Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Equipment => Other Gear => Topic started by: mcgill123 on March 19, 2015, 08:00:00 PM
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Hi all,i am in search of some help with a bola machine that our club has which was supplied without a power source.
Bola provide two options 1) BOLA Power Supply (Mains option) £281.00 and 2) 12 Volt Sealed Gel Battery £123.60 /Multi Stage 12v Battery Charger £49.20 .
Please, bearing in mind that I have very little electrical/power supply knowledge could someone advise me on cheaper alterntives to the ones stated above, thanks.
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the battery is just a battery at the end of the day, you could buy a similar one miles cheaper. not sure on the power source but tbh, if you ask an electrician they'll be able to do it miles cheaper. after all, bola is a retailer so wht they sell is wildly over priced and can be done far far cheaper.
I wouldn't mind findign out who makes their balls.. £5 a ball is just stupid, bound to be able to buy at source cheaper!
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The battery has to be a leisure battery and you can that to power it up but need to get a charger for the battery
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Thanks for the replies , @ProCricketer1982 that was my thinking, price seems excessive but I'm sure they sell plenty.
@simonmay5 I've never heard of said leisure battery but I will look it up, do you know of a reliable but competitive maker of battery/charger ?.
I am yet to use a bowling machine but a couple of guys at our club have used it running it off of a 12v car battery but the power faded pretty quickly apparently.
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Thanks for the replies , @ProCricketer1982 that was my thinking, price seems excessive but I'm sure they sell plenty.
@simonmay5 I've never heard of said leisure battery but I will look it up, do you know of a reliable but competitive maker of battery/charger ?.
I am yet to use a bowling machine but a couple of guys at our club have used it running it off of a 12v car battery but the power faded pretty quickly apparently.
simon sounds like he might know more but leisure batteries and car one are different. leisure batteries tend to last longer I believe, less charge though. car ones need to last but also give out the required power when starting the engine etc
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Thanks for the replies , @ProCricketer1982 that was my thinking, price seems excessive but I'm sure they sell plenty.
@simonmay5 I've never heard of said leisure battery but I will look it up, do you know of a reliable but competitive maker of battery/charger ?.
I am yet to use a bowling machine but a couple of guys at our club have used it running it off of a 12v car battery but the power faded pretty quickly apparently.
That's the difference in a normal battery and a leisure battery they last longer our one lasts about 3 hours fully charged so gives you plenty off time between charges and makes it easy to move around
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I wouldn't mind findign out who makes their balls.. �5 a ball is just stupid, bound to be able to buy at source cheaper!
Regarding the balls, we don't seem to have kept hold of the ones we had originally so I am trying to source some, any ideas of the number needed before the amount of time between collecting the balls becomes tolerable 6/12/24 more?
I've also heard that you can use proper balls but they are not as accurate or stable through the air, any experiences ?.
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A full bucket (24) works well.
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number of balls you need is personal really. I use 100 as that way you get so many balls in your batting time that it's much more valuable. really helps train too as you face soo many balls. however, that's over 500 quids worth of balls!!
using real balls is ok but the machine chews them up and it also damages the rubber wheels inside. meaning you lose accuracy etc etc. people don't respect bowling machine balls in my experience, they just slog them miles and don't care if they lose the odd one. I stopped letting other use my stuff long ago due to that attitude and the fact quite a few get bored batting properly and because they know where it'll be they start just smashing it. sod that, if you want to slog get off my machine
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@ProCricketer1982 I might quote you when putting my request to the committee for balls but realistically if we can squeeze a dozen the lads will be happy, is there a general preference regarding the two colour options?.
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@ProCricketer1982 I might quote you when putting my request to the committee for balls but realistically if we can squeeze a dozen the lads will be happy, is there a general preference regarding the two colour options?.
red and yellow are supposed to be the same but I've always found yellow ones react slightly different. dip a bit more. all mine are red. they do lighter orange ones though which bounce more for use when doing short ball trainng, bouncey wicket training and when using the youth legs or slow speed.
at the end of the day, what colour ball do you play cricket with :)
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I wish I hadnt looked into leisure batteries/chargers, I can't make head nor tail of the numbers or the different types of battery available.
Could anybody kindly advise me on the type lead-acid, gel, agm, other? and size Ah? of battery needed to power a Bola for a two hour session without losing power that is reasonably priced?.
Ideally we would like cheaper version of the one available from Bola but I'm not sure if that exists?
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I wish I hadnt looked into leisure batteries/chargers, I can't make head nor tail of the numbers or the different types of battery available.
Could anybody kindly advise me on the type lead-acid, gel, agm, other? and size Ah? of battery needed to power a Bola for a two hour session without losing power that is reasonably priced?.
Ideally we would like cheaper version of the one available from Bola but I'm not sure if that exists?
I check mine tomorrow and get back to you on the size and amper it is
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I use the xls 110 from here
https://www.batteriesuk.uk.com/leisure_and_marine_batteries (https://www.batteriesuk.uk.com/leisure_and_marine_batteries) although the xls 85 seems the nearest to the battery that Bola sell.
i have 2 so one is always charged. The first one started to lose a bit of charge after about 3 years but is still good for 2 to 3 hours
the 1 year old one will last more than 5 hours but they are heavy brutes.
A decent charger is a good long term investment.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-CTEK-Multi-MXS-5-0-12V-Car-Battery-Smart-Charger-Conditioner-/271811362050?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3& (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-CTEK-Multi-MXS-5-0-12V-Car-Battery-Smart-Charger-Conditioner-/271811362050?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&)
These "smart Chargers " do not damage your battery if you leave them connected for too long so you can safely leave them on overnight or until needed. A normal charger will suffice but you need to be vigilant to avoid overcharging which will reduce the battery life.
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At our club we have had a number of batteries over the years they never last that long 2 years at the most and then you need to fork out for a new one.
So a few years ago we purchased a small two stroke generator which runs the machine perfectly and 1l of fuel last about 6 hours so its dirt cheap to run and you don't need to worry about if the battery is charged.
Not really an option if you are planning to use the machine indoors though!
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I use a 12v 18Ah (amp/hours) rechargeable leisure battery hooked up to a 300W sine wave power inverter into which you just plug the power cable with its standard wall plug attachment. It lasts about 90 minutes on the bowling machine. It charges in a few hours. I think the more Ah (amp/hours) the longer the machine will run for but obviously the more costly it becomes.
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why does no one just use the power pack? so much easier than a battery
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the power option offered to me seemed expensive and overly cumbersome as a i recall. this may have changed of course. plus, the battery i have actually runs our camping equipment and it just seemed a more flexible solution but there are many ways to skin a cat… apparently.
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Thanks for all the replies everybody, this thread has really helped in figuring out which options would suit us best.
I had donated a 2 stroke generator to our club last season so that should sort the power for outdoor nets and a decent leisure battery and charger should see us good for indoors.
The cheapest I could find the balls were £24 for half a dozen .
Once again thanks for all the info guys, much appreciated .
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why does no one just use the power pack? so much easier than a battery
Because we dont even have electricity at our pitch :-[ :-[
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Because we dont even have electricity at our pitch :-[ :-[
great reason :)
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Does anyone have any experience with the GM bowling machine ball? How does it compare to the balls that Bola supply?.
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Does anyone have any experience with the GM bowling machine ball? How does it compare to the balls that Bola supply?.
It's like the paceman ball intended for the use in the paceman pro
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What do you prefer about them Jake?
I presume they are compatible with machines other than the paceman?
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What do you prefer about them Jake?
I presume they are compatible with machines other than the paceman?
I've used them in our BOLA. They are ever so slightly bigger than the BOLA balls so tend to come out a little slower.
The BOLA ball is definitely the best ball in my opinion