Portable generator to work on vids. Specs I should consider?

alejandromad

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Portable generator to work on vids. Specs I should consider?

I want to pick up a generator to work on games, that are in storage, through the winter.
There is no electricity where they are.
I only plan to power the games if I am working on them... basically expecting to only have a single game (and a light or 2) powered on at a time.
I don't want to spend wads of cash buying some super powerful portable generator that I will only be using for this purpose.

That said... does anyone have experience with this... doing something similar?
Or perhaps can advise me on what sort of specs I should look for?
I see stuff like 'surge watts' and 'rated watts' and I don't know what numbers I should be looking for.

Thanks!
 
Harbor Freight has a decent one that will fit you needs:

http://www.harborfreight.com/800-rated-watts-900-max-watts-portable-generator-66619.html

And it just so happens that generator 66619 is on sale with a coupon in the Dec 2011 flyer # 4993 for just $99.99

This is a nice small generator that is rated for up to 800 watts load with a peak (surge) of 900 watts. Most video arcade games draw about 150 to 200 watts. Then say you have a couple of 100 watt light bulbs connected so you can see what you're working on. This will be a perfect generator for you.

Oh yes, I almost forgot something. When using a generator, once it's started, turn on the lights first (stabilizes the generator) and THEN turn on the arcade game (prevents blowing the game's power supply).
 
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id also reccomend some sort of power conditioner or mabye even just use a old ups(uninterruprible power supply) to make sure youre feeding the games clean power.
 

Ordered! It's on the way.

id also reccomend some sort of power conditioner or mabye even just use a old ups(uninterruprible power supply) to make sure youre feeding the games clean power.

Oh yes, I almost forgot something. When using a generator, once it's started, turn on the lights first (stabilizes the generator) and THEN turn on the arcade game (prevents blowing the game's power supply).


... and thanks for the advice on how to use it (turn on a light first, run through a UPS) properly too!
 
You're in Minnesota, what about heating your workspace? Remember to run that thing outside of your work area; don't want to end up dead from the carbon monoxide!
 
You're in Minnesota, what about heating your workspace? Remember to run that thing outside of your work area; don't want to end up dead from the carbon monoxide!

Yeah... no worries. I have the heat thing covered and yes, the generator will be outside the space.
 
I did this for a year a while back,i never had a problem. the only drawback was the damn noise,even with it outside and it was one of those "quiet" gen's. But you should have no problems. "storage" eh,whats going on in there? any gems?
 
I did this for a year a while back,i never had a problem. the only drawback was the damn noise,even with it outside and it was one of those "quiet" gen's. But you should have no problems. "storage" eh,whats going on in there? any gems?

No, not really. You can see about 2/3rds of what's in there by looking through these pages:
http://s972.photobucket.com/albums/ae206/alejandro_madera/Arcade/Storage/

Some are gone already and some other stuff isn't pictured. I had 10 or so games in this unit and I moved all the games that were in another facility one day, to consolidate them, and took pictures of most of what I moved that afternoon.
 
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