No idea wether this is plausible and if it is economical/practical. Would be very interested to find out though. Never really thought of it before. Suppose you would need some sort of power distributor/regulator aswell. Anyone have any info on this?

Originally posted by caine
does anyone have any ideas or plans on how to build a battery powered system?

i know of some one who uses 8 car batteries at 12v converted to power decks lights mixer and PA for up to 2 days, but cant contact them to find out how!

any ideas?

Having seen a similar installation providing power to a mobile info centre van (albeit run by middle englander countryside types rather than hippies!) I would suspect the 12v batteries are wired up to give two parallel banks of batteries at 48 volts DC.

Why 48 volts?

1. it will not give you a dangerous shock if you come into contact with it (although if u r very sensitive you might get a mild tingle)

2. -48 volts DC (positive earthed) is the standard voltage for telecom equipment. This means that inverters to convert it to 230V AC are readily available, especially on the surplus electronics market

48 volts can also be used to power amplifiers as is (although you are now entering the complicated realm of building your own amps); but yes you need to build charging and regulator circuits. You probably can find this stuff ready built from electronics surplus markets but you need 2 know what 2 look 4!!

Bear in mind also 8 car batteries are 8 very heavy containers of toxic and corrosive chemicals, and you cannot let careless people with a spliff, cig or lighter near charging batteries or KABOOM! Also if these batteries are short-circuited you can set a big fire going very quickly!

If not designed well this system is probably more damaging 2 enviroment and potentially dangerous than using a generator set providing 230V AC like other party crews do …….. and more expensive. also heavier, remember u have 2 cart this stuff about…

Still fair play 2 your friend, who must be a very brainy person who probably has has access to cheap equipment.

I have seen smaller scale 12V systems using car audio kit and charged by pedal powered chargers built from a mixture of old racing bicycles, car alternators and other metal items. However they were being used for 70s style mostly acoustic hippy bands, and may not have enuff audio power for raves!

Originally posted by BioTech
Oh.

I Think we will be sticking to a genny then. 🙁

[/quote]

sometimes the “low tech” solutions r the best, even if u were thinking batteries would be cleaner/lighter/more eco-friendly. Gensets aren’t that bad if u have good earthing, and keep the equipment in order. If u keep the engine clean and well-oiled and don’t run the genset until the fuel tank is down 2 the dregs, u will have less problems and hassles.

Quote:

Interesting subject though.

the battery powered system is still a viable project if you have the time, brains, energy and equipment.

Batteries do of course have the advantage that they do not make noise, either mechanical or electrical interference. incidentally another bonus of 48V instead of 12V is that the current is less so the power cables can be thinner, although they are still much thicker than those used for 230V. I was once shown round the battery room of my local telephone exchange; they use huge metal bus bars to carry the power across the building.

Maybe in a few years time, batteries will be smaller and more efficient, and this project will be more feasible!

Originally posted by alma tender love
These guyz use an interesting & eco-friendly solution to the genny question –rinky dink

I think you can find out more about this here

& here

😀

I think I may have met some of the ppl on the second link b4 (back in 1995 or so!) and even got some video footage. Was there a hippy guy called Nick? He is very brainy and actually keeps the kit in hospital emergency rooms running as a day job; so he knows his stuff…

Its actually a really good idea for small scale power needs (not just rigs but if u live in a place with no or intermittent mains power) – and a good recycling (groan) project.

The kind of racing bicycles used for this project (they were what people were riding when I was about 9 or 10 🙂 will 90% of the time be unwanted by cyclists; the parts needed to make them roadworthy have been obsoleted in many places (and IME the sort of people who like racing bikes always want the newest kit anyway, and most other cyclists these days have mountain bikes or tourers 😉 – so the remains of these bikes are easy to find as scrap / tat…

BTW Alma many thanks for this especially the second link. I have been trying to find out what became of that bunch 4 ages – it has really made my day 2 see they r still going!

AFAIK u can put “red” diesel (cheaper) in the genset engine without breaking the law – the tax on diesel is for vehicles, and a genset engine is not a vehicle – u can’t drive it to the party site 😉

but… having red diesel in cans in the rig van could attract unwanted attention from both cops and HMCE (customs) (cops may also claim u r pikeys stealing it) and there is always a temptation if u run out of road fuel to use the red 2 get home. don’t do this; if HMCE catch u at it (and there r random checkpoints especially in rural areas) they confiscate ur van 🙁

however if the van is petrol then perhaps the cops and authorities can’t really hassle u 😉

maybe u can get red diesel from where the boats are in norfolk (broads?) I read somewhere thats what is used on narrow boats etc. its cheaper than DERV (road diesel) but can become waxy in cold weather. But thats yet another can of flammable liquid to store, label and keep safe amongst all the other tat..

it may b easier to make it clear 2 all your party peeps they should put some change in the bucket if they want parties 2 continue, and just buy the damn fuel from the garage! 🙂

WE HAD A PARTY LAST WEEK OUT OF A BOOT OF A CAR, WE USED A CONVERTER FROM THE BATTERY AND USED THE CAR TO RE-POWER THE BATTERY. PRETTY COOL HAD NO TROUBLE OF THE COPS

Originally posted by Nomad
Solar Power anyone?

WOULD B COOL @ NITE. LOL

I have been running a small (500watt) 12volt sound system for the past couple of years. It has a4 channel 520w amp and 4 JBL speakers, 2x160w and2x 60 w plus a bridged sub woofer running at 250 w. I use an Alpine MP3 player,and I can run this all night (10 hours or so) on a couple of 110 amp hour leisure batteries which I charge up beforehand on solar panels. It’s not a proper Dj set up as such, but I know someone in Scotland who runs a 3K system with a van load of heavy duty batteries, 3 x 1000 12v amplifiers and an inverter to power the mixer and decks.All the speakers are best configured to run on 4 ohms. My sound system is mounted on an old silver cross pram chassis and also doubles as a mobile coffee bar. Catch me at Glastonbury festival in the bottom corner of the Tipi field. It’s called the Dubpram.!!!

The Guildford Ambient picnic had at least one stage where only solar or renewable energy was permitted; some of the equipment was powered by an auto-tracking solar cell and a large bank of ex-MOD submarine batteries. This was enough to power a fairly large sound system.

There was also a large bus with a wind generator, which some Europeans had brought in.

This stuff is certainly feasible – and I know crews who want to do it.

The problem at the moment is most events are unlicensed to the priority is unfortunately finding the venue and keeping plod from stopping it – TBH the environmental impact of free parties as a whole can be fucking appalling (trash, extra traffic, mindless vandalism) and needs to be addressed.

It does need a bit of tolerance on the “other side” though so people can set up in “safe havens” without risk of being turned over..

Hi ppl, been reading this thread from beggining wonderinghowit would turn out. Seems that battery power is not exactly the most conveinient method, no matter how it’s regenerated. Solar, wind, hydro. It’s ok inverting power for small capacities but for party rigs and lighting, not really an option.

If rigs wanna go green, recycle and save money at the time. Yes i did say save money, why not try this.

Make your own deisel. Legal, safe, environmentally friendly.

In short old chip fat, get in touch with chippies and restraunts and get their old cooking oil. It will usually be in 5 gallon drums that it came in. You have to filter all the smeg out. Funnel filters for deisel are ideal. 97ml of oil add 3 ml of non petroleum based white spirit, leave for 7 days (no shaking required) and hey presto stick it in any deisel motor including your van and drive away to your hearts content. As long as you use a ‘non petroleum’ based spirit you wont have to pay excise. Works out about 20-26 pence a litre to make. very little emissions , no SO4 etc, does smell like chips a bit though.

Measurements need to be very precise, do not attempt with new oil, the constant reheating in chippies alters characteristics of vegetable oils, sunflower, groundnut etc. I also have a recipe for making top grade deisel from coconuts but they are obviously not available in quantity in uk.

You can check this out on a very small scale, your bound to have 97ml of old chip oil on the cooker. descent hardware shop can provide white spirit.

Plz dont mail me about how this works chemically or you’ll have to read through reams of stuff and listen to me shiting on for weeks.

Trust me i’m a doc it works

97ml of old oil to 3 ml non petroleum white spirit, leave for 7 days minimum, put in van, drive to secret location, fill gensets, spark up rig, partyeeeeeeee.

oh dont forget to invite me to first chip fat powered party!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh by the way, this bio-deisel can be mixed with ordinary petroleum based deisels safely and engine will run the same, some slight power loss on bio-deisel alone… estimated 1-2% loss.

Hi General Lighting,
sorry I should have stated this in post. Non petroleum based white spirit is actually Turpentine… turpentine actually comes from trees. I’ve added a couple of links for info including sources but you should be able to get this from a proper old fashioned hardware shop.. Strictly speaking this is not bio-diesel, as bio diesel is regulated and guaranteed by manufacturers. Mr Diesel’s first car ran on veggie oil late 1800’s (fuckin oil companies).

Turpentine…What is it?…… Beware do not use turpentine substitute it’s mineral based i.e. petroleum based. ‘Turpentine substitute’ is what you find in DIY and Decorators shops (fuckin oil companies again, lol)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turpentine

source 1
http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/viewprod/b/BIRGTURP/

source 2
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/find;a;1;ID;;eclDrill;1208

safety notes
http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/MSDS/TU/turpentine.html
http://ptcl.chem.ox.ac.uk/~hmc/hsci/chemicals/turpentine.html

Hope this helps. I suggest once you’ve made a batch, test it down the local car scrappy, i’m sure they’ll oblige and let you try it on some old banger.