which inverter, or maybe UPS ?

[AdamJay]

i'm planning to do some video motion logo bombing for the club i work at. our club is downtown, i'm planning to hit the club-land "village" 10 miles north a few nights next week.

All i need to power is my BenQ projector which requires 275W max load. I'll use a portable DVD player or my MacBook Pro as the source.

any DC inverter recommendations to run off my 2002 VW Golf's battery ?

or perhaps a UPS battery backup that i could charge up ahead of time and get 60-90 minutes runtime off of ? Costco has a Tripp Lite UPS right now for $99. I think its this one (1000VA/500W) but i'm unsure of how much runtime i would get off of it.

any ideas?

[nutcracker]

Hi

I use a 600watt inverter which powers a 3200 lumen projector and a laptop power converter plugged into the cigarette lighter to power my macbook and it works really well for me, see clip

http://www.vimeo.com/clip:132903

[AdamJay]

alrighty, thanks for sharing, nutcracker... i'll look at 600w-1,000w inverters.

can anyone recommend specific inverters or at least brands?

cheers!!!

[PCProject]

Originally Posted by nutcracker

http://www.vimeo.com/clip:132903

was that opposite brighton railway station in the summer?

[sleepytom]

don't run an inverter from your car's starter battery without the engine running - you'll quickly damage the battery as they are not designed to be deep cycled.

Make sure the inverter you get is a "pure sine wave" square wave or modified sine wave inverters may damage the power supply in your projector.

UPS systems are really not designed to run equipment for long periods - i'd recommend a good inverter over a UPS.

if you need to be able to move away from your car or run without the cars engine on then you should get a deepcycle leisure battery and an inverter.

[nutcracker]

No i did that last weekend in Telford, Shropshire, projecting out of the windscreen from my van parked over the road.

It looked much brighter in real life, that was filmed using a canon ixus stills camera, wish i'd took the pd150 instead.

Since posting the clip on a local clubbing site i've had a few bookings come in to advertise local nightclubs & businesses on side of local buildings, problem is i dont know the law on this, i dont mind bending the rules a bit, but dont fancy losing my gear to plod.

[sleepytom]

the police won't confiscate stuff unless your really stupid / asking for it. This is true for completely illegal raves so projections of dubious legality will not be at all likely to cause a confiscation.

The most likely thing they'll be annoyed by is "obstruction of the highway" - if you can ensure their is plenty of space for cars and pedestrians to pass your projection site then chances are they'll leave you alone.

It's also worth looking professional - reflective yellow jackets and a few cones / fuckoff tape and the police will drive past and assume that you have permission

[deepvisual]

Originally Posted by nutcracker

i dont know the law on this, i dont mind bending the rules a bit, but dont fancy losing my gear to plod.

from westminster council...

due to a number of gorrilla projections onto famous
land marks of recent including Wellington Arch, senior officers have
directed planners to clamp down on enforcement and ensure the relevant
permission is sought.

If you intend to project anything onto xxxxxx you must obtain the
necessary permission from South Team Planners . Does not matter if it is an advertisement or piece of art, our
planners still need to see what is proposed. If it is art, I believe the
planners take guidance from the Art Council.


advice that is well worth ignoring. Unless you are happy to wait 6 months for approval.
Rumour has it that they are considering adding Guerilla Projections to the list of people deserving ASBOs - they have already hit flyposters - but I can't see it somehow.


its more down to either the building owners objecting or the cops being bored enough to see it as an easy way to spend the night at the station drinking tea and filling in forms.

if you see the cops coming, turn it off and move on. then they will just look stupid if they tell you to turn it off, so they wont even bother.

[nutcracker]

Approval...as if, lol

Thanks for the info deep, i'll make sure i'm careful and keep the engine runnig.

[AdamJay]

Originally Posted by sleepytom

don't run an inverter from your car's starter battery without the engine running - you'll quickly damage the battery as they are not designed to be deep cycled.

Make sure the inverter you get is a "pure sine wave" square wave or modified sine wave inverters may damage the power supply in your projector.

UPS systems are really not designed to run equipment for long periods - i'd recommend a good inverter over a UPS.

if you need to be able to move away from your car or run without the cars engine on then you should get a deepcycle leisure battery and an inverter.

thanks for the info. i definitely plan to keep the engine running, i'll be cruising at around 5mph-10mph as i project.

regarding legality, i haven't really heard of anyone video bombing in this city in quite some time. my contingency plan (aside from constantly being on the move) is to be able to switch instantly to an alternative graphic of our cities football team (uhhh. american football). The Colts. They're going to win the superbowl today, and the whole city supports them and i could easily not only get away with projecting their team logo around town... but I've already spoken to a few police officers that said such thing would be "kinda cool".

So, we'll see....