Battery Powered Lantern

[bschotty]

Hi all,

I'm heading out camping next weekend and am in the market for a new lantern. We're currently using Primus Gas ones that are great but thinking about switching over to a battery powered one for a few years while the kids are small. More of a safety issue than anything. Will definitely go back to gas when they're a bit older.
I know battery powered ones have many drawbacks, just wondering if anyone has any suggestions or types they have tried and liked. I'm looking at a 300 lumens 4D battery lantern by Outdoor Connection (aussie brand) and it looks pretty good...

The other options is something like a fluoro light connected to the car battery... We have a 25x20 foot tarp set up with a spreader bar I could mount it to...

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Cheers!

- Ben

[the evil twin]

IMHO there is only one way to go now and that is LED. Absolutely silent and use hardly any power.

I have one of these Coleman "Quad" lanterns as a last resort backup http://www.colemanaustralia.com.au/gear/lighting/electric-lighting/spotlights-and-lanterns/led-quad-lantern.aspx
Very versatile and batteries last for yoinks

For the camp lighting I use LED strips from Ebay connected to the vehicle or camper battery. They draw virtually nothing so won't drain the battery and put out heaps of light
I recommend 5050 SMD LED strips (I buy 5 metres and make my own strips as required but the soldering is very fiddly so buy one of the appropriate length if you like)
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1M-SMD-LED-light-Strip-White-5M-Waterproof-flexible-5050-60leds-m-LD43-/170776831652?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27c317a6a4
1 metre is say $10 and 5 metres is maybe $30 and they can be trimmed or joined or whatever

Add a dimmer for $5 and you can leave them on low all night if you have kids or whatever and use maybe 2 or 3 amp hours total
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-DC-12V-24V-6A-Light-Dimmer-Bright-Adjustable-Controller-Single-Color-LED-Light-/180834942222?pt=AU_Lighting_Fans&hash=item2a1a9a3d0e

[AB]

Yep x 2. Gotta love the LED technology these days...

I am using the Piranha fluro light as well and love it. It shines up the entire camp site and draws 0.8 (I think) of an amp. Even before my deep cycle battery I easily ran this off the cranking for a few hours each night no problem.

http://piranhaoffroad.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/b/a/bag_1.jpg

I will never go back to gas.

[bazzad]

Yep, was in the shed last weekend throwing all of my old style lights as I get ready for weekend in Byfield for the Mayday long weekend. Have a couple of LEDS and thats all i am taking.
Ben, Take the evil twins advice and get into LED's, you won't look back.
cheers
bazzad

[frenzy]

Good advice Evil.

LOL. We turned up to the Qld Patrol club Easter campsite this year, set up our gear and then everyone laughed at our gas lantern!!!! One very nice couple felt so sorry for us "1960's style" campers that they lent us (then gave us) a spare set of LED strip lighting they had!! Fantastic!

I guess we wont be taking the gas lantern away again.

LED's all the way. I've now ordered 5m of 5050's from ebay to make some more strip lighting for the tent/tarp/car with switching and dimmers.

[paulyg]

Primus make a very good led lantern in two different sizes, i have the smaller one and it puts out 300, lumens thats quite a lot of light in a small size.

[gbab01]

I've tried a few options. Still got the gas - has its place. As far as fluro goes VERSA-LITE are awesome (google it) but pricey. Had a couple of cheap fluro as well and they self destructed on the rough stuff. LED is the way to go I reckon but I sometimes find the light a bit direct - maybe I need a better one. Cheers.

[bschotty]

IMHO there is only one way to go now and that is LED. Absolutely silent and use hardly any power.

I have one of these Coleman "Quad" lanterns as a last resort backup http://www.colemanaustralia.com.au/gear/lighting/electric-lighting/spotlights-and-lanterns/led-quad-lantern.aspx
Very versatile and batteries last for yoinks

For the camp lighting I use LED strips from Ebay connected to the vehicle or camper battery. They draw virtually nothing so won't drain the battery and put out heaps of light
I recommend 5050 SMD LED strips (I buy 5 metres and make my own strips as required but the soldering is very fiddly so buy one of the appropriate length if you like)
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1M-SMD-LED-light-Strip-White-5M-Waterproof-flexible-5050-60leds-m-LD43-/170776831652?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27c317a6a4
1 metre is say $10 and 5 metres is maybe $30 and they can be trimmed or joined or whatever

Add a dimmer for $5 and you can leave them on low all night if you have kids or whatever and use maybe 2 or 3 amp hours total
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-DC-12V-24V-6A-Light-Dimmer-Bright-Adjustable-Controller-Single-Color-LED-Light-/180834942222?pt=AU_Lighting_Fans&hash=item2a1a9a3d0e

Great idea with the LED strips. I'll look in to that. Could run them straight along the spreader bar! Thanks.
I've been looking at the Colemen Quad and also the Duo online. I'll give them a try in-store and see how they go.

[bschotty]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll get into the camping shop this week and have a play around. I haven't rigged up dual batteries yet but planning on it down the track. I have a 12V 'heavy duty' jumpstarter which also acts as a power source so I'm thinking I'll try either a string of LED lights or a fluoro light running off of this and see how it goes, I'd imagine it's got a fair amount of charge in it and the LED's don't seem to draw much so it may last all weekend hopefully.
It'll be nice to not carrying around a bunch of spare mantles and worry about breaking glass on my gas lights...

[MudRunnerTD]

Once you go LED you will NEVER EVER use your gas light again EVER! someone above posted that there is a place for everything! Not True! I cant imagine a single situation where a Gas light will be the preferred lighting solution. They are Noisy, cost you MONEY to run and wont take a knock or hit.

The LED is the only way to go. The link that ET posted is the best way to travel and will save you big bucks. Make your own. I have made a heap of them and they work a treat. They generally come with 3M double sided tape on the back of the strip and i have attached them to lengths of Conduit to whatever length i want and that is a strip light for any situation.

Got one the right length for the toilet, the shower, there is one mounted to the top bar of the camper and switched on as soon as i flip the camper. ONe mounted to the underside of the front box, inside the drawers in the back of the 4b........on and on and on.....

I made up two for the ARB 2.5m side awning and the rear 1.2m awning on the roof rack. I fitted a dimmer switch to both of these and they are AWESOME! the Dimmer is Outstanding. does a great job.

I have used the lesser LEDs and not the 5050 outputs but rather the 38s i think, they are great, a little easier to make yourself and put out simply a Bucket load of light.

When i went to the Huts last year in the High Country for a swag trip i took my jump pack and ran my LED off it in the Hut, was great and the 20 people there all packed away their torches for the night. WOW.

You would get days and days out of the jump pack. no probs.

Time to sell your gas junk at the next church Car Boot sale or garage sale and embrace the LED, there is nothing that even comes close. Free to run. Batteries? what batteries? Lead Batteries are expensive! Damn!

[bschotty]

Just ordered this: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WarmWhite-5M-5050-SMD-LED-300LED-Flexible-Light-Strip-Lamp-60LED-M-12V-LD41A-/170811463882?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27c52818ca#ht_3551wt_1141
I have a 6m spreader bar on my tarp set-up so I'm gonna run it right along the top. Can't wait to try it out!

[Silver]

if you have a square speader bar, magnetic tape, that is, like a fridge magnet with adhesive on one side, might make a good way of sticking that strip to your spreader bar. You'll need to wrap the cable around the bar or similar or the weight of the wire will probably peel it off.

Should be a lovely light. Very little shadow etc. Be interesting to know how many amps?

What I have noticed with having a well lit tarp and reasonably spacious tarp is that our primary school age daughter likes to colour in etc under it - and it can turn out to be a bit of a kid magnet because they gravitate to the well lit area to play. That isn't always a good thing from my perspective, but she enjoys it, so I deal with it :-)

[oncedisturbed]

LED's all the way. I have nearly 2.5m of 800 lumen LED on my awning and it's sweet. I will be making up some movable strips for around the campsite / tent with 9v setup. They will last upto 72 hours constantly on but alonger with intermittent use.

The new ones that I am making will have the option to be tied up, hooked on, staked in the ground etc so they will be more versatile

[Waza]

Hmmm, think I will wrap some led strip around my gaslight !

[bschotty]

The 5m LED strip arrived the other day, hooked it up to the power pack and was blown away! Just need to hook up a dimmer now... might be a bit too bright otherwise. Not sure how many amps are being drawn... I'll get back to you on that.

[twisties]

I've been looking at my favourite Hong Kong based cheap-stuff site for a Lantern solution myself. They have a section dedicated to camp lanterns. http://dx.com/c/sports-outdoors-1699/camping-hiking-1606/outdoor-lantern-1634
Don't be put off by some of the really low prices, most of the stuff on there is sold at retail here under other names for a lot more.

Site is also full of DIY electronics parts for those who want to mess with Light Strips and more.
Note: There are some NSFW (not safe for work) sections on there so tread with caution

Best part is almost all of the stuff on there is free shipping (albeit rather slow).

[ryanlh]

I just installed about 70 feet of high-density (18 LED's/ft) 5050 LED strips (http://www.ledlightinghut.com/smd5050-flex-led-strip-150leds.html) in my new office. They are white only, not 3-color. They produce a LOT of light. I'm using a single strip to illuminate a 2ft high double-sided frosted plexiglas strip at the tops of our walls. Each linear foot of LED strip is illuminating 4 square feet of frosted plexi, and it looks great. Powering them in large quantities can be a challenge. My complete installation draws about 16A at 12VDC, and I'm using a power supply that was not intended for LED's. It's important to understand the driving requirements for these LED strips. They are NOT just LED's. Bare LED's require dedicated constant-current drivers matched to the requirements of the specific LED product. These strips do not. The strips are composed of segments consisting of multiple LED's in series along with a current limiting resistor designed to allow the unit to operate from an unregulated 12VDC supply. This is convenient, but somewhat inefficient. It also prevents you from using most dedicated LED driver products to control them. This is compounded by the problem that virtually no commercial LED drivers are available that can handle enough power to run long lengths of these strips.

[threedogs]

Stay away from flouros its old school now. I'll PM you. LED is the go more light less power, why would you use flouro if thats the case, Also have 120 LEDs a mt on the awning in cool white.This 10 watt flood light will amaze you .3 of these use less power than a versa or piranha flouro and your campsite will look like the Queen Mary has docked
800 lumens each

[cazzaritch]

Hubby and I have embraced LED lighting in our tent. We have put sticky back velcro on the frame of our tent and have stuck the other side (the fluff) to the back of the light strip, plug it in to the battery pack on the trailer, stick it up and hey presto! We do have in-line switches, but I really do have dimmer envy now!!!

We need a few more, a bit for the bedroom area of our tent to read by and one for the toilet, but they are so easy to make, I even managed to do some of the soldering myself!!

I totally agree, LED is the way to go. Ours roll up really small and are soooooo bright!!!

[threedogs]

Sorry AB those Flouro are old hat now try these led jobs .I can run 3 of these and still use less power than a flouro.

and yes I do sell them with 5mt lead and waterproof inline switch

[Cuppa]

Have been using LEDs for around 6 years now. They have improved a lot over that time. For general lighting I find warm white more pleasant than cool white, & these days prefer the smd strips that others here have used. Fwiw I find that if mounted out of direct line of sight where possible, or behind diffusers they are much less dazzling. I haven't tried them with a dimmer yet though. I've converted several fluoro lights to led simply by removing the fluoro tubes & replacing them with a strip of thin plywood with the led strips stuck onto it.

Cuppa

[Winnie]

You can get LED tubes. Take the starter out if the fitting and pop the LED tube in. Pricey through at $40-60 a pop

DIAL-A-TAP