Meade DS 114 Battery Pack---AA vs D Batteries

[jonnyweiser]

The telescope that I bought was missing the batter pack for the motor.  Should i buy a AA battery pack or would it be better to buy the D battery pack?  Thanks!

[ronin]

Usually the battery pack fits in the main body. Since the D cells are much larger then AA's but are still 1.5volt I cannot see how you could fit a block of 6 or 8 D cells in the scope. I assume it is either 9 volt or 12 volt.

If you are hanging something outside the scope body then I suppose the choice is yours.

[jonnyweiser]

Here is my telescope which is the Meade DS 114 and here is the battery pack that plugs into the motor externally.  Im just wondering if it would be ideal to get the D batteries instead of the A's.  Both are 12V

[hazegood]

neither some sort of power tank and appropriate lead to connect it to the mount

[jonnyweiser]

Do you have a link to what i should get....newbie here.

[hazegood]

you would want something like a car jump starter with a 7ah minimum battery, that has a cigar lighter socket on it then you will need a lead to connect that to the mount, as in cigar lighter plug at one end and the appropriate plug for your mount the other , this needs to be wired the correct polarity some mounts are tip positive some are outer positive,

only links I have would be UK ones,

Other people on here may advise further, don't just go buy one on my say so

 

[jonnyweiser]

But wouldnt the battery pack with a set of rechargeable batteries be the cheapest route to go?  I dont use the telescope very often

[hazegood]

depends how long the batteries will last I guess,  you cant use rechargeable aa's they don't provide enough current draw, so you will be replacing them quite often depending on use

[ronin]

Rechargeables are 1.2v not 1.5v so they do not deliver the power required.

I use a main adaptor, also I have a car adaptor - so I can simply drive, park and plug into the car.

One option, likely more expensive are the Tracer Li battery units.

About the only US source seems to be: http://www.tracerlighting.com/tracer-battery-packs.html

They are $200, for the 8Ah version.

There is a 4Ah version but finding one is not the easiest thing to do.

Check ebay.com and amazon.com as the Tracer batteries seem to be predominently UK and very few US outlets.

One problem is that I do not know if they are sold in the US with suitable cables to connect to a scope. I think there is an accessory item here for this and some astro retailers here supply a connector.

What many do is get a smallish deep cycle battery and use that, one aspect however is that a normal car battery charger is not suitable and by the time you get battery and charger the cost rises. Know this as I have been looking for similar the last week.

[Lonestar70]

Rechargable AA or D cells can output an equal, or greater, current than zinc oxide cells... depending on make and actual structure.

so current is not the problem... a lot of modern AA size cells are capable of 2000mAh or more.

What the real problem is... is output voltage.

Rechargable AA cells, or D cells for that matter are only 1.2v so eight would only give you 9.6v which is too low for the mount to function properly.

Off the shelf AA or D non-rechargables are 1.5v so eight would give you 12v which is what the mount requires.

D size cells will not fit in your battery holder, it is designed for AA cells.

Either way, you would be better of getting a 12v 7Ah or higher rechargable sealed lead acid battery (also known as gell cell batteries) with an appropriate mains powered charger.

You would then just need the correctly polarised lead to connect between the battery and the mount, as specified in an earlier post.

I hope you can find a suitable one where you are located... try a proper astronomy store.

Best regards.

Sandy.

[glowjet]

Over on your side of the pond Battery Mart.com of VA should have what you need, a 7Ah SLA battery, as previously mentioned, dedicated charger and some leads should be in the region of around $40. This should keep your scope running happily for a nights observing. In the long run, should also be cheaper than buying batteries every 5 minutes, which don`t seem to last anyway. If you are forward thinking and possibly want to change your scope to something bigger in the future, then go for the larger 17Ah battery, the larger capacity should be able to drive most scopes