[cma-l] Mains power where there ain't any!

[Eddie Winship]

I don’t think that I’m the first person in the world to have thought of this but I haven’t seen any reference to it here and the info might be of some use.

Reading4u ( www.reading4u.co.uk ) had a stall at an outdoor event last Saturday. We wanted to play recordings of some shows but we were miles from any electricity source! 

I had one of these starter packs for my car (these thingies that have two cables with clips for when you have a flat battery) and noticed that it had a standard cigarette lighter socket as well. I also owned an inverter (a gadget that boosts a car battery output to 240 volts a/c). 

Voila! I plugged the inverter into the starter pack and we had enough power for a laptop and a Roland powered monitor for 4 hours. Could probably have got longer if we had used the laptop on its own battery until that ran out.

Cost of starter pack - £50, inverter - £25. Considering the number of outdoor events we attend, a worthwhile investment.

You can operate the inverter straight from a car battery but you’re not always allowed a car on-site and there is the danger of finishing up with a flat battery!

I guess if we had one of these dongles that give you wi-fi internet connection, we could have broadcast live!

Hope this helps someone, somewhere

Eddie
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