making a mini-rig for a small free party?

This topic has 15 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated May 23, 2007 at 10:03 pm by Tocooltom.

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May 6, 2007 at 6:58 pm #1041243
superpomme
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Trying to put on a little free party for about 30-40 people so nothing too big at all,. How does one go about getting music at one of these things, i think a generators out cause its underground, tho its a pretty massive place. I have big computer speakers that would do, and various laptops / mp3 players to put the music on, i also have a car battery and car stero to mess about with, what does anyone suggest for this? how do you go about powering a speaker system. Im looking for stuff as on the cheap as possible here heh, is it actually viable or is it not worth trying?

have lots of time to mess about with this stuff, but just dont know whats the best bet. if i were to just go with a generator can you hire them relatively cheap and hook up normal speakers to them or will they blow it? my friend just muttered something about impedences and how it was all going to end in disaster, but im willing to give it a try lol.

any help welcome, and sorry if this all sounds too newbish or if someones gone over it before (i gave a quick search and read the faq but didnt find anything)
May 6, 2007 at 7:04 pm #1104357
superpomme
Participant
oh i was also thinking, a friend had a setup their bf had ade for them a while back which was powered by mobility scooter batteries. just a thought to add to the mix.
May 6, 2007 at 7:06 pm #1104350
General Lighting
Moderator
its been discussed a while back but from the angle of making a battery-powered/eco friendly sound system rather than a “mini-rig”, although its essentially the same concept.

I suspect you realise that running the genset underground puts everyone at danger from CO (Carbon Monoxide) poisoning, it would have to be situated outside the target venue if you did use one

if you want to make a mini-rig running from low voltage supplies, try this website

http://www.c-realevents.demon.co.uk/

I have met the guy who runs this (many years ago now) and he knows his stuff, and is also good at explaining the various technical/electronic concepts to people without making it too complicated.
May 8, 2007 at 7:08 pm #1104355
fruitisbad
Participant
im sure my friend was saying something about power inverters that you can plug into car batterys and run otherstuff from. not sure how long theyd last though.

were thinking of rigging up a car stereo into a small cab and fitting it into one of those grandma shopping trolleys for portable sounds. something like that might work?
May 8, 2007 at 7:47 pm #1104358
superpomme
Participant
what do you mean by the small cab?

i found this this which is of some interest, all about different batteries for running a ups off:

http://www.dansdata.com/diyups.htm
May 8, 2007 at 8:57 pm #1104351
lemonzorba
Participant
rinky dink is another eco sound system – run off a bikeraaa
May 9, 2007 at 1:18 am #1104359
superpomme
Participant
http://www.gizoo.co.uk/Products/TravelLeisure/Motoring/PowerInverter.htm

is this what you mean by the power inverter? this seems to be for the fag lighter tho, you rec its easy to hook it up to the bare battery?

does anyone have any idea how long a car battery would power a set of speakers.
May 9, 2007 at 6:42 pm #1104363
Tocooltom
Participant
Check out ebay n get yurself sum speakers, and an amp, get yurself a generator from sumwer, plug it all in, whack yur ipod or laptop on, and bob is yur dads sister, u hav got sum music!
May 10, 2007 at 1:17 am #1104352
woppitt
Participant
superpomme wrote:

Trying to put on a little free party for about 30-40 people so nothing too big at all,. How does one go about getting music at one of these things, i think a generators out cause its underground, tho its a pretty massive place. I have big computer speakers that would do, and various laptops / mp3 players to put the music on, i also have a car battery and car stero to mess about with, what does anyone suggest for this? how do you go about powering a speaker system. Im looking for stuff as on the cheap as possible here heh, is it actually viable or is it not worth trying?

have lots of time to mess about with this stuff, but just dont know whats the best bet. if i were to just go with a generator can you hire them relatively cheap and hook up normal speakers to them or will they blow it? my friend just muttered something about impedences and how it was all going to end in disaster, but im willing to give it a try lol.

any help welcome, and sorry if this all sounds too newbish or if someones gone over it before (i gave a quick search and read the faq but didnt find anything)

howabout a big getto blaster and run a power cable from the battery compartment to a car starter pack thats what we use when were just havin a chill in the woods works fine…….or u can buy a cheap little 1k genny for about 40 -50 squid
May 10, 2007 at 10:16 am #1104349
Anonymous
woppitt wrote:

howabout a big getto blaster and run a power cable from the battery compartment to a car starter pack thats what we use when were just havin a chill in the woods works fine…….or u can buy a cheap little 1k genny for about 40 -50 squid

wel we wanted a small party so we got a small sound lab setup, 500 watt speakers £70 each small amp £100 as matey js said 40-50 for small gen and ur away !:weee:
May 11, 2007 at 12:17 am #1104360
superpomme
Participant
yea im a bit stuck from using a genny tho cause its all underground, and its way too far from a car to be able to hook that in tho. might jsut resort to one of those 80s boombox things and a sackload of D batteries 🙂
May 20, 2007 at 10:24 pm #1104353
mikesimmonds
Participant
Hi there, if you want to run sound from batteries your gonna need quite a few!
-a normal car battery has 40 amp hours (will run 40 amps for an hour or 1 amp for 40 hrs)
-a car battery is as you know 12volts
-the power of most soundsystems is rated in watts, which
is the number of volts mulitplied by number of amps
– so a car battery will give you 40amps x 12v = 480watts but only for 1 hr per battery – this is the maximum power you’d get out of the battery you could run it at 100 watts for nearly 5 times longer, but this still doesn’t take into account lights, computers, cd players etc that you might use..

if you want more help me an fruitisbad (posted above) are trying to knock something similar together so we could maybe swap ideas..
let us know if it works!!
May 21, 2007 at 6:55 pm #1104361
superpomme
Participant
hi yea id love to swap ideas, a friend was telling me last night that hes started working in a scrapyard and so im gonna enquire about taking a load of car speakers batteries and stereos and whatnot.
also i was just lookign at this:

http://www.netto.co.uk/internet/nettog/catalogue/catalogue.nsf/cd662d3aed59e6e241256be50037d291/a8a0d5aa0d2b0a83c12572d500553023/Body/0.7C?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg

how loud do you think that boombox thing would go? when i was looking around for boomboxes before everything seemed to be hugely expensive
May 22, 2007 at 2:58 pm #1104362
superpomme
Participant
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-Power-Inverter-300-900-Watt-Peak-AC-Mains-Invertor_W0QQitemZ110129783090QQihZ001QQcategoryZ76066QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

would that power speakers if i hooked it up to a car battery? does anyone know how long itd keep going for?
May 22, 2007 at 3:03 pm #1104356
starlaugh
Participant
I have been looking at this thread and never really thought but…….. me mate has used one of them inverter things to power a small sound system before, usually when camping at the Max-Power car show in Santa-Pod.

i know he said he had to keep his car running most the weekend to keep the battery running,

I will ask him how well it actually worked…… but i do know it couldn’t run much though as the out put seems low, the one he has does have a higher out put than the one on Ebay aswell.
May 23, 2007 at 10:03 pm #1104354
mikesimmonds
Participant
The Boombox thing would probably only give you around 5 Watts of music, might be alright in a small bedroom but would soon dissapear in a room full of people and even more outside..
The power inverter would output 300w so a car battery would last an hour and a half maybe. you might not need it on full power so you might get a couple of hrs out of it..
an inverter might waste a bit of your battery power but i’m not sure it would be much at all..
Tbh i think a 12v soundsystem might be the best way to go if there’s no chance of using a genny.. would you be able to have a generator outside and run a long extension cable down to the party?
Your Friend in a scrap yard will probably be pretty helpful for getting parts for the build nice an cheap.
Don’t suppose your in the midlands/warwickshire (i’m on the border like)

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