WayBig

(Oops)

And here's the pic (hopefully)

Wahey, I'm up and running now with my own home made power tanks set up. This consists of - 14ah deep discharge battery - fused cigarette lighter socket - almost free voltmeter from eBay - switch from maplin (sellotaped to the side of the voltmeter I figured 14 ah would do since I've been copied nicely with a 7ah power tank quite nicely. It was important for me to be able to fit it onto the dob base under the tube so it's one less thing to carry out. I might get some form of project box from maplin to tidy it up, but it all works nicely Plus, I get 0.3 volts free - 12.3 for the price of 12 :-) Thanks for the advice and inspiration. It's nice to have assembled something myself for less than a power tank (although I don't have the brighter than the sun floodlight and fm radio that a power tank has!)

Thanks for the info guys and some much more industrial builds than I'm thinking of. I like knobbys in Balazs threads, I now know that these batteries can be put on their side so that helps me conceal it on the dob base. I think 22ah should be ok, I've been coping with a 7ah skywatcher tank for a few years and that was ok for my setup. Now, I just need to work out which battery will work with my charger to hopefully save having to buy another one. Thanks all for the inspiration

Hi, I've got my eye on a 12v, 22ah deep cycle battery (agm, not gel) but need some assistance on what else I'll need. Battery: I'm thinking of something like this one. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yuasa-Golf-trolley-battery-YPC22-12/dp/B00APFK4LU/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1410902681&sr=8-10&keywords=yuasa+12v+battery Charger: I already have a Halfords 'fully automatic' battery charger which is suitable for 'all lead acid and deep cycle leisure batteries and most gel' . It's one of these: http://www.halfords.com/motoring/bulbs-wiper-blades-batteries/car-battery-chargers/halfords-fully-automatic-battery-charger The curious thing is it also says 'not suitable for electric vehicles, gold carts or agm batteries' which seems a bit odd...if the battery mentioned above isn't an agm then why would the fact that it's a golf battery make the charger not suitable?. If this charger wouldn't work could you recommend similar capacity batteries that would? What else would I need Bits of wire (you can tell I'm not too technical at this!). Like a battery terminal to cigarette lighter set, which would then plug into the dc cable that came with the scope. I'd probably get a fused one. I've seen these on eBay for not very many pounds Any kind do volt meter / ammeter to monitor the remaining capacity of the battery? Any gadget to regulate the voltage (or do these provide pretty steady voltages)? Thanks in advance for any assistance given

Stuart- how did you work out the watt hours, I couldn't see it anywhere in the listing (perhaps it's in the manual and you only get to find out once you've bought one!) ...just keen to get as much info as possible to enable me to work out which will be best. Thanks Chris

And I've seen elsewhere on Sgl that these type of tank would have a much shorter run time at 12v Tracers look the biz but are a bit pricier than I'd hoped. Has anyone spotted or tried one of these, cheaper than a tracer, seems designed to run at 12v, 8400mah is less than bigger tracers but still more than my old 7ah power tank http://www.dogcamsport.co.uk/12v-8400mah-li-ion-power-pack.htm

Hi astronymonkey, did you get one do these Ankers? Anyone else tried one? I'm thinking about one of these - significantly cheaper than a tracer. My 10 inch auto dob runs at 12v, probably only draws an amp most of the time. Cheers

So my 7ah skywatcher power tank is kaput and I'm looking for alternatives. I've spotted "jump starters" that also have USB ports in, so they could be useful alternatives. Firstly because they are much smaller so wouldnt get in the way on my scope mount, and secondly because it will come in useful for iphone charging on weekends away! In particular, I've seen this "Jumbl" one on amazon : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jumbl-Portable-Starter-000mAh-Capacity/dp/B00KIXSXWQ I have a 10 inch skywatcher goto dob which needs 12v - and this power tank has a 12v output. So I have a few questions: Firstly - has anyone any experience of this type of power tank/jump starter, do they deliver a good constant power supply? Secondly - (a little long winded this one) - the skywatcher power tank states it delivers 12v 10A, and this power tank also claims that, though there are many similar (cheaper) ones that deliver a 12v, 2A)...now if I remember my electronics - the 10A would be the maximum that the power tank could deliver - the scope would actually draw as much current as it needs, which presumably is a lot less that 10A because my 7AH power tank used to last for many many hours....So I think my questions are - does anyone know what current a goto-DOB would need? Would a lower spec jump starter / power tank with 12V / 2A output be sufficient? Thirdly I suppose just to confirm my basic maths/electronics knowledge - the tank in the link is rated 12000mAH which should be 12AH - so should last longer between charges than the 7Ah of the skywatcher tank Thanks in advance

Mine failed this week too, though to be fair it has been neglected for the last 6 months. Checking out alternatives this evening - so will probably post soon asking for advice!

The debayer check box also cures the grid line effect, and I've found the usb traffic option now aswell. Though I think my netbook is underpowered for the ASI as it is still very difficult to use firecapture. Sharp cap performs a lot better so I'll go back to using that. Even with that I can only get about 3fps at full res, and about 12 fps when I reduce the resolution to around 640 to 800.....there's always something to upgrade isn't there :-)

Thanks, I'll look for that option. I cut the capture off after 200 frames because it was killing my netbook [see question 3 :-) ]

Wow, I couldn't believe when I turned the handset on yesterday and say the date that it's been almost 2 years since I've tried imaging. I'm sure I've forgotten more than I knew! Also, I'm trying now with a new ASI120MC rather than my old SPC so have a whole host of new questions...please help drag me up the learning curve. So attached are 2 images, the first jpg is 200 frames taken using sharpcap on 8th which isnt bad for a "first" image, and the 2nd is a single bmp taken today using firecapture I process through Pipp and stack in Registaxx. Can anyone help me with any of these questions: 1) The firecapture images have pixel gridlines all over them (it looks much worse when opened in registaxx), I didnt get this in sharpcap, why is this? 2) Pipp claims that the firecapture images are black and white, and that the sharpcap ones are colour - the 120MC is a colour camera, what do I need to do to get colour images through firecapture? 3) Firecapture on startup tells me I can reduce USB traffic using the cog wheel. Where is this cog wheel, I cant find it anywhere in firecapture. I think I need to reduce this traffic because I think it's killing my netbook. Is there a similar Sharpcap setting? 4) I stacked the firecapture gridline bmps and in wavelet processing the slightest tweak led to a huge overexposure in the middle of the image....any ideas why? 5) Finally with Sharpcap I had options to set the frame rate to 30fps, 1 and 2 fps - is there a way of getting any options in between 30 and 2?That's all for now. Lots of head scratching. It's a shame that tonight's data is junk because seeing wasn't terrible, there was a really nice view of the GRS and my scope was actually tracking really well for once! Thanks in advance for any help you can offer 000.bmp

Hi robin, did you manage to fix this? I'm getting this now with my ASI120, it worked fine last time I used it, back in November. Ta Chris

I'm going to have to buy another ES, just to get a look at the new box :-)