Hey, I've been looking around everywhere to find a way to power my DC cigarette lighter powered air compressor from something other than a car.
If anyone could tell me how to accomplish something like this that would be great.

 

You will need a sealed lead acid 12volt 7.5amp (SLAA12-7.5F2 part# at BatteryPlus) and a 12v Battery Tender to re-charge it. The battery is ~$40 and the tender is ~$30. You strip the compressor's wires off the cigarette lighter and put female F connectors on the wires. Connect the leads to the SLA battery and disconnect and connect battery on to tender when you wish to re-xcharge it and/or when not in use.

 

You need a 12V supply with sufficient current rating that it can run the compressor. Could be a smallish 12V battery - say with a couple of ampere hour capacity. Or a mains powered DC adapter - again with the right current rating.

You can purchase a cigarette lighter socket and wire it to the power supply so that the compressor will plug straight in. Perhaps add an in-line fuse for safety.

Do you know the current demand for the compressor at full load? Any nameplate with that info.?

 

Ive had this pump for a while and i dont have the manual and such. It also doesnt have any exterior labeling to indicate any of this. It is rather small and I will open it up to see. It doesnt appear as if it would take very much power but ill check it out.

 

You might even be able to run it from a salvaged ATX form-factor computer power supply.

Google "ATX bench supply" for ideas.

It won't run as fast as if it were powered by an automotive system while the engine is running due to the lower voltage (12v vs nominal 13.8v), but as long as the current drawn by the compressor wasn't too high, it just might do the trick - and cheaply, too.