My home made battery box

[nigelbeaumont]

My nice new home made battery box, built into a £20 toolbox from B&Q:

34 Ahr leisure cycle battery

5 x 12V cigarette lighter sockets + 1 x twin USB charger socket

120W pure sine wave inverter plus 4 x 240V sockets (in case I ever have to power something that can't be powered from the 12V sockets or doesn't have a 12V DC convertor)

4 port self-powered USB hub

Panel mounted voltmeter, and switches to turn on any of the above power supplies

The cigarette sockets and wiring are protected by a 10A fuse (in addition to fuses in the 12V plugs which protect equipment powered from them), the USB hub by a 2A fuse, and the 240V sockets by a 1A fuse plus a 30mA RCD (inside the box, so can't be seen in any of the photos). There are holes in the sides of the box for cabling, so it can be used with the lid down to protect against dew. The large flat white object at one end of the open box is a silica gel dehumidifier, which can be electrically heated in situ with the lid up every fortnight to regenerate it, while the cable sticking up in the middle of the open box is the battery charger lead, which I connect to a trickle charger when the box is not in use. I use the shallow storage boxes on top for eyepieces, cables etc that I need to access while imaging

Haven't transported it to a dark sky site yet, but been using it for the last few weeks in my garden and it makes setting up and stripping down so much quicker and easier than before. I use an autoguider and DSLR rather than CCD and laptop, but if I ever move to the latter I think the box will also be a good base to stand the laptop on

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Looks very neat. Excellent job

[Horwig]

Nice, particularly like the led lights in the cover, I've been thinking along the same lines, so much easier to rig and de rig.

Huw

[JonC]

Very nice setup, going to make something similar, but a bit smaller myself. My current scope is an etx-105, so not a massive draw, I currently run it off a 12v 17ah SLA battery, possible scope and mount upgrade will need something a bit bigger.

[Soupy]

That looks very professional, can we have a look under the bonnet?

[mapstar]

Nice Job fella

[faulksy]

thats big

[StuartJPP]

I like that...good job.

[nightfisher]

Very nice tidy job, i had toyed with some thing like this but i have gone back to 6v power

[Stridor]

Wow, that is quite a battery box.........I was going to post a picture of mine....I'm not anymore!

[Vox45]

4 port self-powered USB hub

Ha this is the last piece of the puzzle for me. I am having a hard time finding a powered USB Hub that works on 12V DC

They are either quite expensive, or 'charger' not 'hub'

Could you link the one you are using ? Did you use a 12V to 5V converter to power it ?

[nigelbeaumont]

It's a StarTech industrial 4 port hub from eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291472809003?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D291472809003%26_rdc%3D1),input voltage 7V to 24VDC, so 12V battery OK to power it direct. You will need to move an internal jumper for external power instead of via the USB cable (not documented in StarTech masnuasl)

[Vox45]

It's a StarTech industrial 4 port hub from eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291472809003?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D291472809003%26_rdc%3D1),input voltage 7V to 24VDC, so 12V battery OK to power it direct. You will need to move an internal jumper for external power instead of via the USB cable (not documented in StarTech masnuasl)

Thought so !

It looks very nice, and although it's quite expensive I will try to include one of these in my next project

Kudos to you on this beautiful battery box !

[bob1957]

Very neat job Nigel. I take it the LED's in the lid are red. As Soupy says would appreciate a picture of the inside layout.

Cheers, Bob

[derrickf]

It's a StarTech industrial 4 port hub from eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291472809003?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D291472809003%26_rdc%3D1),input voltage 7V to 24VDC, so 12V battery OK to power it direct. You will need to move an internal jumper for external power instead of via the USB cable (not documented in StarTech masnuasl)

Hi Nigel,

are you sure about this? I just disconnected the USB cable from mine and the power LED extinguished; I then connected 12V to the power connector (still with USB disconnected) and the power LED came on so it obviously thinks it is getting power from the external supply.

Regards

Derrick 

[nigelbeaumont]

There were a series of posts about the jumper in the reviews of the hub on Amazon. I opened my hub when I first got it and indeed there was a jumper - can't remember exactly how it was labelled, but it was something along the lines of 'USB' and 'external', so I moved it as per the posts. Having said that, I never checked before moving the jumper to see if equipment plugged into the hub powered up without anything connected to the input USB B socket

[Wyvern]

Just knew it was going to be a fatal mistake browsing through this post of your Nigel.  After connecting up my two small ex buggy batteries for their two monthly top up, I ventured into the "I'll need that sometime" area of my mancave and promptly tripped over a large plastic tool box that suddenly shouted "use me....use me"!!  A couple of clicks on fleabay later, and some ciggy sockets, fast blow mini fuses and fuse holders were winging their way from China to me.  Sad really that I can spend £7 in buying from China (inc free p/p), or source locally and pay nearly double for the same thing.  

I feel a project coming on!!!!!

Thanks,    Les