How to power a large Kino-flo with battery?

J

jackcklam

Active member
I am prepping for an upcoming shoot with some gun-and-run scenes at night. I'm looking for a larger soft source to light the subject that runs on battery to keep it mobile.

A 4'x4 Kino with some 216 diff would fit the bill in terms of the look that I want. Considering its lower amperage requirement, how hard is it to hook it up to battery?

If Kino isn't viable, what other lighting unit would you suggest?

Jack
 
Let's see, that fixture draws about 4.6A, say 500W. Car batteries produce maybe 100-200 Amps for an hour. So with a proper inverter and a small car battery you should be in business. I don't know how long you could run a KinoFlo before the battery voltage dropped too low to run it. In my experience batteries never produce what the theory says, though, so I'd test one of these babies before you go off believing you have 20 hours of Kino use on a charge.
 
slondon said:
Let's see, that fixture draws about 4.6A, say 500W. Car batteries produce maybe 100-200 Amps for an hour. So with a proper inverter and a small car battery you should be in business. I don't know how long you could run a KinoFlo before the battery voltage dropped too low to run it. In my experience batteries never produce what the theory says, though, so I'd test one of these babies before you go off believing you have 20 hours of Kino use on a charge.
Click to expand...

You have to look at the efficiency of the inverter and the max peak output. While an inverter may state 200, 500, whatever Watts output, when the device is powered on there is often a surge, and the inverter doesn't have enough umpf to power the device.

I'd recommend an inverter that's has a watt rating about 2x the 'desired', just for such occasions.

So, if the light is 500W then get a 1000W inverter. I don't think this is one you'd pick up at Walmart... or Autozone...

One way to minimize the surge, is to divided the devices that are being powered up, and sequentially power them, so that for each 'power on' there is less surge, and once at their steady state operation, will not demand over current.

I don't know if the Kino-flos of interest have the ability to power on the individual tubes like that.
 
How about an LCD light ... here's a 500w you can diffuse and it takes considerably less power -

led-512-1_2_4.jpg
The LEDs which are rated at 25,000 hours and.the light output levels are more than double our previous offering! On mains with the supplied adapter, with Mains @ 120VAC the unit consumes 48.5W, 0.6A and has a power factor of 0.7.
 
It really depends on what your local rental house has in stock, but I know two easy options for battery powered units.

As mentioned before, a 1x1 LED lite panel. Lot of output, but not quite as big of a source as a 4x4 kino. You can always throw it through a 4x4 frame of 216 instead of clamping it on the doors. The plus of this is the V-mount batteries. Super clean and user friendly way to power your light.

Another option is a 400 watt battery powered joker. I'm sure this guy puts out more than both the 1x1 and the 4x4 kino, and you can use it as a hard source, or stick a soft box on it and have it be something a bit softer. Usually you can just get a battery belt and a little inverter to hook into the ballast.

If you really want to run it off of a car or something, I'd reccomend getting an inverter that clips onto the battery terminals. I've seen inverters like this that go up to 750 watts, and a while ago I can remember powering two 4x4 kinos off of my car battery....with this method you probably will end up killing someones car battery, or you'll have to leave the car on for the duration of the shoot, and I don't think sound would be too excited about that. I think the first two are probably your best bet.
 
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