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Another Wickes Toolbox Powertank


chr1s

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Hello!

I've just been browsing about and noticed Jims new Wickes battery box and thought I'd show off mine too!

Mines a bit smaller and is based on the 19inch heavy duty toolbox which cost around a tenner.

Inside is a 35Ah Lucas Golf Cart Battery, which should be more than enough for powering my mount, plus it's light, which is important when you live in a top floor flat!

The box isn't quite finished yet as I'm planning a cut off switch, voltmeter and a sheet of ply under the battery to strengthen the base, I'll then mount the fuse box to the ply.

I lined it with foam to help insulate it. I bought a huge sheet for a couple of quid and only used a fraction of it.

There was also space inside the box to store my battery charger, an optimate.

Pretty happy with it so far and toof no time at all to make. Was cheap too compared to a powertank!

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Got my box from Wickes on Sunday. Just waiting for the 12v sockets to complete. I used some ply I had to had but it's a bit thin so I'll probably re-do the woodwork. With the leisure battery in the centre of the box there's room at one end for my Draper charger. If I hook that up to the battery via a DPDT switch I can check the state of the battery when out in the field and, when at home (and everything else is disconnected) simply plug in and leave it to charge :)

By the looks of it the Wickes box is a re-badged Stanley 24" toolbox, which can be obtained online for less than the Wickes version ;)

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Great idea with the toolbox , i had a look at some toolboxes in Q&B before i built my wooden one but their handles looked like they would come off , heh.

Insulation is very much needed for batteries , esp. if you are out at Whiteadder water in January at 2am :cool: , and it's not much warmer 20 miles south a bit near Galashiels :) .

Dave.

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What I'm contemplating doing with mine as well is incorporate a powered USB hub (possibly home-made/cannibalised - anyone got any suggestions?). As the toolbox would be located under the tripod I'd then only run two cables from laptop - 1 for power (still gotta get an adapter!) and the other to USB. Using a cable tidy I could make up a wiring "loom" carrying USB cables, power cable for mount and battery adapter cable for DSLR which would then be strapped to a tripod leg using velcro cable ties :smiley:

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Great idea with the toolbox , i had a look at some toolboxes in Q&B before i built my wooden one but their handles looked like they would come off , heh.

Insulation is very much needed for batteries , esp. if you are out at Whiteadder water in January at 2am :cool: , and it's not much warmer 20 miles south a bit near Galashiels :) .

Dave.

ahhh you must be near me!

although i live in edinburgh, i work in the hills above innerleithen :)

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Heh it's none of those thing! :D Though i have spent a fair bit of time riding around glentress and innerleithen in the past! (I'm waaay to unfit to enjoy that at the moment!)

My job's to keep wind turbines turning :)

I was only reading about the uplift/visitor centre project yesterday though actually!

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