# converting motors to batteries



## CLOE (Jul 8, 2012)

I am electronically ignorant so I would like to ask some of you more knowledgeable folks if it is possible to wire the standard white reindeer motors to batteries? And do the motors such as madmax sells work the same way? Also, what about wiper motors? Can they be wired to the larger rechargeable batteries? I've seen plenty of tutorials on wiring to plugs but none for the reverse. I am outdoor plug deprived and couldn't animate numerous things due to fear of circuit overload. I realize in the long run the larger batteries are pricier but it would work out better for me in both placement of prop and overload fear. Does anyone know of any links for tutorials to wire to battery terminals for those of us that don't have any electronic experience? Any help would be appreciated.


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

There are alternate sources for electric. Any prop or motor that uses a wall wart style power pack can easily run on batteries. The wall wart should have a output voltage rating on it. You just have to match your battery supply to that. There are different way to do it as well, also obviously the higher the amps or milliamp draw the shorter the life of the batteries. If your prop is high voltage or household current you can purchase a power inverter and a marine grade battery. That takes 12 volts dc and maked it into 120 volts ac. 

As far as overloading. Know what you ate plugging in. Calculate your load. Older houses tend to have 15 amp circuits. You should never go more than 80% onto that 15 amps. Most extension cords are only rated for 10 amps or less. So on any 15 amp circuit should have no more than 2 extension cords plugged into it and using no more than 8 amps on each circuit. Most of all house hold equipment has an amps or watts rating on it. Amps x volts will tell you how many watts it will use. Volts decided by watts will tell you ho many amps it will use.

I have melted an extension cord or 2 in my early days.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

the reindeer motors you are referring to are AC, I.e. you plug them into an outlet. Batteries are DC, and you cannot easily connect an AC motor to DC batteries. its possible, not easy or cheap. Wiper motors are DC, and you can connect them to batteries, but wiper motors can draw a fair amount of current, so you need big batteries. You can coonect DC motors to AC using a Wallwart, as described in the previous post. Hope this helps.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

You can use an inverter to run AC motors, but as heresjohnny said, it won't be cheap due to the batteries. I've used inverters to run low-wattage devices from the 12VDC power socket in my car, but the devices didn't draw much current. The battery may not last very long. Have you considered renting a small gas-powered generator for powering the props?


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## CLOE (Jul 8, 2012)

Using a generator did cross my mind but they're usually pretty noisy aren't they? I came across a cauldron creep tutorial from Mr. Jingles where he wired the motor for the head to a battery so wondered if I might be able to do something like that for the slower motors and using a marine or power wheels type battery for my wiper motors. I usually don't turn anything on till Halloween night. I thought if I start working on a solution now at least I can spread the cost throughout the year.


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

Even those marine batteries are expensive. 80 for the last one I bought a few years ago from wal mart. Plus you will have to buy a decent charger for it. Inverters vary in size and price. But the investment can pay for itself over renting a generator. Plus if left were you can easily get to it, then its available for that short power outage.

I have one that plugs directly into the cigarette light of my truck. Its good for 100 watts. I have used it to keep my laptop charged when I am on the road. When I go to our local drive in it powers a small pair of pa speakers that we play the movie through.. It cost about 30 bucks.

I have a 600 watt inverter installed in my camper. Its hooked up to 2 marine grade batteries and a charger system. It runs my entire camper for a week before they need to be charged. However its not a big camper. All the camper lights have been converted to led. This inverter is big enough to run small power tools. It was about 150. From the same inverter I have run a pair of larger self powered pa speakers and all the parts to make noise from them at moderate volume for 6 hours from 1 marine battery.

So its all on wether or not you have money to play with. Generator rentals average 50 for a small one, plus gas and all the noise.


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## heresjohnny (Feb 15, 2006)

if I understand your situation, I suggest you consider using dc motors, instead of an AC motor for your props


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## CLOE (Jul 8, 2012)

If I decide to go with the inverter and marine battery route would I be better off going a little smaller and buying a couple? Do you think the battery charge will run a couple props for say 4-5 hours? As far as the dc motors what would your suggestion be? Should I switch the motors to these? Lets say I wanted to run a cauldron creep for example with the 2 motors and mister. Any ideas on the best inverter size for something like this? Sorry about my ignorance and all these questions but I really do appreciate everyone's help.


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## CLOE (Jul 8, 2012)

I also came across this. Will this work for anything I've discussed?
http://www.kentuckyspecialfx.com/6-volt-bb-battery-12ah-for-small-animatronic-pr612.html


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## corey872 (Jan 10, 2010)

I will just throw out: 'fear of circuit overload' is a poor reason to switch to batteries. As mentioned above, a house circuit generally provides 120 VAC at 15 amps... or about 1,800 watts - and it can do this continuously, 24/7 with no worries of running down, etc.

The battery you mentioned above is 6V, 1.2Ah (1.2 amps for one hour, then it's 'dead') So that battery puts out about 7.2 watts for one hour. You would need 250 of those batteries to get the same power as coming out of your wall outlet - and the batteries would all be dead in 1 hour, so if you wanted an 8 hour run, you'd need 2,000 of those batteries. Plus lead-acid batteries don't like to be completely discharged, so for any type of longevity, maybe double that figure to 4,000 so they all stay at 50% charge

At $16 each, that starts to get a bit pricey! plus we haven't even talked battery chargers, power inverters (which are only about 50% efficient), battery maintainers and what happens to them in the 'off' season, etc.

IMHO, batteries are very expensive power on a $ per watt basis, but work great for very low current draw DC items like a few LEDs and maybe some very small, intermittent use motors. But if you intend to run anything of any real size, or you have to use an inverter to get AC, or you want it to run for hours or multiple nights, and you're worried about drawing so much power as to overload a 15 amp circuit, then you'd be much better off to get an electrician in to add a second or even third circuit and outlets vs buying all the batteries and associated hardware.

I would also put a '*' by stagehand's comments above. I know what he is driving at with the 'no more than 2 extension cords', but that is not really practical. For my Halloween, I've been known to come out of my outdoor outlet an into two separate 6 outlet power strips, I then run extension cords out of those which may have a 3 outlet end and further branch off from there.

I'm sure it looks pretty bizarre - reminiscent of the scene in Christmas Vacation, no doubt. But the key is in knowing the loads... all those cords branch off to things which generally draw an amp or usually less. So 15 items, on all those cords all drawing 1/2 an amp is still only 7.5 amps on the circuit...I could easily branch off into two more 6 outlet strips!

IMHO, when done right, branching off and adding extension cords is a good thing as it lowers the current on any given cord - except the main trunk cord. You just need a ballpark figure of what the load is and take care to balance it on the system.


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## Hippofeet (Nov 26, 2012)

I would go with deep cycle batteries, rather than marine, although some marine batteries are deep cycle, most of them are made for starting amp draw as well, which isnt really what you are looking for, at least not for those motors. http://www.batteryspec.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?action=link&product=118

Something like that. It's expensive, but I have used similar to set up systems with 1500 watt foggers, as well as running the controllers and targets or triggers. You will want a smart charger, so that the battery charges as it was discharged (if it discharges with a quick initial deep draw, such as torque to start a motor attached to x, then moves x for a certain period of time at a lesser draw, its important that it charges in a similar fashion). You can never get it perfect, but it will help extendthe life of that expensive battery.

I'm sure it seems like overkill, but you might kill a couple batteries a year running cheaper ones, and never be happy with the performance, or time of operation.

The 22ah you showed above will run a 1 amp device for less than 22 hours, probably closer to 12, before its ability to maintain that amperage draw fades, although thats just been my experience, I have never used that particular battery.

A motor rated at 1 amp draws that amperage free running, meaning without load. Under load, it may draw 10, and if stalled or forced to a stop, will draw much more until it overheats and dies. I would consider the 22ah battery in the post above good to go for a servo operated skull, or anything drawing micro amperage.

As far as inverters, I would not consider anything under 800 watts continuous, and for spark-gap noise makers you need a high peak, 2500 is nice, and avoid "overload protected" if you can, if the prop and battery are capable of drawing amps fast, it will trip the overload sensor even at what should be an ok wattage range. Unfortunately, the overload protection is a selling point, and it's very hard to find one without it.

Personally, I love battery powered props, and the freedom that it gives, low noise, charging instead of fuel costs, instant backup with a second battery, being able to have it self contained, possibly with no wiring exposed whatsoever.

Generator or battery, its expensive. And the batteries do wear out, there's some witchy magic in those things. But I wouldn't be afraid to go for it. Maybe the 22ah above is a good start to get your feet wet. (but not while touching the battery).


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

And I have done that with all the power strips and cords and I often still do. It was more a be minfull of the size of your load.

But at the same time, I work for a pro haunt. Our codes guy doesn't want to see any power strips in the haunt. We still have them, but when he saw the standard wal mart 6 outlet power strips, he had a fit and made us pull them all out. Now we have these heavy duty larger commercial grade strips with a bigger lead cord. These suckers have 10 outlets each on them with a 20' lead cord. Codes liked them much better but still has issues with the extension cords.

Funny thing is, they only care what we do inside the haunt. They have no care or concern with how many cords we have running around outside.

The other thought here, if you are concerned about overloading, maybe it would be better to invest in different lighting. I say lighting because it is usually the 2nd biggest user in any setup. You can't do much about the size of a fog machine if you use one. The wal mart machines are usually 400 watts. If you are using big hot flood light to light things up. They ate usually 100watts each. Take the money you would invest in batteries and shop for some led lighting. The fixtures everyone is raving about this year from spirit are only 4 watts each.


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## CLOE (Jul 8, 2012)

Still confused about best way to go but figured maybe I could at least start with some of the smaller 5rpm motors. Does anyone know of the best place to find motors for use with lighter demands such as creep head, breathing grave etc. that I can hook up to say a 9 volt battery. Anyone out there looking to make a little extra cash that would be willing to wire say 6-8 of these for the electronically challenged like myself for battery use to sell to me?


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