12v Power packs - Ebay

I have seen one of those little yellow $70 jobs with the built in compressor start a 5.7L Holden V8. And, according to the volt meter on the unit it was only at about 50% charge.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it.

Hi tukka,

Mine works a treat. It doesn't have the compressor; I already have one. Make sure you get one with 900 amps or more. My wife uses it at the markets to run a 12v fan. When we are away it runs the 12v light, 12v shower and 'AA' battery charger.

When you go for a drive, plug it in to the ciggie lighter and top her up.

regards

Brian

Thats what i was thinking, i already have a couple of batteries laying around doing nothing plus all the other bits and pieces so might just do that. I wouldnt need to earth the battery would i just the lighter sockets.

Just connect the earth or the negative of the lighter socket to the battery negative, and the positive of the lighter socket to the positive of the battery.

If you just want to run lights for a few hours at night, this should be fine, just remember that if you run the battery down too flat too often it will stuff it.

Grinner

Phil,
Does the relay have a 12v attachment or wired directly?
Dean

Dean,
Not sure what you mean.
I use a standard 30amp relay and it lives in a jiffy box - coil is powered from IGN, power is drawn from starting battery and a charging lead goes to a shielded connector where the battery is stored.
Only issue with these batteries is trying to limit the current to the stated 2.1 amps - only seems to be exceeded when the battery is well run down.

Just for fun Phil , I am working on a lightweight rechargeable lithium power cell at the moment.

At 1/2 kg an 2AH I expect it to at start my electric start trail bike and from what I calculate a 1kg version should turn over the car.

Let you know how it goes as backup system If I don't blow myself up first .

Robin, that does sound like Fun!

I played a lot with rechargables in the past when my son was racing R/C cars. We bought Sub-C NiCads in bulk, and enhanced their voltage by Zapping them with 100Volts via a rather large Capacitor. I think I was lucky not to blow myself up there. We used to measure their capacity and match packs which were sold by a local hobby shop.

I don't know much about Lithium Polymer, having not used them, but my son, who now flies electric helicopters as well, reckons they're pretty good......as long as you don't blow yourself up :-))))

I just read some blurb on them on the Model Flight Website.

But the stats look pretty impressive as far as burst current goes, which I guess is what you're after.

Yep! fun all right but its all coming up to fast - trying to get it ready for riding my bike ride out of Birdsville July.
Predict 150a pulse current - but bike has no kick start lever so I might chicken out yet and carry the normal one.

Other issues which I haven't appreciated include higher radiation from bikes wires (based on Ni-cads and reduced electrical load) and these have reduced the reliability of GPS readings from a Garmin Quest I fitted to bike for Navigation.