Portable Battery Pack

I

idaho bruce

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Some time ago I purchased a portable battery pack for my Chargemaster. It was a self contained battery pack with 8 "D" cell batteries and the dc plug for the chargemaster. I do not remember who I purchased this unit from and I would like to get another one. Thanks for the help in advance.
Bruce

P.S. I have found that a person by the name of Jerry Hensler was what maker of the unitl. If we could get in contact I would greatly appreciate it.
 
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idaho bruce said:
Some time ago I purchased a portable battery pack for my Chargemaster. It was a self contained battery pack with 8 "D" cell batteries and the dc plug for the chargemaster. I do not remember who I purchased this unit from and I would like to get another one. Thanks for the help in advance.
Bruce

P.S. I have found that a person by the name of Jerry Hensler was what maker of the unitl. If we could get in contact I would greatly appreciate it.
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I think Radio shack keeps that type battery holder. You might check with them.
I make a power supply for the Chargemaster also, but use and prefer the rechargeable sealed lead-acid style battery for mine. Both certainly do work, though.
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How about a closeup of the plug, with an explanation of what part connects to the battery, or battery pack's positive pole? That might save someone some trouble.
 
We have a battery jumper pack at the city, that we use to jump start some of the older equipment that sits for a long length of time. Or a to jump a truck that's had the lights on all weekend. This is a normal jump pack, that you can buy at any auto or farm store. This pack I speak of, has a outlet built in the side of it. when I barrow it for shoots, I can plug my charge master right into the side of it. works great!
 
Boyd Allen said:
How about a closeup of the plug, with an explanation of what part connects to the battery, or battery pack's positive pole? That might save someone some trouble.
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Boyd, with mine it's plug-n-play. I make sure that polarity is correct and that the connectors can't be reversed in normal use. I also color code the terminal ends at the battery and the charger with red and black heat shrink tubing. This will be handy if/when battery replacement becomes necessary. That said, I've been using the same battery for I think 5 years, now on my personal units.

I use a female terminal on both the battery. The battery terminal stays on the battery and you simply use a male/male cord to jump from the battery to the scale/dispenser. The charger terminal is also male so that it plugs directly into the battery female terminal. The point of all of this is to make it as near foolproof as possible. The only way to mismatch the hot and ground is if you remove the terminal from the battery and or charger. And like I said, I color code them for ease of service when it finally does need it.

FWIW, the hot wire goes to the center pin on the scale. It's all very simple and neat. Battery power is actually better than the power coming from the factory wall wart that is supplied with the scale. They are designed to work with anywhere from 9-16 volts and the factory wall wart, being unregulated, jumps all over that range. Also, the supplied electricity from our homes has a certain amount of fluctuation. The battery acts as a line conditioner and filters out the fluctuations in both input and supplies smooth and steady output power to the unit.

I may try to do a video, such as the wonderful ones I've seen of yours, when I get time to.

The whole idea is the same whether you use the rechargeable SLA battery such as mine, or a battery pack for d cells, etc. I just like the setup that I use better but both work. I have no idea how long these will last, overall. As I said, my battery is about 5 years old. Run time is weeks, not hours, to keep it powered up. The current draw changes with the speed the motor is running at. I don't recall the specific draws but IIRC, a single charge will run it for like 27 hours. wide open, non-stop.

Replacement batteries are cheaper than D cells if you shop around. OTOH, Batteries Plus is about $30 for the same battery, which is way overpriced.
 
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Check out the Rockford Pocket Power. It includes a cable that works with the chargemaster. I used mine at the nationals last week you can run it for four days on one charge and charge a cell hone at the same time. It is about the size of two cigarette packs and can jump start a mechanical 7.3 with dead batteries.
 
This is the unit that I'm using now on my Chargemaster. Stealth Cam Battery Box. It comes with the correct polarity for the Chargemaster. You just have to hook up the red clip to the red post on the battery when you receive it and charge it for 20 hours. There is a separate port next to where the lead comes out of the battery box for charging the battery with the supplied battery charger that plugs into the port. It uses the typical 12 volt sealed lead acid battery that deer feeders use. This one has the advantage of coming inside a plastic box with a carrying handle. It's not original with me as Ron Sewell showed it to me last week at Seymour. Said that John Horn and Scott Hunter had gone to it as well. When I first started using a battery with the Chargemaster, I had questioned that the voltage for the AC adapter wasn't listed at 12V. Scott told me to check the voltage of the adapter with a volt meter and it's closer to 12V than whatever the rating is. The 12 volt battery works great as long as you don't get the polarity reversed. Reverse the polarity and you'll burn up a Chargemaster as quickly as you can turn on the power button. RCBS can not fix it after it burns up.
 
dalewoolumjr said:
Check out the Rockford Pocket Power. It includes a cable that works with the chargemaster. I used mine at the nationals last week you can run it for four days on one charge and charge a cell hone at the same time. It is about the size of two cigarette packs and can jump start a mechanical 7.3 with dead batteries.
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Those look nice and handy. Hard to imagine that much power in such a small package. The typical battery booster pack that starts cars uses SLA batteries. I'm curious what these use.
 
Here is How I Did It

I bought my holder sometime ago and if memory serves me correctly I paid $3.00 plus some shipping for a grand total of a little less than $10.00 online. Here is a box that is reasonable.....

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=8+d+cell+box&_sop=15

The box includes the leads attached. I had a spare ac converter with the correct plug. So I cutoff the converter and soldered the leads of the box onto the converter wires. Prior to soldering them, I slipped heat shrink tubing (of the correct size onto the individual leads and also a piece onto the main cord that would become the 'cable'. Prior to soldering, I verified the polarity of the converter wires.

I have been using the same batteries since this past February. The voltage has not dropped at all since I started using it.

Works for me.

Matt
 
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Thanks to all for your input to my inquiry...I just went the way of Amazon and got all the parts coming to build it. I have one and my brother wants one so I will be a good little bro and put one together for him. Again thank you..just show what a great bunch of people this forum has on it.
Bruce
 
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