Battery power for sound system

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SteveM
Posts: 7763
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:18 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Battery power for sound system

Post by SteveM »

I need to provide a sound system at an event where there will be no power. Where we will be located is too far from any power and they won't let us run an extension.

Telling the event organizers where to go is not an option.

Sound will be an ------ player for part of it, and instrument / vocals for the rest.

Was thinking of running a spare stereo I have off an inverter and using a small mixer for the mics.

The stereo uses 100 watts (that's the power consumption, not the speaker wattage, which is likely to be something less than half of that), and the inverter I have is 400 continuous, 800 peak.

Read some reviews and some people did not like how it performed with electronics, saying that the sine wave isn't that good so you get hum/buzzing.

I also have a small camping generator, although it's not a Honda or Yamaha inverter generator, so I suspect that the power coming out of that is no better and perhaps worse.

I don't have any audio equipment that is powered by DC except a small amp powered by a 9v battery, which will give you an idea how small that is. .

Any suggestions?

Steve
STRR
Posts: 469
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 9:01 pm
Location: Westminster, CO

Re: Battery power for sound system

Post by STRR »

Steve,

Since you have the inverter and the inverter generator, why don't you set up the equipment and try them both to see if the comments are true or NOT? Then you'll have a good idea of where to go or use what you have.
SteveM
Posts: 7763
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:18 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Re: Battery power for sound system

Post by SteveM »

STRR wrote:Since you have the inverter and the inverter generator, why don't you set up the equipment and try them both to see if the comments are true or NOT? Then you'll have a good idea of where to go or use what you have.
Yea, I should run it before opening my mouth.

The generator I have is not an inverter generator; it's a small Coleman 1150 watts generator. A friend gave it to me because it fell down and wouldn't start. Turned out he bent the frame so bad, it shorted the engine kill switch in the off position.
ColemanGen1.jpg
ColemanGen1.jpg (7.34 KiB) Viewed 3687 times
Also have a larger Coleman 1500 watt camping generator, but this one has a fuel leak.
ColemanGen2.jpg
ColemanGen2.jpg (6.95 KiB) Viewed 3687 times
Seems that people give me broken stuff for some reason.

Steve
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warmstrong1955
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Joined: Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:05 pm
Location: Northern Nevada

Re: Battery power for sound system

Post by warmstrong1955 »

I have a stereo in my shop, that I have run off 'commercial power', my Generac 7500 generator, my Honda 2000 generator, batteries with a non sine wave inverter, and the last few years, batteries & solar charger and a pure sine wave inverter.

I can't tell the difference, or ever noticed any hum from any of 'em.
My hearing is not the best, but I would think I would notice.

May have something to do with the stereo involved? Mine is 100 watts p/channel. Draws about 150 when I have it loud enough to hear over the mill or lathe.
Don't know.

I like the try it & see idea!

:)
Bill
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
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steamin10
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Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 11:52 pm
Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: Battery power for sound system

Post by steamin10 »

I had an old Wards Airline stereo, with cheepy speakers. Had a need for a PA hookup out in the boonies, so I took an Auto battery and cut the leads into the secondary leads of the transformer. Since there was no sine wave and clean DC, It performed well for hours. I set it up (the battery) overnight with jumper cables to my truck, and ran it for about 20 minutes until the meter in the truck fell off, and it was cool for the next day. Only had one Mic plug tho, and used a cheapy ciramic from my tape deck for notations. Not high performance, but goo enough. It was harder to run the telephone wire on the trees, to get some separation on the speaker boxes.

My cassette recorder provided canned music for background, and it ran off a plug as it was battery, jumped off the main feed to the amp/stereo. We survived even with a light shower that passed through.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
hammermill
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Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: Battery power for sound system

Post by hammermill »

it will do well on the generator as i suspect it is goinging to put out a simple sine wave, inverters of the smaller sizes in my experence ted to run a sawtooth wave putput that some things tollerate and some donot.

as a side not radio shack had a line of pa amps that ran on 12v/110 power
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