# Current requirements on Alien B400



## smoke665 (Oct 12, 2017)

After a call to Paul Buff, I'm more confused then before. According to their tech, the working amps for a B400 should be between 6 and 8 amps each, but could peak to 16 amps if shooting at full power. Then they said I could run both with generator or an invertor of at least a 1000 watts.(10 amps)????? I've always ran 2 of them on 15 amp circuit, and never had an issue.

Anyone have any experience running  lights on either an inverter or generator? Frankly I was thing 6-8 amps total for both.


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## smoke665 (Oct 12, 2017)

Just found buried in specifications. The "average draw", is 8 amps.


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## benhasajeep (Oct 28, 2017)

Most generators have a peak specification.  So, a 1,000 watt gen may have a surge of say 1,250.  But you have to watch.  Some list the surge as their power output.  The small quiet Hondas are that way.  Their 1,000w is only actually a 900w continious genset.  Their 2,000w is only a 1,600w continious!


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## davidharmier60 (Oct 28, 2017)

If it will do what you need I heartily recommend a Honda generator. 
We have an old loud 5000 watt that does what we need. But one of those little Hondas just whispers. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk


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## smoke665 (Oct 28, 2017)

davidharmier60 said:


> If it will do what you need I heartily recommend a Honda generator.
> We have an old loud 5000 watt that does what we need. But one of those little Hondas just whispers.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk



I've got a 3500 watt generator, that would power them, but I was looking at a the addition of an under hood 2000 watt inverter. Battery draw wouldn't be much, until they cycled and could always idle the engine if need be.


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## tirediron (Oct 28, 2017)

I find that VERY hard to believe.  I've run two 1600 w/s Speedo packs off of a single outlet; in fact I've run two of them off of a single battery inverter once in a moment of crisis with no breakers tripping.  Not sure where PCB is in terms of digital, but a lot of the newer lights need a pure sine-wave power supply to function, so if you buy an under-hood inverter (d'ya think that new truck of yours could support it?  ) or a genset, make sure it has pure sine-wave output.


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## smoke665 (Oct 28, 2017)

tirediron said:


> I find that VERY hard to believe.  I've run two 1600 w/s Speedo packs off of a single outlet; in fact I've run two of them off of a single battery inverter once in a moment of crisis with no breakers tripping.  Not sure where PCB is in terms of digital, but a lot of the newer lights need a pure sine-wave power supply to function, so if you buy an under-hood inverter (d'ya think that new truck of yours could support it?  ) or a genset, make sure it has pure sine-wave output.



As do I, their techs were very vague about things, but I found the 8 amp rating buried in their literature. Nothing on the lights. I would think the 8 amp would only be during powering up, and only if you were shooting at full power.

Actually the truck came with an inverter, but I think its only about 300 watts.


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## Gary A. (Oct 28, 2017)

I saw some solar powered generators on the internet.  They were quite expensive, but may have an appeal to you and your needs.  I don’t remember any of the specs.


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## smoke665 (Oct 28, 2017)

@Gary A. maybe if we were going off grid. LOL I'm just looking at rigging something for temporary service when I shoot outside (where power not available) and want to use my strobes instead of  speedlights.


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