Well I always carry one of these in the 185, handy for charging laptops and cell phone etc, never had to use it in anger............until today. Came back to my aircraft, opened the door and discovered my mistake (master switch and lights left on ) - battery turned the prop perhaps 6 inches before she stopped dead flat.
Oh well out with the little Chinese power pack, hook her up to the battery and whadda ya know - it works!! fired up the 185 and flew home
A very handy lightweight piece of equipment!!

Any ideas for 24 volt? Would it be as easy as buying 2 of these and connecting positive to negative jumper on one and then the other positive and negative to the plane?

Back in the day, before someone grew wiser to sell Lithium to the public, we used cheap Lipo batteries for this purpose. You could destroy them by overdrawing them. You could start a hilarious fire by shorting them on accident (youtube: lipo fire). But, they were cheap and worked insanely well -- 100+ amp draw in something that I could fit in my pocket.

Most of these lightweight jump packs are simply Lithium-ion (or other high-draw chemistry) batteries. They're never use Lipo. I wouldn't really want Lipo in a plane either -- simply too much of a fire hazard. They work great for RC though.

These new jump kits... there's nothing special about them. Well, one thing is they are lighter. However more importantly, they have the same peak cranking amps as the big lead acid counterpart but they do not have the amp hours or longevity. They'll crank your car over for 10 seconds and then call it quits. Sure it's good enough for its intended purpose: it will start an otherwise good operating vehicle whose battery is dead because some idiot left the lights on. They will not sit there and crank over your 30 year old chevy truck that needs a one minute cocktail of ether and starter cranking to fire the cranky son of a.. up.

Likewise, if your Lycomings is anything like mine, it better be warm out....

NZMaule wrote:Came back to my aircraft, opened the door and discovered my mistake (master switch and lights left on ) - battery turned the prop perhaps 6 inches before she stopped dead

That's my fear!!!

I bought a NAPA version It was$125 I think they call it Blue Power???

Haven't had to use it yet but it will live in the 185.

NZMaule wrote:Well I always carry one of these in the 185, handy for charging laptops and cell phone etc, never had to use it in anger............until today. Came back to my aircraft, opened the door and discovered my mistake (master switch and lights left on ) - battery turned the prop perhaps 6 inches before she stopped dead flat.
Oh well out with the little Chinese power pack, hook her up to the battery and whadda ya know - it works!! fired up the 185 and flew home
A very handy lightweight piece of equipment!!

I love my little China power pack too. Not too good on big diesels but gas engines are great.

Bringing this thread back up. Sitting around in the cold with nothing better to do than wonder how I will get my tractor starter to blow snow.

Anything new with these battery packs that I should be aware of? Best suggestion? I see the Earth-X has their Jump pack on sale but reading the specs I have seen others with higher ratings for cheaper. But then I also see some 'copy-cat' ones getting bad reviews. Especially the Antigravity brand being sold on Amazon.

I have had the antigravity ones for years. Absolutely no issues. The large one boosts my skidsteer no problem. I keep the small one in my flight bag and have boosted my 0-470 with it twice no problem.

Just as a background update re batteries, there was a great NOVA television episode on Public Television titled:

Search for the Super Battery

It just aired ( February 1, 2017 ) and runs about 50 minutes. Lots of discussion on Lithium cells and safety improvements.

Link:
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365946487/

Paul,
I saw that listed on the TV schedule last night but was busy researching 'stuff'. 'Stuff' is usually airplane gear/gadgets/gizmos, so I wasn't in the TV watching mindset. I guess I can watch it via your link. Thanks!
. I am a cheap bugger and only have antenna, n cable for me. I get 6 PBS channels, CBS, and Decades channel, more than enough for me to watch since I have Amazon video and Netflix also.

WWhunter wrote:Bringing this thread back up. Sitting around in the cold with nothing better to do than wonder how I will get my tractor starter to blow snow.

Anything new with these battery packs that I should be aware of? Best suggestion? I see the Earth-X has their Jump pack on sale but reading the specs I have seen others with higher ratings for cheaper. But then I also see some 'copy-cat' ones getting bad reviews. Especially the Antigravity brand being sold on Amazon.

You can't go wrong with the Earth-X jump pack. The chemistry is safer than those hardware store types. The people at Earth-X are great.
I'd be very sceptical about the specs on some of the cheaper jump packs. Kinda like "200 watts per channel" on a boom-box that runs on AA cells, or boots rated for "100 below zero" - marketing BS.

I have had the Anti-Gravity battery kit for 3 years and no problems. I have started many planes including 540's/ 520's and many others. The hardest one was an O-470 with a dead battery and some other problems. That little battery turned that motor over at least 1 hundred revolutions until some one figured out the problem. When we were finished it indicated I had 40% left.

I wonder, does anyone have experience starting a 4.5 litre diesel engine with one of these mini starter packs ??

maules.com wrote:I wonder, does anyone have experience starting a 4.5 litre diesel engine with one of these mini starter packs ??

I returned to PALH after a 2 month hunting season and found my 6.6l Duramax with two stone-cold, dead batteries. Pulled the Anti-Gravity XP-10 from the back seat and after manually applying three jump cycles, she came to life.

I have also used the pack to operate a Fill-Rite 8gpm fuel transfer pump. 30 gallons total from 2, 15 gal poly-drums and still had 80% remaining.

Funny, I thought this was a new thread (didn't read the date) and really couldn't believe the jury was still out on these things.

I've owned 3, 2 smaller and one XP10. I used the 2 smaller ones to jump my 7.3 diesel, apparently the XP10 will handle it by itself.

Anything that will turn over a 7.3 diesel will start an O-470.

I consider it essential kit.

Thankyou for confirmations for starting a diesel. Besides carrying in the plane I need to start a 4.5litre JD diesel once in a while.

albravo wrote:Funny, I thought this was a new thread (didn't read the date) and really couldn't believe the jury was still out on these things..

albravo, I'm the one that has to research way too much, any items I am buying. I found so many bad reviews on the various brands being pirated copies, and it seemed the Antigravity brand in particular, was being copied and being sold on Amazon and other places. Lots of fakes out there which led me to the renewal of this thread.

Just a little info on my experience with the Micro-Start XP-1: I received one about 2-3 years ago as a present. I had used it five or six times over the time I had it. It worked well on three cars when the batteries were dead and 3 planes ( a Cessna 172 and two 150"s). It was all that it was advertised as.

Yesterday a friend needed a jump on a Cessna 150 and I was more than willing to help. I connected the unit to the battery on the plane and told the other pilot to go ahead and start it. The prop turned over one time and there was a little pop and I could feel the Antigravity battery start to swell and the seam start to separate. As the prop on the plane began it's second rotation a little bit of smoke began to come out of the seam that was separating. I thought this might be a good time to get this thing off of the plane and out of my hand. I rapidly disengaged the Antigravity battery from the plane's battery and placed it into the center of the taxiway. This was when the real show began. There was a loud pop and white smoke, sparks, burning liquid and loud hissing emitted from the Antigravity battery. It was like an early fourth of July. There was about a 6kt breeze blowing and it took this heavy cloud of thick white smoke across the tiedown area. The cloud was about 20 feet across, 10 feet high and 100 feet long. The burn lasted about 30-45 seconds. The first thing on my mind was that the tower personnel would see the smoke and think a plane was on fire and call out the fire rigs. Fortunately (or unfortunately if it was a burning plane) they did not see this as it was early Sunday morning and the active runway was in the opposite direction.

There was a lot of heat, ignited liquid,sparks and smoke emitted and I would hate to see this happen in an aircraft. Below are pictures of the remains of the battery. Unfortunately there was not a video camera on when this happened, it was quite a festive looking incident.

I know several others have batteries like or similar to this and you might be interested in this event. I will be writing to the maker to see what thoughts they might have. The only thing different about the battery that I can think of was there was a very slight bump on the battery about the size of a nickel round and maybe three sheets of paper high.

svanarts wrote:Anyone have any experience with this product? Would be a nice addition to the junk I haul when camping.

http://www.twistedthrottle.com/antigrav ... wer-supply

I have one. Used it on my Dodge diesel, VW diesel, and on the 182. It does not stay in the plane it goes with me. Got tired of hauling a 10 KVA generator around

Tim.

Hawk wrote:Just a little info on my experience with the Micro-Start XP-1: I received one about 2-3 years ago as a present. I had used it five or six times over the time I had it. It worked well on three cars when the batteries were dead and 3 planes ( a Cessna 172 and two 150"s). It was all that it was advertised as.

Yesterday a friend needed a jump on a Cessna 150 and I was more than willing to help. I connected the unit to the battery on the plane and told the other pilot to go ahead and start it. The prop turned over one time and there was a little pop and I could feel the Antigravity battery start to swell and the seam start to separate. As the prop on the plane began it's second rotation a little bit of smoke began to come out of the seam that was separating. I thought this might be a good time to get this thing off of the plane and out of my hand. I rapidly disengaged the Antigravity battery from the plane's battery and placed it into the center of the taxiway. This was when the real show began. There was a loud pop and white smoke, sparks, burning liquid and loud hissing emitted from the Antigravity battery. It was like an early fourth of July. There was about a 6kt breeze blowing and it took this heavy cloud of thick white smoke across the tiedown area. The cloud was about 20 feet across, 10 feet high and 100 feet long. The burn lasted about 30-45 seconds. The first thing on my mind was that the tower personnel would see the smoke and think a plane was on fire and call out the fire rigs. Fortunately (or unfortunately if it was a burning plane) they did not see this as it was early Sunday morning and the active runway was in the opposite direction.

There was a lot of heat, ignited liquid,sparks and smoke emitted and I would hate to see this happen in an aircraft. Below are pictures of the remains of the battery. Unfortunately there was not a video camera on when this happened, it was quite a festive looking incident.

I know several others have batteries like or similar to this and you might be interested in this event. I will be writing to the maker to see what thoughts they might have. The only thing different about the battery that I can think of was there was a very slight bump on the battery about the size of a nickel round and maybe three sheets of paper high.

That's downright scary!

Cary

Hawk,

That is a great PIREP, thanks!

I'm leery of all these Chinese batteries anyway, I'll be extra cautious of mine now.

That must have been quite the show.

/a