Stoker Battery Power


 
RDOwens

RDOwens

TVWBB Super Fan
I am trying to determine an inexpensive manner in which to power a Stoker by battery.

Harry Soo uses a Duracell Powerpack. They run over $100.

I don't know electricity well. I have seen where some say you can't just plug a Stoker into a 12V outlet, yet isn't that what the Powerpack has?

Just want to control a couple fans on a deck that has no convenient outdoor outlet. I would prefer not to run extension cords.
 
Can't help you RD, just wanted to say it's nice to see you posting, I've missed seeing your fine cooks and input.
 
I believe the Stoker requires an input of 5Vdc which is then dropped internally to 3.3Vdc. Placing 12Vdc on the input very well could cause the voltage protection to operate...
I also believe those that use the Duracell units, plug their Stoker's AC Adapter into the Duracell unit's AC inverter (120Vac) output.

Starting with a 6Vdc battery, one could add a 5v regulator (Zener diode comes to mind) to arrive at the required 5Vdc for the Stoker. A couple of these batteries, wired in series would take care of the 12Vdc fans.
 
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We purchased a Duracell Powerpak 600 back in early 2008 and it worked well...for a while. The supplied AC recharging adapter failed within a few months. We purchased a replacement directly from the manufacturer which also failed within a few months. Lesson learned. We never had much luck getting a full charge out of the DC option either. Don't know why, but that's the way it was.

Since we had been drawn to compete at The Jack that year, and having learned that power at The Jack was sketchy at best, we decided to take the plunge and purchase a Honda EU2000 generator which we have used when necessary at comps since that time.

This year, we decided to purchase another power inverter and selected a Schumacher XP2260W. The price at the time of our purchase was about $85 at Walmart. I just checked and the price for that unit right now is $129 at Walmart and Amazon. The XP2260 can be found at Lowe's for $109. I didn't find any information listing a difference between the two models so it could just be that Lowe's just left off the letter W in their listing.

The Schumacher has worked well as a Stoker power supply and has driven as many as four blowers at once with very little drain on the unit. It has also performed very well as a portable jump starter! It has been easy to recharge and I think it is a very good alternative to the Duracell product.
 
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