We have used the car start jump boxes for years now. But something has changed and they are not holding up like they used to.
What do you use? How long will it run your robot? Where can I get it?
I have a pretty slick system I bought from a guy named Charles Towne about 10 years ago. We call it a "bag battery", it's a custom made canvas bag with a old-person-scooter battery, a charger input, and a cable with the gun's power connector. Ours works with the 600/5600/Focus 10 type robots. I don't know if they make it for other robots, but I like it. I was kind of expensive at first, but you can replace the scooter battery a lot cheaper than what Trimble charges for it's batteries, so it's paid off in the long run.
It's been a long time since I talked to him, but I found his Linkedin Profile. I don't have a linkedin account so I can't get his contact info. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/charles-towne/14/8a1/460
The car charge batteries are my backups also. They have a shelf life just like any battery and need replacing after time.
The Schumachers have been very dependable and have safety features built in to keep from shorting out and causing fire or burnouts of your units.
I have one offbrand that was picked up at an auto store near a project that I've had for 6mos that is failing badly.
Snoop,
I have a Topcon GPT8005A robot,. and I use the Topcon external battery converter, and a Werker 7.5Amp, 12 Volt sealed battery from Batteries Plus. The battery was around $38 including tax, and the last one ran my robot for about 18 months, with pretty heavy usage. It will run it for about 2 days when new, between charges.
The battery does require a special charger, about $25, but it will not over charge the battery. I put all this in a $20 camcorder bag from Walmart, and I'm good to go.
Hope this helps.
Jimmy
I have a customer who uses a deep cycle motorcycle battery and seems to be pretty happy with it. If you ever need a custom cable built to hook it up theres a company called Western States Cabling out of Utah that makes us a lot of good quality cables. Just look for the highest amp hour battery you can get with a weight you dont mind hauling around.
I use the PST-BP200-HR9-12 from PowerStream. It's a small lead acid battery with a nice carrying case. They have voltage converters also if you need one. Definitely better than the mini air compressor I was using.
I've been using the jump start boxes for 3 years to power my Leica TCRA 1105 with a custom y-cable western states cabling built for me. As of late I've been looking for a setup that would hang on the tripod leg, but don't want to spend $400-$500 for the Leica "Red Brick", charger and Cable's. GPAC makes a "tripod pack" that is rated at 2.3 amp hours, but I wasn't sure how much run time that would give me. I would be happy with 6 to 8 hours.
Here's the link to the GPAC batteries:
my guess would be you would get about 10-12 hours or so out of it. Its two 12 volt batteries wired parallel so the amp's double to make it a 4.6mah battery total.
Stupid question, maybe, but doesn't the wire get wrapped up around the robot?
The place it plugs into is below the rotating section of the robot.
Don't forget to include the proper external fuse.
JRL
Go to "batteries our us "and get a 12 volt 12 amp/h wheel chair battery . They will each hold about 6 hours and will last a year . they cost around 40 bucks . I used this setup for years with the APL1-A . they are also small enough to put in a back pack .