Hi all,
I am a photographer looking for advice on how to power a studio flash system, on location using a battery/inverter combination.
I have a studio flash pack, about 10-15 years old, with no specification label on it. It is a 240v unit with a 5amp fuse, so clearly it uses less than 1200watts. It is basically a box of pretty big capacitors.
I want to run this from a 12v battery/inverter combination (petrol generators are apparently no good for this due to the dirty (spikey) supply they give, unless you buy an expensive one.
My flash pack is also fitted with a auto sensing input voltage thingy, which means I can plug it into a 110v or 240v mains supply without needing a transformer.
My questions are:
Apparently, one of the issues is that after the flash fires and the pack draws current, the voltage from the inverter drops slightly and confuses the voltage sensor causing it to not work.
Is this true? If I bought a 1500watt inverter, would this get around the problem since it is rated higher than the 1200watt flash pack?
I also understand that it will need a pure sine wave inverter, can anybody recommend a good make that is available in the UK?
Is there likely to be a way to bypass the voltage sensor, since I will only ever use the pack on 240v?
How dangerous to my equipment is it likely to be if I plug it into an inverter as an experiment? It's very expensive kit and I obviously don't want to brick it!
The makers of my lights used to make a switched mode power supply for it, which enabled you to run it from a 12v car battery. They don't seem to be available anywhere, either new or secondhand. Is there likely to be another unit that would work?
The switched mode unit has its' own socket, presumably to bypass the voltage sensor. Could a decent electronics engineer be able to work out what this socket requires and then either buy or make a switched mode supply that will work?
As you may have guessed, I only have a basic grasp of electronics (I'm just a lowly snapper), so I'll apologise now if none of this makes sense or if my questions are stupid!
I have a deadline for this, so I am panicking a little and any advice would be gratefully received and possibly stop me having a heart attack!
Thanks all
I am a photographer looking for advice on how to power a studio flash system, on location using a battery/inverter combination.
I have a studio flash pack, about 10-15 years old, with no specification label on it. It is a 240v unit with a 5amp fuse, so clearly it uses less than 1200watts. It is basically a box of pretty big capacitors.
I want to run this from a 12v battery/inverter combination (petrol generators are apparently no good for this due to the dirty (spikey) supply they give, unless you buy an expensive one.
My flash pack is also fitted with a auto sensing input voltage thingy, which means I can plug it into a 110v or 240v mains supply without needing a transformer.
My questions are:
Apparently, one of the issues is that after the flash fires and the pack draws current, the voltage from the inverter drops slightly and confuses the voltage sensor causing it to not work.
Is this true? If I bought a 1500watt inverter, would this get around the problem since it is rated higher than the 1200watt flash pack?
I also understand that it will need a pure sine wave inverter, can anybody recommend a good make that is available in the UK?
Is there likely to be a way to bypass the voltage sensor, since I will only ever use the pack on 240v?
How dangerous to my equipment is it likely to be if I plug it into an inverter as an experiment? It's very expensive kit and I obviously don't want to brick it!
The makers of my lights used to make a switched mode power supply for it, which enabled you to run it from a 12v car battery. They don't seem to be available anywhere, either new or secondhand. Is there likely to be another unit that would work?
The switched mode unit has its' own socket, presumably to bypass the voltage sensor. Could a decent electronics engineer be able to work out what this socket requires and then either buy or make a switched mode supply that will work?
As you may have guessed, I only have a basic grasp of electronics (I'm just a lowly snapper), so I'll apologise now if none of this makes sense or if my questions are stupid!
I have a deadline for this, so I am panicking a little and any advice would be gratefully received and possibly stop me having a heart attack!
Thanks all