Which Power Tank?

[Alkaid]

Hi all,

I have an EQ5 and will soon be upgrading it to either simple motor drives or full Synscan (haven’t decided which suits budget yet).

I have looked at the Skywatcher 17Ah power tank and understand that this has both 12V and 6V outputs, so no problems there with my decision on the drives.

My issue is that I have a 12V fan at the rear of my Newtonian. The cable for this has crocodile clips, rather than tip positive plug. Does the SW power tank have separate 12V pos / neg terminals for this sort of application?

Or if anyone knows of a cheaper tank that would be a solution, please let me know?

Thanks Steve

[Scott]

Skywatcher is definately NOT the cheapest option. Maplins do a similar pack and I can't remember but i think it was about £35. Before you buy one though, think what it is exactly that you want it to do. If you intend to run a laptop,dew strips cameras etc then these packs aren't really up to it. they'll run your mount only for 10-15 hrs easy but add the other stuff required for imaging and you're down below 3hrs. if this is the case you might be better off with a 100Ah(ish) leisure battery

[Alkaid]

Hiya,

Nothing special, I won't need to power any imaging devices or dew strips (it's a Newtonian OTA).

So just the drives and the fan. It's finding a power source that accepts tip positive plugs AND the crocodile clips that my question is in regards to.

Thanks Steve

[Adrian Condon]

Hi Steve,

Where in the uk do you do your viewing?

I have a 10" dob, I need to run a fan, and heaters on the secondary mirror, eyepiece and Telrad.

I also have a dew band that is sometimes used on a really dew laden night on the primary mirror.

I have tried the Maplin 17amp battery, I found it a waste time as it could not deliver a constant 11.8 volts

minimum required to run my Kendrick dew controller.

I agree whole heartily with Scott. I got a leisure 110 amp battery and it does the job brilliantly.

I use 12volts all the time, so unable to answer the 6 volt part of your question.

Good Luck.

Cheers

Adrian

[jonathan]

12volts is relatively easy to step down to 6v with a simple in-line resister module (you may be able to get one from an auto parts shop). If you go for the leisure battery approach you will probably be needing a pair of battery clips anyway, so do some shopping while you are buying the battery, make sure there's an inline fuse somewhere in your circuit so that you don't have any nasty burning wires and sparks incidents. Making your own cable should be easy enough providing you are sure of the polarity - typically tip positive but make sure for your mount. SkyTron or others may make a cable to fit your needs so check around, you could always add clips to a SkyTron cable by first chopping off the (incorrect) ends that go to the battery.