Portable Power Supply

[Bill Stokes - Stokes Race Timing]

FYI... Bluetti is having a sale on my favorite power supply this weekend.  I bought this at $249 and its on sale for $209.  https://www.bluettipower.com/products/bluetti-eb3a-portable-power-station

It has enough power fully charged for a 5k/10k.  I use a Motorola 9500 with 4 antennas on it, a Netgear router, small timing clock and my laptop.   Having the freedom to set up anywhere is a great way to go.

[Brian Agee]

Thanks for sharing! A day or two before your post I had just bought two of these at $209 each because they look like they'll fit perfectly in a new timing box that I'm trying to make for my crews to make things easier for them. The new box will be way cheaper and easier to tote around than the white plastic boxes that we have now. When I get the box done, I'll share everything on the forum in case anyone else wants a simple, inexpensive, and easily portable setup. One of these Bluetti units is arriving at my house today, for some reason the other is arriving later this week. I'm excited to see what all it can power. I do know that it supports "pass through" power -  so you can power devices while it's charging - and it also acts as a UPS - which means that if power to it goes out, there is no momentary loss of power to the devices that it's powering. Those are two main things that I would look for in a portable power supply.  The LiFePO4 battery is also safer because it wont overheat and will last 4-5 times longer than a traditional lithium ion battery.

I know these are smaller units, and I know very little about electrical stuff, but if I'm not mistaken they output enough power to run a laser printer (see power output specs here). My hope is that this little unit can easily power the reader, laptops, TV(s), and the occasional print job and easily make it through a normal 5K race. If so, then these would be cheaper, lighter, quieter, and hopefully more dependable than gas powered generators. Obviously handling the printer may be too much, but if it can keep everything else at the finish line powered on reliably for hours then I would be thrilled. If these will keep a reader and laptop powered on for 6+ hours then these will be a great option for powering remote read points out on the course.

[William Sanchez]

I created these boxes and each of them handles one battery by Ego connected to an inverter (also by Ego), a router, power over ethernet switch, power strip, and laptop. They can last 8+ hours with one battery. I have three sets of alien reader/antennas, and additional antenna for each (6 total). The main finish timing box uses a Motorola fx9600 with two of the additional antennas attached, and has a mobile internet router for uploading results. This allows me to have up to 4 timing stations. All are easy to set up by my kids. Open the case, turn the power on the strip, laptop, and set up the antenna. 

I had to create them when I had an Navy Seal event that required timing at the start, a barge on the Hudson River in NY at the Statue of Liberty, a barge at Ellis Island, and the finish line in Manhattan by the World Trade Center. It forced my hand to create these self contained units.

Ego Inverter

https://egopowerplus.com/nexus-escape/

Ego battery

https://egopowerplus.com/battery-info

Cases from Harbor Freight

https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=weatherproof%20case

[William Sanchez]

I wish I had a cyber Monday link to paste here for the Ego batteries. I like Bluetti as well, but I'm kinda all in Ego right now.

[Bill Stokes - Stokes Race Timing]

Great job William.  Love the set up!

[Bill Stokes - Stokes Race Timing]

I think you'll find the laser printers will need their own power supply because the surge when you first power it up may cause a power reset .  This happened to me during a race once.  I lost reads until all the equipment came back on line.  I switched to a commercial Epson ink jet printer that doesn't surge and I run it on a very small 166wh portable supply.  The Epson printer I use is twice the size of the small lasers but it is just as fast and prints better.  The low power consumption is worth putting up with the size difference.  The portable power units are coming down in price so fast you can have one for just about every need.  I even power my inflatable arch on a 100ah marine battery and a 1500w inverter. That's a homemade set up.

[Craig MacIntyre]

Bill - thanks for posting ... I was using the same boxes Brian links to try and organize my readers/antennae.  This looks like a great option at a great price ... I ordered a pair!  I like it much better than a battery and inverter!  Cannot wait to see Brian's final setup as well

[Brian Agee]

I finished the first box yesterday. I'm pleased that everything was able to fit that I was hoping to put into it. Now that I know it all fits and appears to work well, I just ordered another batch of items and I'll create a step by step guide (and video) showing how I put everything together and why I chose those particular items. I should have everything by Saturday, so hopefully before this weekend is over I'll post a video showing the 2nd box being created.

My goal was to create a timing box that just about anyone can do by just drilling or cutting a few holes and screwing on some inexpensive accessories, then just placing the items they already have (reader, battery backup, antenna cables, etc.) in the box.

I wanted to avoid having to buy custom cable lengths, custom adapters, and then drilling 8 additional holes in the side of the box for external antenna ports. Those custom patch cables are VERY expensive and also I was concerned that the additional cable lengths and connectors would cause additional points of possible failure and/or power loss through the connectors and extra patch cables. Plus I didn't like the idea of having 8 antenna ports fixed on the outside of the box when I typically just use 4 or 5 antennas. So instead, I bought the "pass through port" so that the antenna cables and Ethernet cable can easily be passed into the box (in a recess in the box that will keep the rain out). This saves hundreds of dollars, it's less items protruding from the box that could snag on stuff or get broken, and it's much easier to install.

The box has a total of 7 power outlets. One of the outlets is directly connected to the power inlet, so any items that demand a tremendous amount of power (like a large LED board, finish line blow up arch, or another vendor that wants to tap into your power supply) can use that power port. The other 6 ports are tied to the Bluetti power bank, so those items stay on for a long time even if all power is lost.

The box also has a UPS battery backup (also connected to the Bluetti power bank) that the reader is plugged into. So even if the Bluetti runs out of juice, the UPS battery backup should keep the reader powered on for 3 more hours. So essentially the reader has 2 UPS battery systems to ensure that it stays on. :)

Those that do not have a Bluetti power bank can simply plug one side of the dual receptacle power inlet to the UPS battery backup (which has only the reader hooked up to it) and the other receptacle goes to the power strip that's inside the box. The power strip will then power all the external ports. This is essentially what my older 'white' box is doing that I've been using for the last few years.

The 6 battery powered outlets and the cooling fan are mounted on the back of the box where there is a significant recess in the box, especially with the wheeled cart attached, this will help ensure no rain gets in there.

It's very easy to car this thing around, and over the next few days I'm going to be doing some 'stress testing' to see how long this system will keep a normal finish line setup running before the power bank runs out. Fun stuff!

I'll include a photo of what I ordered from Amazon. Besides those items, here is everything else I purchased at Home Depot to make the box:

• .093"12"X24" POLYCARB LEXAN SHEET - $20.68
• MACH SCREW SS #6 - $1.38
• FENDER WASHER SS 1/8 - $1.38
• MACH SCREW SS PHL FLT #6 X 2 - $1.38
• MACH SCREW SS COMB RND #6 X 2 - $1.38
• RIGID 22 IN. PRO GEAR CART 2.0 - $69.97

The PolyCarb sheet listed above is cut to the width of the handle of the wheeled cart and it holds one RFID antenna. Another timer named Jose Iniguez does something similar on the Timers Talk Facebook page. What cool is that the other part of the PolyCarb sheet that was cut off fits perfectly in the box as a divider. I have my reader mounted vertically (so that the antenna ports are sticking straight up) on that PolyCard divider wall. This makes it easy to access the necessary ports and it helps ensure the reader is help up away from any water that may get in the box.

After tax the total cost of the complete timing box was $239.35.

The after tax cost with the bluetti battery pack ($226.77) added is $466.12.

You'll need a few hole saw and phillips head bits to attach to your drill, sharpie, and jig saw to do the job.

[Andrew Bowman]

This is a great thread.  I just bought two of the Bluetti power banks.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the Rigid race box turns out.  

I tried a laser printer but it wouldn't power on since it requires 1100w starting and my portable power bank only does 300w.  I looked around for possible solutions and settled on this:

Phomemo M08F-Letter Bluetooth Mobile Printer 

Support 8.5" X 11" US Letter, No-Ink Thermal Compact Printer, 

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0B6VRJT83?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

It requires special thermal paper and you have to feed each sheet in individually.  That might seem like a show stopper, but it's battery powered so I don't have to worry about plugging it in anywhere.  It seems to work fine with Windows 10, Windows 11 and MacOS.

Regards,

Andrew

[Brian Agee]

Finally got around to creating another timing box and documenting the "how and why" of each component and how it all goes together: https://youtu.be/y6XpfXk6-0s

Not the highest production video you'll ever see, but hopefully it's got at least a few useful or interesting ideas in it.

[Craig MacIntyre]

Awesome

[Joe Fertsch]

Speaking of portable battery back ups - I bought 4 - 1000 w power packs ,  I now can blow up an inflatable arch using a low wattage 250w blower for more than 3 hours using 1 of these units     This is so much quitter than a gas generator    I have everything now on batteries

[Brian Agee]

Of course a couple of weeks after buying hole saw bits they drop the price by 2/3. Ugh! I just checked my receipt and I paid $109 and I don't think the hole saw bit set has as much as the one I'll link to below. I remember when I bought them feeling like they were more expensive than I would have expected. Anyway, if anyone wants to use the exact same hole saw bit (or maybe a better set if it's not the same) that I used you can get them on sale now at Home Depot for around $30 here:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-Hole-Dozer-General-Purpose-Bi-Metal-Hole-Saw-Set-11-Piece-49-22-4020/314165653?irgwc=1&cm_mmc=afl-ir-10451-483420-&clickid=wdXWFGzsIxyNWlMyvTVcr0CHUkA2R61pWVY2xE0

[Brian Agee]

Well actually that bit set doesn't have some of the smaller ones mine does, but you can buy those individually as needed and still come out way better than paying $109 for the same set I have.

[Rod Simpson]

I was wondering if anyone has made and used Brian's timing box with the  Bluetti EB3A.

Curious as to how long the unit lasted in a live event?

What were you running off of it?

Thanks.

Rod