Cheap Power Tank for Goto

[Catweazel]

Investing in a proper deep cycle battery and a proper battery charger/conditioner which will last 5+ years is the most economic and reliable way to go.

Thanks Kev, I will be looking for a battery in the new year, do you have any suggestions, or more specific detail on the sort of thing to look out for?

[Catweazel]

Just spotted these:

http://tinyurl.com/d7vwe8q Battery

http://tinyurl.com/ct4cw55 Charger

These seem a bit pricey, but would they do the job? I am a novice with this sort of thing, so would one need to be an electronics whiz to connect this to a goto mount? The advantage of the power tanks, is that they make all of this fairly obvious, which is probably why they are so popular

[J_M_Franklin]

Have a look about.

Found this on eBay Numax Batteries are decent, they are made by VARTA and this is a 100Ah unit..

Charger wise, you cannot get better than this

CETEK Charger. These are the dogs dangly bits, i have one built into my Land Rover so it gets a continual conditioning charge when not being used, helps to desulphate the battery and increases the life by up to 150% as a result if used properly.

Total cost for both bits is about £100, but this will last years if not abused and the battery will handle everything you throw at it.

[Photosbykev]

Have a look about.

Found this on eBay Numax Batteries are decent, they are made by VARTA and this is a 100Ah unit..

Charger wise, you cannot get better than this

CETEK Charger. These are the dogs dangly bits, i have one built into my Land Rover so it gets a continual conditioning charge when not being used, helps to desulphate the battery and increases the life by up to 150% as a result if used properly.

Total cost for both bits is about £100, but this will last years if not abused and the battery will handle everything you throw at it.

Difficult to fault this selection, if you want to drop the battery capacity down to around 50-60Ahr to save a bit of money and weight it wouldn't hurt. A 50Ahr battery will run pretty much anything all night long so there is still some reserve.

[Photosbykev]

Just spotted these:

http://tinyurl.com/d7vwe8q Battery

http://tinyurl.com/ct4cw55 Charger

These seem a bit pricey, but would they do the job? I am a novice with this sort of thing, so would one need to be an electronics whiz to connect this to a goto mount? The advantage of the power tanks, is that they make all of this fairly obvious, which is probably why they are so popular

All you need to do is get a 4 x cigarette lighter sockets with croc clips on it and you can then use the standard leads that come with most astro gear

[Catweazel]

Ok thanks Kev and J_M, this one looks like a good bet http://tinyurl.com/bvu9yxh a 50Ahr version of the Numax.

@Kev, would it need to be 4x, as I can only see 2 terminals on the battery? Anyway this http://tinyurl.com/cztnfoa sort of thing?

[Andymac79]

Just bear in mind that numax batteries are pretty low down on the quality scale. Also best to buy one over the counter. The manufacture date will be stamped on the neg terminal (varta do anyhow). From ebay you may get old stock without realizing.

[J_M_Franklin]

Just bear in mind that numax batteries are pretty low down on the quality scale. Also best to buy one over the counter. The manufacture date will be stamped on the neg terminal (varta do anyhow). From ebay you may get old stock without realizing.

Not sure what makes you think Numax are poor quality, they are manufactured by VARTA for Numax, except for some that are manufactured by Chloride and they are good quality batteries. At my old place we had Numax Batteries on the Standby Generators and they lasted nearly 8 years before needing to be replaced, and these things where beat to death when we started the Generators each week (5.5MVa 11kV units) and the batteries had to start 22ltr Caterpillar Diesels attached to them with 4 starter motors.

When the Gens started the the start draw was more than 1500A at 24V to get the buggers turning over, we had 2 rows of 8 * 450Ah Numax batteries ( 2 rows gave us the 24V needed) and they were on a constant charge, and these were not conditioning chargers either.

Numax also honour their Guarantee.

A mate of mine works for UK Batteries and they prefer Numax over any other brand, with the clear exceptions of Varta and Chloride, as they have the least number of returns and the best customer service of all the manufacturers.

[Photosbykev]

Ok thanks Kev and J_M, this one looks like a good bet http://tinyurl.com/bvu9yxh a 50Ahr version of the Numax.

@Kev, would it need to be 4x, as I can only see 2 terminals on the battery? Anyway this http://tinyurl.com/cztnfoa sort of thing?

That adaptor will give you a single car cigarette socket to plug a mount into it. If you need more outlets something like this would plug into it http://www.amazon.co...56632987&sr=1-2 depending on how many devices you want to power

[Catweazel]

That adaptor will give you a single car cigarette socket to plug a mount into it. If you need more outlets something like this would plug into it http://www.amazon.co...56632987&sr=1-2 depending on how many devices you want to power

Excellent, thanks Kev, this would be good for a dew strip as well, so a nice idea!

[BargeGazer]

+1 for a leisure battery of 50 Ah or more (I use 70Ah). That way you can run what you want now and as you add other bits such as dew heaters, pcs, and even dew busting hair dryers then even sensitive electronics will still be getting the volts it needs.

Just get a decent charger which you should probably have for your car anyway and you will be st up for years.

[Dellis]

This is similar to the one I use, good value for money and plenty of capacity.

Dave

[Coco]

Leisure battery next time, I'll give your power tank 13 months.. by which time the warranty will be out and it'll be scrap..

[OutThereSomewhere]

Leisure batteries are worth the extra cost!

[Catweazel]

I noticed that a lot of mounts etc say that they require 'tip positive' power source? Does anyone know what this means? and are car batteries 'tip positive' ? Thanks

[Dellis]

Here's my version. As I've already said it's an 88Ah leisure battery with a Maplins project box attached by velcro with two 12v sockets.

Dave

[Dellis]

I noticed that a lot of mounts etc say that they require 'tip positive' power source? Does anyone know what this means? and are car batteries 'tip positive' ? Thanks

It means that the centre of the connecter needs to be positive.

Dave

[Catweazel]

It means that the centre of the connecter needs to be positive.

Dave

OK, thanks Dave; so looking at your box, the 2 12v sockets take cigarette lighter plugs with tip positive connectors going into the mount/dew strip or whatever? Sorry, I'm a bit of a novice with electronics

[Photosbykev]

OK, thanks Dave; so looking at your box, the 2 12v sockets take cigarette lighter plugs with tip positive connectors going into the mount/dew strip or whatever? Sorry, I'm a bit of a novice with electronics

Correct, almost without exception, everything astro related is tip +ve (red terminal on battery). It's the same with most cars as they use the chassis of the body as the -ve return

[Dellis]

OK, thanks Dave; so looking at your box, the 2 12v sockets take cigarette lighter plugs with tip positive connectors going into the mount/dew strip or whatever? Sorry, I'm a bit of a novice with electronics

Spot on!

Dave

[Catweazel]

Just to be on the safe side, if a 12v DC adapter says it's Power supply polarity: Inside positive outside negative, inside x(+) outside i(-), does this mean that it's tip positive? None of the products I can find use the actual term "tip positive". Thanks

[knobby]

yep tip positive is referring to the Tip (inside bit)

[ether823]

If you are not sure that the plug you are about to use is`nt tip pos, use a meter to check. Simples. Pete

[russ.will]

Pointless post...

Russell

[Herbig]

The Ma[lin unit is quite good but the charger is rubbish. It's only a 12v unit so never charges the batt fully - should be 13.8v.

I use a car battery charger to charge mine now. It struggled with my HEQ5 once I started using dew control, but it's fine with my little AZ mount I use with my PST.