Camping and charging detector batteries

Bugger, just arrived in Vic for a few weeks detecting, realised I left the 12V and the 240V GPX battery chargers back in S.A. So off to the shop tomorrow to buy another. May as well get the 12V one as I can charge from the car or van.

Should have forgot my toothbrush, would have been easier and cheaper to replace.

How about a deep cycle compared too car battery will that make any difference ??
My charger won't charge the Wm12 when on the deep cycle but will with a car battery.

I would have suggested a decent sized foldout 12v Solar panel to keep the car battery topped up
Assuming you have the room in the car to stow it.

This then doubles up for using a 12v fridge when your away but wanting a nice cold drink !

VERY IMPORTANT
NEVER start your car while detector is charging, it can spike your detector. remove charger- start car, then reconnect charger

Never Charge in to the Bush, you might tread on a snake or fall down a mine, lol :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

John.

I'm going camping over the Xmas break and I want to be able to recharge my laptop phone and detector. From my research I believe I need a pure sine wave generator/Inverter to safely protect my sensitive electronics.from being fried by a spike. Can anyone help me on this! What works 4 U?

One method is use a USB charger from your car's cig lighter socket and have a solar panel connected to the car's battery during the day.
There's a few ways to do it but it really depends on your vehicle, your budget and if you plan to drive to town or a wood patrol daily (charge while driving) which is the cheapest method.

I basically do the same as ProspectorPete. USB charger in cig lighter. Detector will charge overnight no problems at all as well as charge iPad and iPhone. The laptop may be an issue if it requires more than 12v to charge (some are 18v/22v).

4x4 super center have 160w solar panels very cheap, cheaper than a generator, add a deep cycle battery, and a 3 way CIG plug , USB adaptator, and you have a fridge run, charge the pH, lappy and detector pretty much all at the same time. All up about $350-$400.

Based on past experience, more info please.

What detector/battery do you have?
What laptop?
Kind of vehicle, aux. battery or not.

If you have what I think, a generator is overkill if that is all you have to charge. Although it is the simplest way and will protect your start battery if you don't have an auxilliary.

RobboChasinYella said:

I'm going camping over the Xmas break and I want to be able to recharge my laptop phone and detector. From my research I believe I need a pure sine wave generator/Inverter to safely protect my sensitive electronics.from being fried by a spike. Can anyone help me on this! What works 4 U?

Click to expand...

There are 2 approaches:

1. Provide 240V mains power from a battery using an inverter, then connect your existing chargers to the inverter output. There are 2 Inverter types - modified Sine wave and Pure Sine wave. For sensitive electroincs you need Pure Sine wave. Next you will need to 'size' the inverter accoring to your needs for power. If you have a lappy + detector + phone being chraged from an inverter then a 300W (watts) inverter will be fine. Note the inverter will draw more than this from your batter due to inneficiencies in its converting 12V to 240V. So it can use more (like 20Amps +) than a ciggy lighter can supply (10A) so connect the inverter directly to the car battery with croc clips.
This brings us to the downside of this approach...you can end up with a drained car battery.
This is why lots of 4WD have adual battery setup - one is kept isolated from the other so the main cranking battery can never be run down with 'house' accessory use.
If you dont want a dual battery setup consider getting a Battery Box soley to run the inverter and re-charge the battery box from a solar panel during the day.

2. Approach 2. Don't use a an mains power inverter but use a step up power supply (from jaycar etc). These units convert 12V car battery to various levels such as 19V for laptop etc etc. They are only about $75 for a unit than you can select differing voltages output and come with different connectors to use with all your devivces. Downside with this is you charge one device at a time unless you buy multiple step up devices which is a not usually worth doing. They also consume far less power than a mains inverter so you can use ciggy lighter socket and less likely to drain battery.

Personally I have a battery box + solar panels and step up convertor as per Approach # 2.
I do have a Pure Sine Wave inverter but in 3 years have never used it except for a dremel to do some field repairs.

Ho Ho Ho etc!

ODNT

What about something like this and a small solar panel to keep costs down.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/89800mA...d=142596546873&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982

Guys, just charge from your 12V car ciggy socket each day.
If you look on ebay, you'll see lotsa chargers for your particular PC and phone - doesn't matter if they're 19V etc, they use simple inverters - low cost technology these days.

Thanks for all the advice guys. Really good info there

By the way I have a Gpx4500 lenovo think pad laptop and Sony experia phone. Car is a o5 vectra with a broken cigarette lighter ha ha ha damn it. Must fix it I guess lol

This will charge your GPX


This will charge your Thinkpad


This will Charge your phone


and, this is what you need to do all 3 at once (within the load limit of your car


As I said before, do it while driving as much as possible to avoid the start battery from going flat.

Or one of these will do your phone 4 times, or your phone and lap top.
Cost $27.

Hi together,

we are going out for the first time prospecting in WA. Our plan is to stay sometimes two or three days at a patch.
So the question about charging our detector batteries and equipment came in front. How do you solve this ? Using a Solar panel or generator ? What is the most cost efficient solution if you are not going the whole season ? We will stay around 6 weeks.

Additional would also be interesting if you use this solution too for charging the second car battery for cooler and fridge.

Thank you very much for your help in finding a good way for this important point.

Regards Marc

If you already have the fridge and dual battery I'd recommend going the solar route. Less weight and less fuel needed, probably cheaper in the end too.
Grab a DC-DC charger with a direct solar input if you don't have one already, the Projecta IDC25 is a popular one that's lighter on the wallet, it can charge the secondary battery from both the alternator and the panel depending on whats available. You can easily wire the solar input to a Anderson plug, then you can shop around for a solar panel that fits your needs, flexible, folding, permanent mount, etc.
I use this setup to keep my secondary battery and detector battery charged along with keeping the fridge cold.
You can also use a basic solar regulator instead of the DC-DC charger which is cheaper but they won't preform the fancy charging cycles to keep your battery topped up and in best health.

The GPX batteries are easy with their 12v chargers and I'm sure there are 12v or USB powered chargers for standard battery sizes out there.

some people just use a portable 12v battery power box with a foldup solar panel or blanket