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Alternatives to EQ5 dual motor battery pack


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Just wondering aloud what alternatives to the battery pack for the EQ5 there are. Some sort of mains transformer, I guess, and the things that Maplin sell (yes, this is new territory for me and 'things' is the extent of my knowledge).

What do people use?

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When I had a CG5 (Celestrons version of the EQ5) that had dual axis drives on it and the battery pack seemed to last for ages. I was happy not to have to carry a portable power supply around as well.

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I use a leisure battery for my Heq5, but its not a cheap alternative. That will allow me to use the mount, laptop, camera, and dew heaters all night, probably for a couple of nights. But then you need to buy a good battery charger as well.

You would probably be looking at £50 for a 56Ah battery and the charger cost me £90.

As john said if your battery pack works for you all night dont change it unless you start upgrading to GoTo, and imaging gear etc.

It is probably worth you getting a couple of sets of rechargeable batteries to go in the battery pack, keep both sets fully charged when one runs out you have a spare set.

Keiran

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Andrew, It depends where you are observing from, if it is your own back yard, then a power pack delivering the correct voltage and adequate Amp hour rating to run your mount, run from the mains, if you have a power point somewhere near, to avoid long runs of power cable, is often used for ease of use. The alternative is a stand alone re-chargeable power pack of the types sold by Maplins which are very popular, or the purchase of separate re-chargeable SLA batteries usually in the range 6/12 Volt 7Ah or 17Ah, either used as they are, with just the leads clipped to the battery, or DIY mounted in a box with cigarette type car plugs and sockets, the latter is obviously the best alternative, if you are DIY inclined. The final and to end all power packs is the 85Ah or 110Ah leisure batteries, they are very heavy and are lead acid, but will run a number of devices dew-heaters scopes and the like for many hours and will not damage if run down too far as with some of the other types, HTH :)

John.

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Thanks one and all - very useful indeed.

My thoughts were inclined toward the idea of running different devices with the mount. As my 'next step' in astronomy is getting away from my back garden and heading to dark site spots I was beginning to think of what my needs might be.

Cheers guys :-)

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