Portable and rechargable LED camp lighting (1 Viewer)

[HomerOz]

G'Day Fella's,

I'm not long back from "A coupla days away bush........." and thought you may be interested in my present camp lighting system.
It is based on rechargeable 10,000 m Amp hr Lithium Ion battery, and has the option of using one or two strings of LED lights.
If traveling between camp locations, I recharge the battery (via my cigarette light plugs) on the move, or whilst the auxiliary battery is being charged by the solar panel, during the day.
At the moment (shorter nights), I usually only require 2 to 3 hours camp light, and one string of LED's (this provides plenty of light), drains it's supply battery, to 1/2 on the system indicator lights (4 x very small LED's).
During winter camping trips, the longer nights, will obviously use more battery storage.
Here's some images;

The first image is with my camera flash, to show you what where looking at. The rest are the LED system, and then it's and battery (along with a sunset and "Skippy").

I hope that is of some help.

D'oh!
Homer

Here is the 10,000 m Amp hr battery, with one LED light string plugged in (white tape on RHS) and also, two small LED battery indicator lights showing.

An Aussie hi country sunset.

"Skippy" (with a pillion passenger on board), in my camp.

 

[george_tlc]

LED string dimmable?

I tend to run fairly low level of lighting when camped since I like to see the stars and fire going. Being able to dim the LED lighting I use is essential, but then most of my LED stuff is home brew anyway.

I've found that have too much camp lighting is counter productive since your eyes will just shutter down and you then have 'less light'. i.e. I prefer to have minimal lighting and adjust it up a bit as needed. This means you can easily get away with maybe a watt or so of LED lighting and battery runtime becomes a non-issue. I also run all my camp lighting direct from the aux battery versus adding in more inefficiencies of having to charge a variety of battery packs. The only self contained battery setup is for headlamps (they use rechargeable eneloops).

For camp lights I tend to use directed lighting (e.g. bike lights running from 12V with industrial velcro to stick where needed) or other lights that have 'heads/reflectors' to put the light where needed. I hate lanterns in general since they put light in your face and just tend to blind you or cast a shadow on what you want to see. Lighting that comes from 'above' works well to illuminate your work area and not blind you/cast shadows.

Anyhow, my 2c

cheers,
george.

 

[HomerOz]

G'Day Fella's,

That may be the case with your situation George_tlc but I often stop at the waters edge and then continue via boat, to a remote location. So this set up, works just fine for my vehicle based and other more remote adventures.

D'oh!
Homer

 

[duke01]

Nice setup. Those strings of LEDs are definitely brighter.

 

[MattMiller]

G'Day Fella's,

I'm not long back from "A coupla days away bush........." and thought you may be interested in my present camp lighting system.
It is based on rechargeable 10,000 m Amp hr Lithium Ion battery, and has the option of using one or two strings of LED lights.
If traveling between camp locations, I recharge the battery (via my cigarette light plugs) on the move, or whilst the auxiliary battery is being charged by the solar panel, during the day.
At the moment (shorter nights), I usually only require 2 to 3 hours camp light, and one string of LED's (this provides plenty of light), drains it's supply battery, to 1/2 on the system indicator lights (4 x very small LED's).
During winter camping trips, the longer nights, will obviously use more battery storage.
Here's some images;

The first image is with my camera flash, to show you what where looking at. The rest are the LED system, and then it's and battery (along with a sunset and "Skippy").

I hope that is of some help.

D'oh!
Homer

View attachment 1655721

View attachment 1655722

Here is the 10,000 m Amp hr battery, with one LED light string plugged in (white tape on RHS) and also, two small LED battery indicator lights showing.
View attachment 1655724

An Aussie hi country sunset.
View attachment 1655725

"Skippy" (with a pillion passenger on board), in my camp.
View attachment 1655727

I like your setup. In your experience, for how long does one charge last?

Btw. Skippy is cute.

 

[HomerOz]

G'Day Fella's,

Thanks Matt.
In Summer (short nights), I can get two nights with 1 string of LED's, per battery charge.
Obviously, in Winter or with two strings of LED's running, you only get one nights from the same battery.

Glad you like Skippy"s photo, we are lucky down here.

Hope that helps

D'oh!
Homer

 

[HelloKitty65]

G'Day Fella's,
....

"Skippy" (with a pillion passenger on board), in my camp.
View attachment 1655727

"Good on ya' Skippy" C.D.
I used to watch Skippy on TV when my dad was stationed in Thailand. For those not familiar, he's basically Lassie, only a kangaroo. His super power was to kick some poor stunt guy playing a bad guy into the next county. Always felt sorry for those actors.