I’ve got a 15W black light I want to run with portable power. Has anyone ever successfully used a portable power station/power bank for this? Like a laptop charger or bigger? It looks like these are pretty rugged and can have a portable solar panel to boot. I’m wondering what brand might be worth trying (while I wait for my lepiled that is).
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I have a 10W UV globe that I use when I don’t have my usual 45W globe, and I run it on a standard power bank
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Yes, I routinely use a 240V power bank that comes with both the option to plug into a solar panel or car cigarette lighter to recharge. They are reasonably rugged and give me at least 3.5 hours for a 50W bug zapper bulb.
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I have hauled many lights and batteries into the wilds and nothing quite compares to a white gas 2 mantle lantern for total #s. The type of sheet spread under a christmas tree has a whitener that really
shines with a black light. shine a powerful flashlight strait up from the lantern to see LOTS of bugs or across a field to see waves of moths headed your way.
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If you happen to have any cordless power tools (Dewalt, Makita, Milwaukee, Ryobi, etc.) you can get an inexpensive adapter that turns your existing batteries into 5V USB power banks. These power tool batteries are usually much better quality than what’s inside your typical amazon.com power bank. This is what I use for portable USB power since I already have the batteries. examples:
Makita: https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/ADP05
Dewalt: https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcb090/12v20v-max-usb-power-source
Milwaukee: https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/49-24-2371
Ryobi: https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-ONE-18V-Lithium-Ion-Portable-Power-Source-P743/311937362
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I have a poweroak, power supply. Not cheap, about £400, but powers a 20w black light for about 8 hours via the 240v sockets.
Wow! Great idea. Thanks for the links too.
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That LepiLED looks great. A bit out of my budget as a hobbyist though sadly.
If you’re handy with electronics, this is a pretty easy thing to DIY - the parts should be about $50-100 depending on how you design it and how many / which LEDs you use. The LepiLED designer has a nice paper that talks about the design and LEDs/wavelengths used in their product - these are all commercially available from LEDSupply.com or other vendors. You can use aluminum bar stock or off-the-shelf heatsink and an old jam jar (or whatever) to house it.
Here is a very basic (UV-only) example, but if you can do some basic electronic design (or get someone to help) you can improve on this - use regulated LED drivers instead of resistors, switch out LEDs for different colors, etc.: https://cal-nature.squarespace.com/blog/2017/9/27/diy-moth-light - You should be able to make a functionally-equivalent DIY LepiLED for under $100. Still expensive but much more affordable to a hobbyist.
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