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portable power supply


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Go to see ypur friendly car mechanic and see if he or she has any batteries they have replcaed and are waiting for the scrap man to collect. Put a multimeter on them and select the one which is retaining the highest voltage after being left there for a month or so (ideally over 12v, but realistically over 11.5v should be ok). Have it, fit it in a battery box and pad out with polystyrene, put terminals on from ebay/amazon and the appropriately matched power socket for the mounts lead, and an inline fuse, and get a trickle charger, and you are done. Much cheaper, and recycling too.

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probably 4-5 hours a night  when the weather is good, i would probably put the battery on charge after each use. lithium polymer powerpack seems the way to go but the price is far too high at the moment 

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Though the recycling of car batteries is admirable. You really need a 'leisure' type of battery. The car battery is designed to release its power quickly in order to start your vehicle, and then be recharged by the alternator. Leisure batteries are designed to release charge more slowly and are more suitable for use in powering mounts / dewstrips usb hubs etc.

See differences here :--- https://advancedbatterysupplies.co.uk/press49differencebetweencarbatteryandleisurebattery

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Car batteries are fine to use. They spend their lives being discharged and recharged and usually last 5 years or so. Just because they have the capability to release a large amount of electricity quickly when asked to do so does not mean that they are unsuitable for anything else. A 60 amp hour battery can be had new from eurocarparts for 47 quid. A leisure battery will be substantially more. I've always used car batteries for all my 12 volt needs and NEVER had a problem.

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probably 4-5 hours a night  when the weather is good, i would probably put the battery on charge after each use. lithium polymer powerpack seems the way to go but the price is far too high at the moment 

If the power consumption is a full 2Amps at 12Volts (which I think is excessive and it goes that high only during slew at full speed) than the battery at 22Ah will last you for at least 11 straight hours.

The consumption is probably more on the 1A region and I believe it would last for at least 3 nights without recharging it.

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If the power consumption is a full 2Amps at 12Volts (which I think is excessive and it goes that high only during slew at full speed) than the battery at 22Ah will last you for at least 11 straight hours.

The consumption is probably more on the 1A region and I believe it would last for at least 3 nights without recharging it.

I have an old vixen gp dx mount. It draws 3 amp continuous and 5 amp peak. Then I have a laptop running both PhD and BYEOS as well as motorised focuser. At peak, theoretically I could be drawing around 8 or 9 amps. Suddenly, my 40 amp hour battery doesn't seem that great (which is why I bought the 60 amp hour one). This has been shown to be these too. During the faffing about phase when I was getting uses to the mount and doing a lot of slewing, the battery would drop down to about 11.5 volts after about 4 hours. Now, when I'm just tracking a single target, it lasts all night. The vixen mount is very power hungry and at less than 12 volts, tracking just doesn't happen.

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