PC Engine LT portable battery pack

[hoobs88]

I recently obtained the coveted PC Engine LT but the system is hardly portable since you have to plug in the AC adapter. I have heard of people making their own portable battery packs for the system. If anyone can make one for me or suggest where to find one, I'm am greatly interested in purchasing one. Thanks

[guyjin]

Probably not what you want to hear, but: you could get one of those portable power packs (with car batteries inside) and lug that around. but that's almost worse.

[Keranu]

There was some person who made a homemade battery pack, but it also wasn't very portable since it used a ton of AA batteries... like more than 6.

[SignOfZeta]

Considering the GT has a much smaller screen and only lasts 2 hours on 6 AAs, I can only imagine how much battery an LT chews.

[Turbo D]

Tat made one, its kick-ass!

[Keranu]

Tat made one, its kick-ass!

Yeah tatsujin has the nicest one I've seen. It's still not fully "portable", but so far it's the best you can get. I would like to add a little belt strap to it so it can latch onto my waist while playing  .

[Tatsujin]

yo...you need a 12V acid-lead battery. those one have a very high capacity per volume and you can get them in various size and shapes:



but the trick is, how to charge such kind of a battery, which you can find here:

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone-13.htm

this is very inportant for the lifespan of the lead-acid battery! there also exist complete charger modules, which take care about that matter if you can't handle the charge characteristic manually.


then 2ndly you need a 9V voltage regulator. the easiest and confortablest way is going with the good old 7809. it's a linear voltage regulator, so the 3V he has to drop down, will turn into pure heat!! but never the less, there aren't much other possibilities to drop the 3V, unless you will go into switching step-down converters, but which are also about 10 times the difficult to handle.

here a very simple circuit for the 7809:


(*note: there is the 7808 shown, but which is handled the same way as for an other regulators of the 78xx serie).

put all together and finish is your personal LT Power Bank!!

[SignOfZeta]

Wow. That is so totally impractical and hugely unsafe. Lead acid batteries have no place inside the home. The possibility of injury or huge property damage is just high.

If you are going to be this nuts at least get a glass mat battery.

[Necromancer]

Wow. That is so totally impractical and hugely unsafe. Lead acid batteries have no place inside the home. The possibility of injury or huge property damage is just high.

Is that why there's thousands upon thousands of 'em in homes and offices the world over? 
Sealed lead acid batteries (such as those in UPS devices) are perfectly safe, though a battery pack using LiIon or NiMH would be lighter and more compact.

I have heard of people making their own portable battery packs for the system. If anyone can make one for me or suggest where to find one, I'm am greatly interested in purchasing one. Thanks

Check out these guys for a few tips on how to design and build a custom battery pack.  If you don't want to tackle the job yourself, they can build it for you, though it'll likely be pricey.

[spenoza]

You know, I bet there are some laptop or other battery packs out there that might also work for that. Because lead acid is not something you want to be toting around with yourself casually.

[nodtveidt]

Diodes drop the voltage by 0.6 volts. You could just use five diodes in series to get the same 3v drop effect.

[Tatsujin]

but diodes don't know about regulation

[SignOfZeta]

Is that why there's thousands upon thousands of 'em in homes and offices the world over? 
Sealed lead acid batteries (such as those in UPS devices) are perfectly safe

I disagree. The battery in a UPS is also inside of a UPS giving more protection and also a solid base so it won't be tipping over. A bare battery like this just sitting on the table is probably the most dangerous item in the house. All you have to do is drop it or damage it and you are going to need a new carpet, or possibly even a new floor. It will certainly f*ck your eyes up instantly if exposed, injure your pets, children, etc.

As a proof of concept its fun, but not something that should be around, not that that's likely giving the enormous weight and size of such a set up.

I think a laptop battery is a better idea.

[Tatsujin]

I think a laptop battery is a better idea.

yo..we have seen in the past, of what laptop batteries are capable!

[Tatsujin]

found the old pic again