Battery powered floodlights?

[Aereldor]

I've recently set up a volleyball club in a park my locality; replacing the net, drawing the boundaries, and bringing it up to about a dozen regulars. We normally start around 5 PM, but we're forced to stop at 8, as it gets too dark to play. Most times, people don't show up till later, and we usually get under two hours of game time. 

I was wondering about installing a couple of lights, but the only available power source is literally two naked wires sticking out of a hole in the ground enclosed by a small metal box. Furthermore, I don't think it's a particularly good idea, as we'll either have to move all the lights back and forth from my house, which is about 300 meters away.

The other option would be to use portable, battery-powered lights that are already somewhat weatherproof, giving us at least enough time to get them into the bag in the case of unexpected rain. Do you know of any such 'portable floodlights'?

Do you have any ideas? I'm happy to DIY these if possible, but with the weatherproofing requirement, I feel it may be a little out of my league. 

What about using a bunch of extremely bright flashlights sitting on the ground or maybe tied to sticks that are shoved into the ground? Do you think there are consumer flashlights that can stay on that long and illuminate a 18x9 meter volleyball court?

[cluelessgenius]

 

and weatherproof it

[Aereldor]

3 hours ago, cluelessgenius said:

 

and weatherproof it

That's actually the exact video I got the idea from; I've been subscribed to him since his earliest days on YouTube. However, it's a good bit of work, all the components aren't available in my country, and weatherproofing the whole thing is easier said than done.

[W-L]

On 7/4/2017 at 3:51 PM, Aereldor said:

-SNIP-

They make small portable ones like these just make sure you get ones that have the proper protection circuits for the batteries. 

 

-Moved to Hobby Electronics- 

[Aereldor]

8 hours ago, W-L said:

They make small portable ones like these just make sure you get ones that have the proper protection circuits for the batteries. 

 

-Moved to Hobby Electronics- 

Thanks for the move- I wasn't sure where the query belonged, but that's an appropriate subforum.

How bright do those get? Do you reckon four or six of those could light a 18x9 meter court?

[W-L]

2 hours ago, Aereldor said:

Thanks for the move- I wasn't sure where the query belonged, but that's an appropriate subforum.

How bright do those get? Do you reckon four or six of those could light a 18x9 meter court?

There are larger wattage ones if you need more light but like most lights from China they say 30W but will most likely be shy of that. Multiple ones setup around the court should be enough but wouldn't be super super bright to light up every little bit. 

[Aereldor]

8 minutes ago, W-L said:

There are larger wattage ones if you need more light but like most lights from China they say 30W but will most likely be shy of that. Multiple ones setup around the court should be enough but wouldn't be super super bright to light up every little bit. 

That's fine. If visibility is achieved, that's plenty. I'm currently looking for cheap ones on Indian retail sites- I reckon four will be more than enough.

[Marshnt]

On 7/4/2017 at 2:51 PM, Aereldor said:

I've recently set up a volleyball club in a park my locality; replacing the net, drawing the boundaries, and bringing it up to about a dozen regulars. We normally start around 5 PM, but we're forced to stop at 8, as it gets too dark to play. Most times, people don't show up till later, and we usually get under two hours of game time. 

I was wondering about installing a couple of lights, but the only available power source is literally two naked wires sticking out of a hole in the ground enclosed by a small metal box. Furthermore, I don't think it's a particularly good idea, as we'll either have to move all the lights back and forth from my house, which is about 300 meters away.

The other option would be to use portable, battery-powered lights that are already somewhat weatherproof, giving us at least enough time to get them into the bag in the case of unexpected rain. Do you know of any such 'portable floodlights'?

Do you have any ideas? I'm happy to DIY these if possible, but with the weatherproofing requirement, I feel it may be a little out of my league. 

What about using a bunch of extremely bright flashlights sitting on the ground or maybe tied to sticks that are shoved into the ground? Do you think there are consumer flashlights that can stay on that long and illuminate a 18x9 meter volleyball court?

Look up light towers with generators.

[Aereldor]

1 hour ago, Marshnt said:

Look up light towers with generators.

They're like $2000. We've spent perhaps a grand total of $20 on everything on the volleyball court - net, balls, er- the shovel?

[mariushm]

Portable power generator and buy a few of those 10-30w led spotlights / floodlight with build in power supply - afew on one side of the field should be enough.

 

Even in my country i can buy a gas powered generator from a hobby/construction store for around 100$, here's a link if you don't believe me: https://www.praktiker.ro/generator-de-curent-raider-rd-gg01.html

 

The above generator produces up to 650w of electricity and will run for 6h with just 4 liters of gasoline (mixed with a bit of oil)

 

You can then buy some of those 10-30w led spotlights and just spread them to the side of the field and power them up from generator. 

Look on eBay for led floodlight or spotlight and make sure they work with the voltage of your generator.

 

Alternatively, you can try to find some used car batteries (12v lead acid) and find some 12v compatible spotlights and charge the batteries before the game and hope the batteries have enough charge to last those hours

[System Error Message]

Well its not hard to figure out how much power you need, i recommend having DC input in the lights and batteries as thats the most efficient option however if the cable is too long that there is a voltage drop in using DC thats where you use AC.