i have a thing i want to do at burning man this year that requires a computer. i've secured a very old green mac ibook that should work for my project and i have my printer and digital camera that i'm willing to sacrifice before the playagods if need be. but i'm wondering, have any of you brought computers to burning man and kept them out/running for long periods of time? how did you minimize dust intrusion or other forms of wear and tear. also, did anyone use any novel ways of powering your setup? i have a large battery that should power it for hopefully 24 - 48 hours (not entirely sure about that though) but i'm wondering if anyone's found any other good ways of doing it.
i've brought my set up (with my laptop but not with the old mac) to a couple different places and it went well. nothing that had conditions even remotely like burning man though.
any advise from the experienced or creative would be wonderful. thanks!
i've brought my set up (with my laptop but not with the old mac) to a couple different places and it went well. nothing that had conditions even remotely like burning man though.
any advise from the experienced or creative would be wonderful. thanks!
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Re: computers at burningman?
Thu, May 22, 2008 - 12:28 AMI bring my old G4 laptop to BM each year (for several years now). I never keep it outside. I keep it in my van and only operate it inside the van, with the doors closed. It gets hot during the day, so I can only run for maybe 30 minutes max, unless it is night. But, I usually have better things to do at night. ;-)
A mac uses about 65 watts of power for its power supply. A deep cycle battery has between 80 and 120 amp hours at 12 volts, for a a total of 960 to 1440 watt-hours -- that is, that many watts for that many hours. Since you'd only be using 65 watts, (assuming your inverter is 90% efficient) you'd get maybe 13 hours from an 80 amp hour battery, and 22 hours from a 120 amp hour battery.
If you bring a battery charger, you can find someone with a generator, or someone in one of the plazas or center camp who have access to 120v power and you can charge your deep cycle battery. It takes several hours to charge the battery. You can run for a while on your laptop's battery, but unless you bring two deep cycle batteries, you won't be able to run 24x7.
It sounds like you are planning to print photos. You can collect a bunch and print them in a batch. Of course, your printer will also consume some power -- probably more than the computer. You will need to factor that into your cost equations.
If you look around you can get a good deal on a deep cycle battery... Chargers vary... but be sure you have one designed for a deep cycle battery. And, don't even think of using a regular car battery for this. A car battery is good at sudden bursts of power, but they are not designed to be depleted and recharged. A few cycles and it will die. A deep cycle battery can be fully discharged and recharged hundreds of times. That is what "deep cycle" means -- that it can be fully discharged without harming it. -
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Re: computers at burningman?
Fri, May 23, 2008 - 8:46 AM
Maybe the heat / or having no ventilation - could become an issue if you have your equipment wrapped up and running... I would worry second-most about things with moving parts (shutters, DVD burner getting ruined). But hell... I use all my stuff out there on occasion.
So GO FOR iT!
I charge my batteries with our solar panels. The main battery charged by the panels runs everything we have at night, and re-charges during the day. I plug in my batteries pretty regularly.... I usually have one extra to be charging and the other to be running the equipment.
Another option - A CHEAPER OPTION- is that you can buy a portable battery pack from an automotive department. About $45. They recharge in an hour or so on AC, but hold quite a bit. (These things are made to hold enough juice to jump start a car).
They usually come with a 12 volt cigarette lighter plug built in them... so they can run your car-adaptable chargers.
You can then buy an AC converter for cheap, too. The converter will be one that plugs into the "cigarette lighter" of the portable battery back ($20) and converts it to standard outlet. EASY. For $60 you've got a handheld portable back-up battery charger that can go anywhere and do anything.
The more expensive ones have other adaptions..
Re-charging your handheld battery pack will be your next dilemma.
But you can do the math. Mine seems to last a long time, depending on what I am running. -
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Re: computers at burningman?
Thu, May 29, 2008 - 2:58 PMThose portable battery packs are probably not based on deep cycle batteries. They are probably not designed to be discharged and recharged many times, so you could find they don't work very well after a few charges. They are designed primarily to start a car, which requires lots of amps but for a short time. So, it may be cheap, but it may simply fail after a few recharges. If it says it is a deep-cycle battery, then no worries. If it doesn't, then it isn't a deep cycle battery and it will not endure many recharge cycles. There is a reason they are cheap: they are not designed to last.
A deep cycle battery isn't that expensive, and you can still use a cheap inverter. Check how many watts you need -- you don't want to run the inverter at its maximum for long. If you need 75 watts continuous, get a 200 watt inverter. It will only consume the power it needs to run your devices.
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Re: computers at burningman?
Fri, May 23, 2008 - 4:33 PMthanks for all the info! i'll look into battery options/recharging options/solar options.
