Need some help

[iPhonefreak]

Hi everyone. I'm the manager of our broadcasting team at my school and we just did our first softball game yesterday. There are no outlets out there so we have to run off battery power. And that didn't work so good. So, I'm trying to find something that can hook up to a USB port and have an outlet attached to it so we can plug in. Like the car shatters, except for USB ports. It can also be an adaptor to hook to the 3 prong charger and make it a USB plug in and plug it in.

Thanks.

 

[Atrox]

Don't you have access to like a wheel of wire that plugs into an outlet and you just thread it into the room you're using and plug whatever you need in?

Sorry, I'd get you a picture but I don't exactly know what to search. Sorry If I'm not being much of help..

 

[iPhonefreak]

We are outdoors on a softball field.

 

[Atrox]

Oh, sorry I didn't read it properly.. If you had a "budget" my only suggestion would be to buy a load of batteries for your equipment, you can get cheap replicated versions from China.

 

[iPhonefreak]

What type of batteries? Car batteries or durcell batteries?

 

[Atrox]

I don't know, just go and search whatever the hell you'd like and see the shippings from china, I thought you were talking like Laptops mainly. Anyways there's allot of cheap stuff that get's shipped from China from official company's, check ebay.

 

[iPhonefreak]

No, what I want to do is have a small thing that hooks up to a USB port and it leads to a 3 prong outlet, so I can charge whatever I want on it.

 

[InRomoWeTrust]

Buy an extension cord?

 

[iPhonefreak]

We have plenty of extension cords, but that would require running it across the road.

 

[froggyboy604]

Would it be possible to make tall wooden stands for the extension cord, so the power cords can hangs over the road like a power poll which hang power cables over the road and sidewalk, so they are not touching the floor?

A gas power generator may work, but you need to buy gas, and gas generators are expensive unless you know someone who own one because or can rent one from a hardware store like Lowes or the home depot.

 

[Venom]

Quite easy, Get a usb adapter that plugs in the wall/plug socket.

You cant just join a cable, as usb is ~5volts.

 

[iPhonefreak]

Would it be possible to make tall wooden stands for the extension cord, so the power cords can hangs over the road like a power poll which hang power cables over the road and sidewalk, so they are not touching the floor?

A gas power generator may work, but you need to buy gas, and gas generators are expensive unless you know someone who own one because or can rent one from a hardware store like Lowes or the home depot.

No, good idea though. 🙂<br /><br />-- Mon Apr 15, 2013 5:31 pm --<br /><br />

Quite easy, Get a usb adapter that plugs in the wall/plug socket.

You cant just join a cable, as usb is ~5volts.

We don't have an outlet.

 

[Venom]

Ah ok, Maybe run iIt off some car batterys, can you give me a list of what you need powering and ill work out what you need. 🙂

 

[mav3n]

Well, something that you can do is just buy a power inverter that would convert the 12V that would come out of a car adapter(cigarette lighter) to the standard 3 pronged house outlet. One would cost around $40. You would have to get a car that could park near the camera and just sit there with the adapter plugged in. I don't know if having a USB would allow that much power to go through it efficiently. I mean for god sake, the laptops at my university won;t charge my iPad plugged into USB, much less a camera.

Using the inverter would be easier because if you had the USB coming from the camera, you could then use am AC charger to plug the other end of the USB into and plug that into the inverter in the car.

Something that you can't do is just strip one end of the USB and slap on an outlet, which it sounds like you want to do. Number one, they are two different types of connections, so a AC USB would be needed.

 

[Venom]

The problem With a Inverter, Is you have to keep the engine running or it drains the battery.

 

[iPhonefreak]

Ah ok, Maybe run iIt off some car batterys, can you give me a list of what you need powering and ill work out what you need. 🙂

Just a camcorder and a laptop. 🙂

 

[mav3n]

The problem With a Inverter, Is you have to keep the engine running or it drains the battery.

This is true. However, with a low voltage inverter, it wouldn't drain it as quickly. Besides, without knowing the amps that the camera needs, it wouldn't drain it as quickly. Besides, if this wasn't the case, park the car somewhere in the parking lot, and just run an extension cord from the parking lot to the location of the camera to reduce the noise.

Something that you can also do is just buy a power pack and hook the USB to it.

 

[Venom]

Can you check what voltages they run off, I mean AFTER theyve passed through the charger, should be a low voltage...

 

[mav3n]

Dennis, using a car battery would be too much power for the camera and the laptop. They are used for short bursts for turning over a large engine. Using an SLA might be better.

 

[iPhonefreak]

Can you check what voltages they run off, I mean AFTER theyve passed through the charger, should be a low voltage...

It's at school. It's a 6W battery on the laptop and not sure about the camcorder.