Need battery for computer and printer

CJones

CJones

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I have set up a 'mobile work station' down at our receiving line. I built a cart to house a laptop, label printer, and paper printer. I need a battery that can keep all of those things going for 8 hrs before being recharged.

Any ideas?
 
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Can you power the PC straight off of 12VDC with an airplane adapter? What voltage after the walwart is the printer?

Any idea of what the current consumption of your devices are?

If you cannot runt he stuff off of DC what are the power requirements of the devices with their ac supplies?
 
Motorcycle batteries. Cheap and available at Costco/Sams.

Batteries used in UPS units are also readily available through multiple outlets.
 
The laptop is a Dell Latitude D620, so it's pretty generic. I can probably get almost any power adapter for it.

The label printer is an Intermec PM4i (http://www.intermec.com/products/prtrpm4i/index.aspx). It shows a power draw of: 115/230VAC auto-switch with PFC. Power Input: 90-264VAC, 45-65MHz

The 'paper' printer is yet to be determined. I'm getting quotes for it now.
 
wsuffa said:
Motorcycle batteries. Cheap and available at Costco/Sams.

Batteries used in UPS units are also readily available through multiple outlets.
Click to expand...

Car and motorcycle batteries are built for a different duty - high current/short time and no deep discharge.

A deep cycle battery is built to go to 0- volts and come back charged up happy.

UPS batteries would be constantly float charged and then slowly run down rarely.

This is a charge/drain application. Deep Cycle.
 
wsuffa said:
Motorcycle batteries. Cheap and available at Costco/Sams.

Batteries used in UPS units are also readily available through multiple outlets.
Click to expand...

mikea said:
Car and motorcycle batteries are built for a different duty - high current/short time and no deep discharge.

A deep cycle battery is built to go to 0- volts and come back charged up happy.

UPS batteries would be constantly float charged and then slowly run down rarely.

This is a charge/drain application. Deep Cycle.
Click to expand...
Yep, what Mike said
 
mikea said:
Car and motorcycle batteries are built for a different duty - high current/short time and no deep discharge.

A deep cycle battery is built to go to 0- volts and come back charged up happy.

UPS batteries would be constantly float charged and then slowly run down rarely.

This is a charge/drain application. Deep Cycle.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I've had good luck with them as long as you don't regularly take them all the way to zero. YMMV

Last time I bought a marine deep-discahrge battery (for my place in the woods) it was available at Costco.

Keeping the deep discharge in mind, there are trolling batteries (and not the ones in Spin Zone ;) ) that are not much larger than some motorcycle batts.
 
smigaldi said:
hmm no current specs to be found. I looked. The thing looks big
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What you don't want is a laser printer with a current hogging fuser in it. Those things get hot and can draw all kinds of juice even when idle, although the consumer ones have power save features.

I have the finger burns and witnessed dimming lights to prove it. (Went to the emergency room immediately after seeing the red label showing the circle/line hand and the heat waves...and smelling my own burnt flesh.)
 
mikea said:
What you don't want is a laser printer with a current hogging fuser in it. Those things get hot and can draw all kinds of juice even when idle, although the consumer ones have power save features.

I have the finger burns and witnessed dimming lights to prove it. (Went to the emergency room immediately after seeing the red label showing the circle/line hand and the heat waves...and smelling my own burnt flesh.)
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That is what I am thinking. That printer is sucking up a lot of power. With the loss that one would also get with a big DC-AC converter you may need lots of batteries to keep it running for 8 hours.

Extension cord Chris! may be your best option if you are stuck with this printer.
 
It is a thermal transfer laser printer, so yes, it is a power hog. There will also be a desktop-sized laserjet to print standard sized documents.

The downside of an extension cord is that the purpose of the cart was to be 'mobile' so they can move along the receiving dock instead of traveling back-and-forth to their workstation.

I found this setup: http://www.newcastlesys.com/Power-Packages.asp with these prices http://www.barcodesinc.com/newcastle-systems/power.htm That'll eat up any extra headroom I have in my capital approval right now.

Guess I'll have to find a creative way to prevent people from tripping over an extension cord while moving along ~50' of receiving conveyor.
 
mikea said:
A deep cycle battery is built to go to 0- volts and come back charged up happy.
Click to expand...

Deep Cycle is the way to go if you want to use lead acid technology (which is probably best for your situation, cost wise) but they won't survive very long if you take them to"0 volts". Fully discharged, the voltage only drops to around 11 volts under load (or higher if no load) and even the deep cycle batteries aren't supposed to be discharged more than 70-80% of their capacity on a regular basis. "Deep discharge" means the battery will tolerate operating below 50% discharge, compared to starting batteries which should be limited to no more than 25% discharge.

To determine the battery capacity required you should take the desired capacity and add 25% for inefficiencies of the inverter and another 25% to limit the minimum charge level, and another 50% to mitigate the gradual loss of capacity over time. IOW buy twice the battery you think you need.

And AFaIK, UPS batteries are "deep discharge" types.
 
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What About an overhead extension cord similar to what you see on hoists?
 
gismo said:
Deep Cycle is the way to go if you want to use lead acid technology (which is probably best for your situation, cost wise) but they won't survive very long if you take them to"0 volts". Fully discharged, the voltage only drops to around 11 volts under load (or higher if no load) and even the deep cycle batteries aren't supposed to be discharged more than 70-80% of their capacity on a regular basis.
...

And AFaIK, UPS batteries are "deep discharge" types.
Click to expand...

Sure, Lance, jump on me for providing my limited knowledge until you came along to fix it.

As is the wont with any item with a rechargeable battery I own, my Norelco shaver died with no warning this morning. I had to plug it in to finish ma face.
 
roebuck85 said:
What About an overhead extension cord similar to what you see on hoists?
Click to expand...

This morning, I bought a 50' extension cord and automatic reel. We'll see if we can keep that clutter free for a bit, but the overhead power is a good idea!
 
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