I need a bigger battery...

[Antscope]

The manufacturers websites and instructions will tell you those values mate, your mount isn't going to use that much unless its constantly slewing all over the shop!

[Andymarrison]

Thanks - I'll have a squiz at the websites. I might look on the battery manufacturer's website, too, for any tips on how to avoid a hernia when lifting it.

[Velvet]

I currently have had problems with batteries. I have a 70Ah battey (new) but find in these cold conditions with mount, dew strips, laptop, hub.... that the voltage drop makes the mount (NEQ6) light flash and it does not seem to like it.

I am currently considering and over voltage battery with an extra cell to cope with this. All the stuff i run seems to be able to cope with 12-15V but not below 12v. Hope this is a good idea LOL battery people looking at this

for me. Will let you know what happens. If not it may just be a generator i need.

Velvet

[Antscope]

Thanks - I'll have a squiz at the websites. I might look on the battery manufacturer's website, too, for any tips on how to avoid a hernia when lifting it.

Again if you remember my point earlier on the other day about a "duty-cycle" dew heater controller, this comes into play here especially for you as you are using a lot of amps to heat that scope, it would be way more efficient to check one of those out, you can get units that check the air temp and dew point and make power use even more efficient, or you could police that yourself with a digital temp gauge and adjust accordingly.

Your mount isn't going to use much even if its goto, mine uses 500mil amps but its not a goto.

[Andymarrison]

The mount uses up to 1.5 amps but that's with both axes slewing. Can't find any data about the strips yet, but I guess they might draw a good few amps with the controller turned right up - can anyone confirm this, or otherwise? I might well invest in a dew buster system with sensors etc as you suggest Antscope, to cut the demand a bit.

[Antscope]

Makes sense whilst slewing it would draw that much, but tracking at sidereal rate prolly well under an amp providing you take the trouble to balance your scope.

I just got the Kendrick bog standard system, doesn't have the sensors etc but it has duty cycle operation so its pretty efficient, if you go on the kendrick site and match up your strip sizes to their table on the site you will have a more accurate idea as to how many amps they pull, even if they aren't kendrick brand the table will give you a good idea, then you can begin to work out what power you really need.

[Andymarrison]

Thanks Antscope - I'll check out the Kendrick site.

[Andymarrison]

...yep, good info on the Kendrick site - my strip for the 8" SCT takes about 2A at 100% output, with the EP heaters only a few tents of an amp. So a 3A fuse on each output should be OK, I reckon. Thanks for all the help!

[Antscope]

No worries, glad I could help, I gave the "fuse" situation a thorough looking at recently, to give extra protection to the drive controller on my mount, it now has a 1amp fuse protecting it instead of a 7amp fuse, a new drive board would cost me $200 odd to replace it if something went astray electrically.

If you have a good dew shield on the objective/corrector of your scope with your strip underneath I believe you won't need to have that strip on much at all, I'm thinking about getting a bigger dew shield myself at some point as it goes an awful long way in keeping the glass dew free on its own.

[Andymarrison]

Tried out the new battery and homemade distribution box for the first time tonight. Very cold and damp, so dew heaters on pretty high, but after 2 hours I packed in before the power did, due to my toes and nose being freezing cold. Put the battery back on trickle charge afterwards and it was still showing 100% charge, so well pleased!

[Epicyclus Dave]

That's great it's working out , i had to give myself a slap for spending too much time with a multimeter , volt reading the battery ,when i forgot to balance the scope properly and i got wild tracking shots of M33 (etch a sketch looking photo's) , elated by the fact all the power problems were banished i completely forgot the basics , nevermind

Dave.

[Andymarrison]

I know what you mean Dave...I enjoyed the amateur electrics stuff (building a 12V distribution box) a bit too much I think BUT at the end of it all I do have a nice neat little weatherproof enclosure with a Hella input plug and four fused cigarette-type outlets! Now, what else can I plug in...perhaps I STILL need a bigger battery...

[kirkster501]

Andy, what battery did you go for mate pls?

Cheers, Steve

[Andymarrison]

It's a Numax 100Ah leisure battery - got it from Tayna batteries (online). It's a sealed lead acid job - I think the gel or AGM ones are meant to be better, but they're a bit pricey. This one was, I think, seventy-odd quid.

[beamish]

I use an 85amp leisure battery

snap !

20Ah or less is simply wasting money IMHO