looking for some portable power, preferably with one cig. lighter port,
a few usb's & one standard 120 three prong plug. want to stay in the
under $50 price range. Will use to recharge cell phone, power some small fans
& a light.

seen plans on how to build my own, but it's with a car battery & that would
be too much $$$

the ones i'm looking at have SLA batteries, but has anyone seen plans for building these
in my price range? or one made up, but don't want those units with jumper cables, ect
to keep weight & price down.  thanks

My wife and I sell at art shows and needed power source for IPad credit card transactions and other things.  I used a Stanley rolling tool chest and mounted a 12 volt RV battery inside.  I have DC cigarrette adapter with USB adapter to supply power.  I also have an 18 watt portable solar panel to help recharge battery.  Worked great two weeks ago at the first show we used it(battery only).  I know you want a cheaper solution but this is about $200.

not going to happen in your price range. even a cheap little 140w inverter it going to run you $20-30. nothing thats worth a damn is going to provide you with the options you want at $50. building your own is about your only option and even then you will be over $50 and it wont last that long because the battery will be low mAh.

It all comes down to the size/quality of the battery inside.

This unit has a 18amp hour 12v battery, they use to sell a 21amp hr battery model (but it no longer exist).

http://www.harborfreight.com/12-volt-jump-start-and-power-supply-38391.html




The 18amp hour battery in this unit is decent, add a small inverter and attach a cig lighter to the outside and you are all set.




http://www.harborfreight.com/200-watt-continuous400-watt-peak-power-inverter-61478.html

 
I have one of those HF units. It's pretty good, especially when it goes on sale and you add the 20% coupon on top of that. And, it already has a 12V outlet on the right side, not visible in the pic show.

I had the same questions as the OP came to the same conclusion  as you.  A good jump start battery is a convenient all in one solution.  Some of the new ones have a built in power cord for recharging, lights, usb sockets, everything.  I'm kind of surprised nobody has figured out to put an am fm weather radio on one or to include an inverter.   But inverters are cheap and they have a 12 v lighter socket.

if you want to up your amp hours (mine is 93) and willing to put up with adding a 12v to usb cigarette adapter, a deep discharge trolling motor battery might be of interest...it has both threaded and clamp terminals, and is easy to attach a 12v cigarette receptacle  directly to the negative terminal... connect with a fused link... pic does not show my cover on the positive terminal when in normal use... kept on a float charger... it is heavy, but the strap is pretty durable... a little over your price... total around $115

If you are handy and can take used stuff and make your own, you might do it if you find lots of stuff on sale/clearance and what not.



It is easy to find the cig outlet and usb outlets at radio shack if they still exist, wally world might have em, I am sure someone on amazon has em.



You need to decide on the battery you want.  Weight vs size vs amp hours is what you are messing with.



Still gonna need a way to charge it, or I glossed over that part.



Even if you don't want the jumper cable parts, most of those jump boxes come apart easily and you can take the cables off or I would recomend removing the clamps and hooking that to your inverter.  It is overkill on wire size but since they are there your cost is already done.



I guess you might be messing with riding mower batteries but their cost is up there with cheap car batteries and the car batteries tend to offer more amp hours.



For weight the lithium stuff is great but it blows your budget out.  I kind of want to get a lithium battery for my 4 wheeler, sometimes I use it a lot for a few months and then it sits a lot.  So pulling the battery is going to be my new way of taking car of the battery so I can put it on a battery tender.