Chris Owen 66

Thank you so much gents for your input and suggestions, much appreciated. 

16 hours ago, wulfrun said:

Also has 2 other advantages that way. (1) the extension lead means there's a pull-apart connector that should pop if the cable is tugged. (2) the lucars can be left in place permanently on the battery, removing the risk of accidentally swapping polarity.

Thank you for the link, much appreciated. Interesting. Just so I'm following this suggestion.....I cut my cable at position A (and dispose of the cigarette lighter and crocs), then add crimp terminals at the 'new' end of the cable to enable me to attach it to the battery. Then the extension lead in your link just connects to the other end (position B), thus providing an inline fuse. Sounds great! My only question would be, once I've cut at position A....how can I tell which part of the cable is P and which is N? IF I just guess, and accidentally attach the cable's P to the battery's N terminal....will it a) just not work, or b) possible cause damage to the scope's motor electrics? Thank your for your help on this.

4 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

What battery are you using?

Some allow you to bolt the cables to the battery terminals which means you could leave the ciggy socket permanently attached rather than relying on croc clips. Might also make other solutions feasible, such as wiring a fused short cable with 5.5/2.1 plug direct to the battery and then only needing a 5.5/2.1 plug/socket extension lead to run to the scope.

It's an Ultramax 12V, 7Mah, with flat terminals like this -  I'd prefer to get rid of the unreliable cigarette section, as it's so unstable. I feel there's 2 good options suggested by you good people......cut away and dispose of the cigarette lighter section and directly attach the croc clips to the wires that have the connector at the other end (so I'd have a cable with croc clips at one end and the connector at the other, but also with an inline fuse)  or find a cable online that fits the same bill! 

15 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Found one HERE that would work but out of stock

What are you connecting the croc clips to, would some other type of connector fit ?

Steve

The croc clips directly to the metal terminals on the battery. Thank you for the ebay link, that looks ideal.....I'll contact the seller to see when those are back in stock, and certainly cheaper than using an electrician.

3 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Yes I thought it woud be, I would be pretty sure if its for a SW Dob that it is a 5.5mm x 2.1mm connector.
Loads of cables available with this end, the problem will be if you want to get rif of the cigarette lighter plug.
THIS would be a direct replacement for your cable (dont get the ring end ones unless you want to attache a fuse yourself), so available in 2M or 5M and they are great cables.
 

But if the issue, or part of the issue is corrosion of the socket on the short bit of cable you have and not all to do with the long cable then you could still have connection issues,

Steve

Thank you for the link Steve. How does that cable connect to my battery though?

Thanks gents. Taking into account the polarity, the in line fuse and potential damage to my beloved Dob, I think a quick call to a local spark would be in order! He'll probably only charge half an hour anyway.

Hope this photo is of some use Steve. The outer diameter of the plug looks to be 5mm. This fits directly into the box on the side of the Dob's mount. Thank you for your help!

Just now, teoria_del_big_bang said:

You can remove the cigarette type connector, they are pretty poor anyway I hate the things for poor connection issues BUT lease put an in line fuse in its place. If there are any short circuits car batteries, or many other types of battery for that, are capable of delivering many amps for short periods.
Also make sure the polarity is correct.
Personally for the sake of £20 or so considering the cost of your equipment I would just buy a new cable altogether.

Steve

Thanks Steve. Where might I get a new cable...I've looked and looked online but can't seem to find one. Thank you.

Many thanks for your reply and suggestion.....yes I could indeed just attach the croc clips to the leads on the other side of the car lighter. Why didn't I think of that? how can I tell which is P and which is N though? I know very little about electrics, sorry. Would I need a meter to tell?

Hi all,

I use the normal supplied cable to power my Skywatcher 10" Dob.  Battery cables on one end.....power connector on the other. It's worked fine for years. But lately the car lighter section halfway along the cable has become very unstable. Often I have to twist one part inside the other backwards and forwards to get the LED light to illuminate. If I push it in hard, it comes on, but as soon as I let go, it goes out again. Sometimes it flickers, sometimes it's stable....but often it'll go out of it's own accord as I'm using the scope, which is obviously frustrating as it means I have to re-align, etc, as I use Synscan app to control the scope and track objects. So does anyone know if it's possible to just cut-out the lighter section, and just re-attached the loose ends (using small connectors of some kind)? I'll never use the car lighter function, so it's of no great loss! If it's a simple cut-and-paste job, at least I'll have a stable power supply again. Of course I can tell which lead is positive/negative at one end due to coloured clamps, but what about the other end? Will it damage the scope if I accidentally connect negative to positive, or will it simple not work until I connect P to P and N to N? Many thanks! 

Hi all, I'm hoping someone can help, perhaps because the same thing happened to you. I have a Skywatcher 10" goto Dob. It hasn't been used in a long time, and after buying a new battery recently, I hooked it up this evening. But after connecting the new battery (Ultramax 12V 7Ah), the handset was mostly unresponsive. I know the battery is charged, because there's a cigarette lighter-style connector that connects the leads coming off the battery to the motor lead (like a junction box), and the red LED light on the side of this connector was on. Everything was hooked up correctly, but nothing was happening. Now, the handset wasn't dead 100% of the time. Occasionally the screen would have a red glow on its borders and I got the beep a few times, and one one occasion it came on but just read "COMM ERROR 1" or maybe "COMM 1 ERROR" and then froze. The handset hasn't been used in several years. Does this sound like it has died? I've read other reports on here of this hapening to some of you. I even tried putting the power connector directly into the handset instead of its usual place into the altitude motor box, but without success. Is it possible that my battery isn't strong enough? Is 7Ah enough? Or is it more likely the handset has died through several years of not being used, and being in cold garage through several winters? Thank you.  EDIT - I should add the handset comes on normally when holding down '0' and '8' to go into update mode. So maybe all is not lost. Should I try to update the firmware in case it's corrupted? Any advice mych appreciated. Thank you.

Hi all,

I need a new battery for my Skywatcher 10" Flextube Goto Dob as the previous one won't hold a charge anymore. I don't know much about volts, Ah, etc....but would this battery on Amazon be ok? I'm on a budget, but £15 seems very reasonable.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NP7-12-Rechargeable-Battery-NP9-12-NP6-12/dp/B00SMRQ7KA/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=12v+battery&qid=1586626092&sr=8-4

It's the same brand as the one I had, which lasted 10 years or so without any problems.

Many thanks for your advice,

Chris