Home made light

[GlassStarz]

I dropped my light last year and was 50 miles from home so i stopped at Wallyworld and bought a small 12" uv/blacklight they sell in the auto dept it runs on AA batteies or plugs into the cig lighter they are made for the srteet racer crowd to stick in the windows it came with 2 suction cups to attach to the window cost $9.95 worked so well I never replaced the old one and now have 3

[gold star wsr]

Go to radio shack and get you a 40 watt power converter... pretty cheap... works in any cigarette lighter/12V outlet ... then you can power up a number of things, not just the lamp.

[glassdoctor]

40 watt inverter? Ha, ha... that's for sissies! he he he

Good idea... every WSR guy should have an inverter in the car. Most standard chargers are 110V... dremels, etc.

What you need is at least a 400 watt inverter if not @ 1000W :0
Actually, even with a small one you can power things like slow battery chargers for drills, etc...

I have several inverters.... one big one to power big drills/grinders etc., like for glass and headlight polishing. And I just like gadgets. You can't have too many.

ps. Sams Club has a 400/500 watt inverter for @ $28. That's probably the best deal out there, unless you find a clearance or surplus item. Inverters typically cost about $.10 per Watt or more.

[Ridge Runner]

I have a 140 watt power "inverter" that plugs into the cigarette lighter & it pops the circuit breaker if I try to use a 75 watt incandesent work light. My every day inverter is a 1,000 watt Cobra.The only tool that's ever given the Cobra a problem is a hair dryer. It even charges my 500 amp portable power supply/jump starter.

[glassdoctor]

Hey, ridge, what knd of charger do you use on the jumper pack? Usually they only have a 500mah-1 amp charger... about any size inverter should work with that.

Btw, I just charge my jumper batteries by plugging them into the vehicle's 12V system, such as a lighter socket. Think of them as a small auto battery.

You must have a bad 140W if it can't power a light bulb...

[CPR]

I have a 1000 watt 2 stroke generator that I picked up during the hurricanes, dont use it every day but it will run just about anything you want to plug into it.

[Ridge Runner]

glassdoctor,Please forgive the slow response.Was an unusually long day.The jump starter is from Wally World.It has jumper cables,two 12 volt accessory plugs & a built in charging port in back & a low voltage alarm,which must have the 5 amp fuse installed to work.It also has low,medium,high LED indicators for charge condition.A few weeks ago,the low charge alarm was sounding,so I removed the fuse & forgot it.I'd say you're right about the 500mah-1amp built charger,because I remembered to plug it in last weekend & it took more than 24 hrs to go from red light to green.I have two of the Delta type,12 volt,2.5Ah batteries,which I recharge using their charger.Will have to try the vehicle's 12 volt system.I use these all the time.The jump starter is a back up.As for the 140 watt inverter,it is a whistler,given to me by a WSR client,so yes it may be bad. Getting back to the actual theme of this thread,my home made light is made from the overhead lighting fixture of a T2000 Kenworth sleeper. I wired in a 6ft pigtail & a cigarette lighter type accessory plug.It has two GE #F15T8-BLB blacklight tubes.It works well on long cracks.

[glassdoctor]

RidgeRunner, I don't think you should plug the Dewalt batteries into the lighter socket. It's fine with gel cells, which is what is inside all the jumper pack type devices. Some of these jumper batteries even come with a "charge cord" that is just a cord with lighter plugs on each end... one in the battery and one in you car's 12V socket.

The Dewalts nickel cells are a different animal. It would probably pull too much current and either get hot or blow the lighter fuse. I'm not sure of this, but I know it can't be good. Maybe I will try it and find out. Hmmm....

I have played with NiCds and NiMh batteies for a long time and have had dozens of cool chargers, but I have never tried to charge a 12V battery direct from a vehicle system.

If I never post here again, you kno what happened to me.

[glassdoctor]

BTW, if you like electronic stuff and want a cool custom battery/charger setup for any 12V cure lamp lmk.

My cure lamps are now "cordless" 12v lights... no long cords and silly lighter plugs to fumble with.