Help with Power tanks...which one

[Gaze Away]

Buy a non brand power pack from such place as Maplins. It will cost about a third of a brand named one.

Thanks paul but Im in the mood for making my own, fed up with them breaking.....lol

cheers

Andy

[x6gas]

Hi,

Thanks for that. I was going to put in 6 power points and go for a 100 ah leisure battery.

A good idea to put in a point for a heater tape without having to run a controller but are you saying that the controllers somehow limit the power of the strap??

I was going to use the dew heater because instead of running the dew strap at 100 % it saves power because it cuts the power on and off, on and off and I thought this would save my battery hours!!!

I am adding a digital volt meter ( china £2.00....thanks china) so I will be keeping an eye on the power.

Thanks, im still learning so if take no notice if I am talking gibberish. The cel 11" is still in the box, lol......Im taking my time and getting everything right this time all ready for those winter skies!!

Andy

I mostly image from my garden so I actually have a little distribution box into which I plug a 12 volt supply (I have multiple RCDs but I know I'll get flamed for using mains electricity outside...) That has four outputs: mount, dew heater, guidecam/planetary cam, and imaging cam/filter wheel (daisychained to the same supply) - the dew heaters use an RCA connector for reasons I don't understand!

I asked someone about dew controllers when I bought mine (it's a dew-not) and they said with an 11" SCT not to bother. Experience seems to have proved that right...

[Gaze Away]

Thanks for that. I will definitely put in a separate point for a dew heater. I'm going shopping for the bits on Saturday , I just need to find a good priced charger for the system now and win this record box on ebay..cheap...cheap...cheap lol...

Much Regards

Andy

[Gaze Away]

One thing..

If you buy a leisure battery, you'll need a charger to keep it topped up.. Don't buy an "intelligent" charger as they won't charge a totally discharged battery, the intelligent chargers need a few amps in the battery to kick off the charger.

Buy a professional type charger, they tend to be a bit cheaper and have a boost mode on them for giving the battery a high initial charge.

Greg

Hi Greg, I found this charger on ebay...is this the sort of charger you mean??? thanks .........http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221054053672&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en#ht_500wt_1287