently for 8 hours or so per night. My car cams only face front and back and don't have night vision. I had a cheap digital camera from 2004 that was sitting around and it has night vision capability, so I thought why not just add that inside my car to record more video....but again, how to power it on for 8 hours WITHOUT hooking it up to the car battery.
 
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Old 07-06-14, 06:47 AM
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I was given another suggestion to look at. Someone recommended GoalZero.
Here is the link: Goal Zero Yeti 150 Solar Generator | Power Packs | Goal Zero

Do you think something like this would be what I'm looking for?
It has an AC plug, only about 12 pounds, can be recharged in 6 hours
in the wall socket. I think I can simply plug my camcorder or digital camera
in there and run it overnight to record for 8 - 12 hours or so.
 
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Old 07-13-14, 01:23 AM
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Well, I've decided to shell out the 300 bucks to get the GoalZero Yeti 150 portable generator. I'll receive it hopefully in a few days. I'll let you know how it works out for what I need it for.


Also, I found another "cheaper" option. Some of those digital clock spy cameras have these giant size batteries....forgot what they are called, but they look like AA's only much bigger. Apparently, one of the clocks has 2 of the big boys in it and it claims it can record 24 hours of CONTINUOUS RECORDING. Someone on youtube did a review of it and said while it wasn't quite true, they managed 21 hours of continuous recording. So this sounds like a good option for me also.

I could just recharge these batteries each day and leave the "clock" up against my car dash window or someplace to record all night. I'm thinking, I'll just cover up the digital display panel so the flashing clock and date and temperature LEDs don't attract unwanted attention. I"ll just leave the spy came hole uncovered but cover the rest up in black tape or something.
 
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Old 07-17-14, 05:31 PM
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Well I received my GoalZero Yeti 150 yesterday and I fully charged it (6 hours AC wall). I put it in my car overnight and connected my old 2004 sony cybershot v1 digital camera to it and recorded all night (9.5 hours) on night mode at the smallest frame size settings.

This morning when I went to check it, the battery was still over 80% charged! The camera was still recording at 9.5 hours continuous. I must say for my first trial, I'm very pleased with the results!

My camera's LCD had to remain on all night as it can't seem to turn off LCD while recording in AC mode (well it's hooked up to the battery's AC jack but the camera detects it as AC power). Normally, on camera battery, i can turn off the LCD and still record to save battery power. But as I said, the battery was still over 80% fully charged even after 9.5 hours of recording and LCD on.

Here are some pics I took of it. I'm sure since I had the frame size recording at the smallest, it saves on battery power too, but if I record at 640x480 or higher, maybe the battery life will go down faster?
 
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Old 07-17-14, 05:35 PM
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I have to wait about 15 or 20 days for my order of the digital clock camera with 2x18650 batteries that was tested to be able to record continuously for 21 hours. Once it arrives, I'll give that a test also and see how that option works out.

I must say, despite having forked over a lot of money for the goalzero portable battery, I'm very impressed with it so far. I think I'll be able to do everything I wanted now using it as my external power source and no longer have to drain my car battery overnight.
 
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Old 07-17-14, 05:41 PM
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Good to hear you found a solution for your project. Thanks for letting us know.
 
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Old 07-18-14, 07:43 AM
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absolutely no problem. I love to share whatever ideas we come up with to make things work.

I still have a few other things I'm trying to figure out but for the most part, this portable battery works great and I'd recommend it. Even though I haven't received the digital clock DVR camera yet, I know how they work as I have one already but it's a single 18650 battery operated one. The one I ordered is a double 18650 battery model and as stated in reviews, they were able to record 21 hours continuously before the battery died.

The 2 main issues I'm still dealing with now is the NIGHT MODE issue as it seems like any night mode/vision used WITHIN the car having to record video on what's going on outside is somewhat diminished due to the glass barrier. The footage is not as clear as I wanted and I have to figure how I can get good night vision video while being behind a "glass" (car). The IR light just reflects back to the camera and kind of glares the footage. It seems to work better if I keep the camera farther away from the glass (so for example, I keep the camera at the back of the car pointing forwards looking out in front. If I were to turn it around and have it face directly against the window, it would just have a lot of glare.

The other issue I'm trying to figure out is how to protect or keep my electronic equipment cool in the car while it is parked out in the hot sunny weather. I've been keeping a thermometer in my car for the past week and recording my findings of both in the car and in a styrofoam / esky type box. The temperature with the greenhouse effect in the car can go up to 50-60 celsius on the high end. When I checked the thermometer inside the stryofoam / esky the temperature inside there was about 40 celsius. If the car temp inside was 43 celsius inside the box was about 33 or 34 celsius. So it seems that the styrofoam/esky box on average can be about 10 degrees celsius cooler than the temperature inside the car without being in a box.

If I roll the windows down slightly on both sides of the car, the temp. inside the car went down by 10 celsius so that helped even more on the really hot days. I'm still trying to figure out what I can "wrap" my devices in. For example, the car cam is black and when it's being hit in direct sunlight inside a closed car for 4 or 5 hours on a hot day, if I go to touch it, it literally is as hot as an oven. I nearly burned my fingers when I touched it. I'm thinking, that can't be good for any electronics, especially BATTERIES. So I did ask before what good if any it might do to put reflective wrapping or tape around it ie. aluminum foil or some other reflective wrap? Wouldn't it least deflect some of the direct sunlight (but maybe not heat).

I try to park in a place where I know there will be shade as the sun rises and sets. It's always exposed to direct sunilght at one point during the day .
 
 

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