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Godox AD-1200 1200W Portable Flash Head with car battery

Started Jun 8, 2019 | Discussions
visiono Junior Member • Posts: 46
Godox AD-1200 1200W Portable Flash Head with car battery

I was wondering if its possible to use this flash head with a car battery by creating a diy wiring setup instead of being forced to use two AD600 flash bodys as the specs say.

here is the flash head

https://www.amazon.com/Godox-AD-1200-Portable-Off-Camera-AD600BM/dp/B01M5HL8O0

Razor512
Razor512 Contributing Member • Posts: 564
Re: Godox AD-1200 1200W Portable Flash Head with car battery

I think those lights run at a low amperage but high voltage (300-400V range)

If you are looking the power the entire flash unit using a car battery (e.g., power an AD600 with a car battery, then that can be done, the only challenge is determining if flash unit will boot without a sense line to the temperature sensor in the battery pack.

Since the compatible AC power units seem to give out 12+V then it seems like the unit can take 12V directly. e.g., https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1342118-REG/godox_ad_ac_ac_adapter_f_ad600.html

One thing I am unsure of is the max input voltage supported by the AD600.

One way to tell, is to measure he voltage of a battery pack that was charged to 100% and had its voltage measured within 5 minutes of being finished charging.

The reason for this is that while a car battery will give a reliable 12V for a decent amount of time, if you do something like turn the car on, then the alternator will deliver around 14-14.3V.

Another way to figure out the max input voltage though is really hard since no one seems to have a teardown or even the FCCID of the AD600, is to look at the buck regulators inside of the AD600 and then find their datasheets to determine their rated input voltage range.

Aside from that, the bulbs cannot be directly powered at 12V it would likely just burn it out almost immediately without much light being produced since they are low amperage and high voltage.

PS, camera strobes cannot be run continuously, e.g., a 600 watt second light that takes 600 watts for 1/300s, can't do something like be run at 600 watts for a few seconds nonstop as they will simply overheat  and fail. It is not worth the risk especially since companies tend to price gouge on the lights.

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mawyatt2002
mawyatt2002 Contributing Member • Posts: 502
Re: Godox AD-1200 1200W Portable Flash Head with car battery

Interesting idea, but as mentioned above the flash heads need very high voltage and high dynamic currents (low average but very high dynamic). However, I would think that if you are willing to sacrifice a AD600 battery you could open the pack and wire in a heavy gauge wire with a proper connector for a car battery connection, this is not the usual 12 volt car plug since the current demand will likely exceed 20A when the AD600 is recharging for another flash. Of course you are using the AD600 base units and not just the remote flash heads.

Another option would be to constantly recharge the AD600 battery from the car battery, this wouldn't require the high current demand and could be done externally to the AD600 battery without modification by using an external DC to DC converter to replace the AD600 charger. The AD600 charger is rated for 12.6 V at 3.3A, so one possibly could configure an DC to DC converter with proper current limit to allow connection to a car battery. You might be able to modify the AD600 charger to work from a car battery also.

The simplest option is to use a ~200 watt AC inverter to power the AD600 charger, or a much larger inverter (1000 to 2000 watt) to power the AD600 120VAC Power Supply Module. Sometimes these inverters don't like these kind of load (tend to have negative input impedance characteristic). I found this to be the case many years ago attempting to power some AC strobes with an AC inverter, and ended up having to "load" the inverter with a 100W incandescence bulb to get things to work..

Anyway, be extremely careful when dealing with these concepts. If you aren't an experienced Electrical Engineer in this field, I wouldn't attempt doing anything inside the AD600 battery, and certainly not inside the AD600 charger or strobe where lethal voltages are present.

The safest approach is the simple option mentioned with the AC inverter.

Best,

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OP visiono Junior Member • Posts: 46
Re: Godox AD-1200 1200W Portable Flash Head with car battery

thanks guys.  I'm actually trying to avoid the costs of the ad600 packs. Sounds like there is no way due to the high voltage requirements of the flash head.

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