Another Project Box: warning and spot light in a box

Jarred J.

Jarred J.

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May 21, 2010
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Shelbyville, TN
So i cant find the thread now, and dont remember the website some one posted a few months back but it was essentially a pelican case with a "spotlight" and some brands warning light on it... They wanted around $300 for it..

I decided i would build one for S&Gs and see how low i could get the price to do.


Materials involved.
Harbor Freight Apache 1800 case. $9.99
Feneix Am 900 $39.99
Feneix T3 $29.99
9AH AGM Battery $20.00
SAE Panel Mount $16.00

Various wires, connectors, momentary and on/off button, fuse, connectors, heatshrink, vary depending on what you keep on hand or suppliers purchased from but you could add about $20 for all that .

Total $ 135.97

obviously using a pelican case will definitely add to these expenses due to their prices alone.. but not to bad...
 
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A shot of the T3 and the pattern change button

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"Control Panel" SAE panel mount, 2 on off buttons, volt meter and momentary to push to check voltage

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Switches activates

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SAE panel mount open
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Folded up and ready to go

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The Guts


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Momentary switch for pattern change

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Volt meter lit up

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walk around...


Shot of the light pointed at an object ...

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And a front view

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Thanks!
 
Nice. I've been toying with the same idea. Mine was going to involve a 50cal ammo can, 2 2000lm work lights, a 35ah batt and 4 T3s.
Kind of a mutant child of these 2 old things....


218396218397
 
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Portable scene lighting.
 
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Krsdog25 said:
What exactly would you use this for?
Click to expand...


what sparky said, dont want to hold a flashlight for hours on end.. set it on the ground. need to change a tire or something on the side of the road at night and want to add a lil extra warning power if your laying on the ground.. set it down.. a few weeks back i had a friend of a friend who wanted to top a tree at night due to day time heat.. we lit up the bottom of the top of the tree with this and then used high powered flashlights for the details of cutting. worked great..

@Nolines the original box i saw used what looked like a sound off light.. as i stated "i wanted to make this as cheap as possible" If money is no object for you, contact me and i will work one out for your liking with whatever your hearts and wallet desires.. LOL
 
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No no I understood that, I just thought at least 3 corners of light would work well, wasn't sure of the draw, and it needs a battery charger or is it built in to just plug in, I would think that with a larger box and additional battery and wheels you could put a small pole or such for added height. Just thinking out loud..
 
ive seen a prebuilt case from some large manufacturer with that exact setup, it was like $1,500 to $3,000 i could use the new 5800 case harbor freight has, and if i could source the poles id make one myself..

another alternative is just buy the $10.00 stand at walmart, mount 2 12v lights to it, run a connector down the pole with a few extra feet and then just use a box to store batteries in to run that off of...


as you can see in the pic unless you move the controls around to the handle (where one might accidentaly turn one on) theres not really enough room for 3 sides of light.. leds draw different amounts depending on size shape and Amps.. vertex says fuse at 3 amps so figure maybe 2 amps, your looking at 7 A/h battery running 3 vertexs for a lil over an hour... not really practical...


i use a HF viking agm battery charger to charge most of my battery projects. it has the SAE plug on one end so i just plug in to the outlet on the box... if tey box was biger on the inside you could instasll a small solar charge controller and charge during the day and use at night or using the warning all day...
 
I have one of these: http://tuffledlights.com/product/k100-portable-remote-area-led-lighting-system/ I got it from their chinese supplier for $125 and replaced the battery with a higher capacity SLA, installed a 12v fed SLA charger so I just give it 12v, and installed some more reliable waterproof connectors for the light and the charging circuit. In my vehicle it is plugged into a circuit that is live when the vehicle is on, the built in charge controller prevents any overcharging and properly floats the battery. The charge controller is a Mascot 3044 LA that I found on ebay for dirt cheap that is made for SLA batteries.

Edit: The Pelican RALS charger is the Mascot 3044 LA, just cut the end off. http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-5...0001&campid=5338077216&icep_item=350606559031
 
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Jarred J. said:
... leds draw different amounts depending on size shape and Amps.. vertex says fuse at 3 amps so figure maybe 2 amps, your looking at 7 A/h battery running 3 vertexs for a lil over an hour... not really practical...
Click to expand...
Just an FYI, the vertex pulls a peak of .75A and averages .30A, so the run time would be better, but the Vertex is probably a waste of money in that application.
 
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Good to know but I pulled my number off of whelens PDF so that's what I gauged it by. :)
 
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