Battery Boxes

[Seraph_69]

Hi all,

I am currently doing a bit of research into power solutions for my HEQ5 Pro, which is currently not powered.

I have come to the conclusion that there are 2 roads I could go down:

1. Get a regulated PSU (rated at say 13.8V / 5A for example), a power lead with male cigar lighter plug one end (into the PSU) and the 12V jack (into the mount head) on the other - possibly a very long one, say 10m, to allow me to leave the PSU in the house. And perhaps to be extra safe, an RCD plug to stop me killing myself!

or...

2. A deep-cycle leisure battery, battery box with outputs + power lead.

I figure the battery option is better as it allows me to use either in the garden OR in the field (light pollution is pretty bad where I live).

However, as most people on here probably already know, there seems to be a complete black hole in the market for battery boxes that cater to the needs of astronomers? - A mystery to me.

I am not a DIY person (I prefer to tinker with small things, I'm not much of a power tools, MDF type guy!) And I don't think dangerous batteries is the place to start!!

So my question is this:

If I want to power my mount, at home and in the field AND future-proof myself, in that I want a battery box which has enough outputs to eventually power say a laptop, camera mount and any dew heating equipment I may get...what is my best option given my lack of DIY talents?!

I have seen some leisure battery boxes which come with built in battery health/charge/voltage meters, on/off / kill switches, and say 2x cigar lighter ports, but surely each of those 4 applications I just needed would need their own cigar socket? Or are some run off of USB?

How many of each might I need? I keep seeing these DIY battery boxes with say 6x cigar lighter outputs!

As I research, I keep finding some great info and resources and brand names for batteries etc. but then keep running into problems that I can't seem to get around - this one being the realisation that a battery box is not just as simple as a battery box - and I'm not really DIY-knowledgeable enough to necessarily build one    

Also, the ones I'm seeing pics of over at the DIY astronomy section, are mostly all insulated/filled out with wood/MDF bits, but the battery boxes I am seeing are just flimsy looking plastic!

I feel like the battery would just fall out the bottom of them?! How will they survive on a very cold night out under the stars?

Just so we are clear - this is the type of thing I have been looking at: http://www.vdubxs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/numax_battery_box_01.jpg

Which seems as close to what I might need as I can find - but how many cigar outlets would I actually need? And how many USB? 2 seems to be the max I can find manufactured, and no USB!

Thanks in advance!

P.S. Kind of important, but my house mate is an electrician - so I guess If I had no choice but to build/modify a box myself, he could perhaps help make sure I don't end up killing myself   

[MIDIManNI]

I got a Deben Tracer LiPO Battery (http://www.tracerpower.com/tracer-lithium-polymer-battery-packs.html) and find it to be very good.

Also got a 4-Way Cigarette adapter from Halfords and can power my Scope, Heater Bands and still a few extras left.

Admittedly it is an expensive battery but very reliable.

Hope this helps in some way?

[Seraph_69]

I got a Deben Tracer LiPO Battery (http://www.tracerpower.com/tracer-lithium-polymer-battery-packs.html) and find it to be very good.

Also got a 4-Way Cigarette adapter from Halfords and can power my Scope, Heater Bands and still a few extras left.

Admittedly it is an expensive battery but very reliable.

Hope this helps in some way?

Could you link me to the adapter you bought?

Is it like a splitter? Because this is the other thing I thought of - is it possible to get a 12v output hub as such? Much like you can get USB hubs with multiple outlets/ports?

The entire reason I want a leisure battery is because the tracers are so expensive for their Ah's!

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[Seraph_69]

Would something like this work, anyone?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/triple-multi-socket-with-battery-analyser-a96uk

It's rated for 8amps output/8amp fuses fitted? I an under the impression you want to fit fuses which are only a couple of amps above what your device is actually pulling? So 8A would surely be too much, no?

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[cjdawson]

I know you said that you are not one for DIY, however I believe that making a good battery box isn't as terrifying as you might think.

This link contains the link to a battery box that I made for my scope.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/254985-diy-field-battery-plans-are-ready-should-i-start/page-2

To make a similar battery box, all you need is a toolbox that is box enough to hold the battery and have about 10cm space around the battery - that is, 5cm above, and 5cm below. to be safe make sure that there's 15cm to the side.

The 5cm gap is for 25mm insulation.  This will help to stop the battery getting too cold which will effect the performance.

Then you can add some sockets - I added 2 USB panel mount sockets (giving 4 2Amp USB sockets in total) and 4 * 12V Marine panel mount auto sockets.

Here's the sockets that I used

https://www.seascrew.com/browse.cfm?s=12%20Volt%20Power%20Outlet%20Socket

And here's the USB sockets

https://www.seascrew.com/browse.cfm?s=Double%20USB%20Power%20Supply%20Socket

you can use standard cigarette lighter style plugs, or if you want to be able to lock in you can use something like this

https://www.seascrew.com/browse.cfm?s=Black%20Polycarbonate%20Plug%20with%20Light%20Emitting%20Diode%20&%20Fuse

(I haven't bothered, but for other reasons)

The cable to use is this stuff...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251737702046 I ordered 10meters of the 30 amp stuff, in the red and the black.  That gave me plenty to work with, and I've even got some left over.

I used these to connect the wires to the battery

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004Z5CZ40?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00

For safety I added a fuse box, with some blade fuses like you get in cars.   (15A for the 12v sockets and 5 amp for the usb sockets)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004JFRWLW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00

This isn't strickly needed, but it adds some safety.

I used this to drill the holes in the box.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003L6SSR2?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

You can use a handheld drill, just go slow and you'll be fine.

To wire everything up, I used crimps.  You can get them in Halfords.  Use a crimp tool like this one... http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/heavy-duty-ratchet-crimping-tool-a39qw?gclid=Cj0KEQjw-7GxBRCL_Kq6mZSHvdsBEiQA7r8VhKa0y9EbCwuFgQ7kPGSSXDocdZhDcQy7soaSQqjZbQIaAjsA8P8HAQ

It will make sure that the crimps are attached properly.

You don't need to be an expert in wiring to do this.  it's just a case of cut the wire to length, strip off 5mm of the steath from the end of the wire and add a crimp.  With the amount of connections that you'll be making you'll get lots of practice and will be good at it by the end of the job.

I can guarentee that the wiring will be up to the job.  Actually, it'll be over-eggs, but it'll be safe.

If you decide to go for this, and use the same usb sockets, you'll need to add a couple of switches as the usb sockets have a blue led to indicate that they're powered.  The switch will be to allow you to turn them off.

This switch will do the job

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/everel-16a-rocker-switch-on-off-spst-black-gu49d

And again, you can use crimps to connect everything.

[geordie85]

Would this not be any good?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/5-in-1-power-station-with-air-compressor-a67hy

I've been thinking about getting one but I'm unsure it'll power my goto and laptop

[cjdawson]

It's based on a Built-in 12 V 17 Ah rechargeable sealed lead acid battery they're ok, but you need to factor in that you get a 50% drop in power with used for astronomy.  Also you need to make sure the battery is well insulated - the power stations of that type typically don't insulate the battery to help stop it cooling down.  I've used these successfully when they're new, but I've found that don't really last properly.

[Seraph_69]

Fantastic CJ! Very helpful and informative. A very big thank you!!

You have inspired me to actually give this a go now. I'm sure if I had all the parts bought and sat in front of me I probably could do this.

I certainly won't have any problems with stripping wires I wouldn't have thought, as I work with optical fibres at work and have plenty of experience stripping them mechanically and chemically.

I'm a bit confused as to the actual theory behind it all though. Am I to believe that fuses are there to 'blow' if the current goes just over what the device is pulling, if for example there was a surge, to avoid said surge from reaching and damaging the device electronics themselves?

Surely 15A fuse is very high given that the mount or laptop for example might only pull say 2A max, in the case of my HEQ5 Pro? Surely I want to go just above the device's max current, at say 3A for that particular fuse?

With a fuse box arrangement, can different amperage fuses be fitted for different output sockets, depending on the device I'm going to plug into it? Or do they all have to be the same?

If my understanding is correct then I'd like to 'assign' particular output sockets for particular devices and match them with relevant amp fuses - would this be possible with the arrangement you have shown?

Also, could you just clarify for me what would be plugged in to what? Obviously the mount would connect using the supplied 12v jack to cigarette lighter plug, but what about webcams? DSLRs? Webcams? Laptops? Etc.

Thanks again!

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[cjdawson]

Ah ha.  The theory of fuses  This will be fun.   Yes you are quite right that a fuse should be rated just about the equipment so that it blows and protects the equipment.

So with that in mind, my battery box is just that.  It's a box with the battery in and the sockets that you plug into.  The 15A fuses are there as the crimps are rated at 16A,  Which is the lowest part of the circuit up to the socket.  So the socket is capable of supplying 15A and no more.  This means that you can plug in any 12V device and it'll be protected by a fuse.    But you are quite right that a telescope will not pull anywhere near 15A.

What I didn't tell you (to keep things simple) is that between my telescope and the battery box are a couple more boxes - one contains the dew heater controllers, and 12V-5V DC - DC converter,  this box then supplies the outputs to a second box, which then has sockets for the telescope (with a 2A glass fuse) and two other devices (again 2A glass fuses for these), sockets for my two dew heaters, and a 5V socket for my autoguider.  The plug that connected to the battery box has a 10A glass fuse inside it - just in case.  Everything is fused individually to their ratings.  In all I think it "could" pull about 7Amps without any problems, but the reality is that it'll never get that high.

So with all that in mind my telescope is protected fused by a 2 Amp fuse.

If you are using cigar lighter plugs, you can get versions with the fuse in the plug - this way you don't have to think about plugging the right device into the right socket.

[Seraph_69]

OK so a few questions: why split everything out in to multiple boxes in the first place? Is this a space thing? Is it safer electronically?

Also, are you saying I should actually match the fuse to the amperage of the appliance? Surely I should go just ABOVE to avoid it blowing unnecessarily?

If I was to use all the links you have provided, this is just to build the main box yes? Will this be enough to power all I have suggested and more? Just thinking of future proofing?

I am looking at getting an 85Ah leisure battery, which I understand will bee more than enough to power an heq5 pro, laptop, dew heater and DSLR or webcam for an entire night's observing, or maybe more? Correct assumption?

I'm a bit at a loss as to whether to get a lead acid, gel or (I believe its called) ATX? Essentially it has the electrolyte solution insulted with fiberglass. The latter 2 can be oriented however without risk of leaking acid on your toes (:/) but come at a heftier price tag, and I have to be VERY careful not to discharge them too much/neglect charging of them. Then the standard lead acid have none of the charging related issues, are the cheapest of the 3 but must be treated with more care during movement etc. to ensure they stay the right way up to avoid leakage, correct?

Which would you suggest? Keep in mind I WILL want to travel to reach good dark sites from time to time, so the battery will need to be moved somewhat.

Lastly, the suggestion you have given about built in fuses - why did you not choose these? Advantages/disadvantages?

Thanks again!!!

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

[cjdawson]

For the battery, I've been using a standard lead acid leisure battery from halfords.  Mine is 70Ah and yes it's got enough energy to power everything for the whole night.  Probably 2 or 3 nights, I charge after every session so I don't know how long it'll last in reality.

The links that I provided above was for the parts for the main battery box.  If you put that together you'll end up with 4* 12v sockets (cigar lighter style) and (4*USB sockets).  That should be enough for most people, if not, there's nothing stopping you from adding more.

The reason that I ended up with three boxes was convenience.  So, I were to name each box it would be like this...

Camping Battery box

Heater Control box

Telescope distribution box

The Camping battery box doesn't have to be used specifically for astronomy.  It can be used as a general camping power supply.

The heater control box has the two knobs and switches for turning the dew heaters on and off.  It's also got all the rest of the electronics for converting voltages, basically it's all the electroncs.

The telescope distribution box is basically there to provide the sockets for all the devices to plug into.  There are a few fuses in the this box.  but there's nothing clever going on in there.   This keeps the box light.

This way, the box that needs to be attached to the scope is reasonably light.  Meaning that it doesn't have much of an effect on the balance of the scope.  Actually the cable has more effect than anything else.

As each project is seperate I wanted to make sure there was maximum utility from each part.  This is why I fused things as I did.

Camping battery box...

12v sockets are fused at 15A each.  This means you can plug in any device that draws anything up to 15A without issue.  It won't hurt the battery box wiring, it'll just drain the battery fast that's all.

USB socket as fused at 5A - each fuse is supplying power to two USB sockets, so 4A total from the USB sockets again, there's enough and not too much.  If it's pulling more than 5A something has gone horribly wrong.

Heater control box.

Fused at 10A, this fuse is on the incomming power line, and is used to provide power to everything on my telescope,  Dew heaters, Autoguider, DSLR, Telescope, SkyFi and I'm sure I've forgotten something.

Inside this box, the power is then split and sent to two dew heater control circuits - not specifically fused.

And a converter for 12v to 5V DC - for my Autoguider

I'm going to add a 12V to 8V DC - this is for my DSLR

The power from these is then put onto a multicore cable which goes to the 

The telescope distribution box

This box, transfers the power for each dew heater to the sockets that the heater elements plug into.

The 5V power is transferred to a socket that has a cable for my autoguider.

The 12v power is split again and goes through 3* 2A fuses, each fuse is then supplying power two three separate sockets.

One of the sockets powers my telescope - any of the three can do it, doesn't matter which.

One of them provides power to my SkyFi

And there's one more that's spare.

I chose a 2A fuse as the telescope pulls 1.5A at most, so if it's pulling 2A, something has gone horribly wrong.

The advantage of this setup is that I can use the battery box for things other than astronomy. Camping comes to mind, it should be able to power a laptop, or a TV, radio, or maybe small appliances - 12v fridge for example.

[cjdawson]

If you want the details of the two boxes that I made for my telescope, here's the link to the post that I working on as I was building the project.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/250514-power-to-my-scope/

[Seraph_69]

Hi Colin,

That's a lot of good information yet again - I am now hopefully moving house in the new year and have an awesome garden space to build a shed in to use as an obsy, so perhaps I will be looking more into mains power for the near future at least, but I will endeavour to build myself a battery box in the future, when I will undoubtedly and shamelessly copy everything you have done

My girlfriend and I coincidentally love camping, and I guess if we ever wanted to go to a site without power hook-up, might be looking at a similar multi-box set up like you have for the purpose of being able to 'split them off'.

However, I think it's going to be enough of a learning curve just doing the first one!

However, I will always have my electrician friend to hand to help me (in fact he's going to help me get power to my obsy/shed when I find the money to get that done at the new place), as well as all the fantastic info you have supplied me with here - I hope you are still around on these forums in a year or so's time when I may consider taking up the battery box project - who knows, it may be sooner

In the mean time, I should probably try to learn as much as I can about electrics!

Could I just ask how much the battery box cost you all together (the price of the main box and then also how much the entire multi-box array?), if you have a rough idea? This would be minus the battery itself as obviously it would depend greatly on brand/capacity I end up going for.

Thanks a million (again)

Steve 

[Seraph_69]

p.s. Sorry for not being more active on the thread, my workplace is going through a lot of changes right now and I am extremely busy with everything!

I have to juggle keeping active on here and keeping the missus happy

[cjdawson]

Hi Colin,

That's a lot of good information yet again - I am now hopefully moving house in the new year and have an awesome garden space to build a shed in to use as an obsy, so perhaps I will be looking more into mains power for the near future at least, but I will endeavour to build myself a battery box in the future, when I will undoubtedly and shamelessly copy everything you have done

My girlfriend and I coincidentally love camping, and I guess if we ever wanted to go to a site without power hook-up, might be looking at a similar multi-box set up like you have for the purpose of being able to 'split them off'.

However, I think it's going to be enough of a learning curve just doing the first one!

However, I will always have my electrician friend to hand to help me (in fact he's going to help me get power to my obsy/shed when I find the money to get that done at the new place), as well as all the fantastic info you have supplied me with here - I hope you are still around on these forums in a year or so's time when I may consider taking up the battery box project - who knows, it may be sooner

In the mean time, I should probably try to learn as much as I can about electrics!

Could I just ask how much the battery box cost you all together (the price of the main box and then also how much the entire multi-box array?), if you have a rough idea? This would be minus the battery itself as obviously it would depend greatly on brand/capacity I end up going for.

Thanks a million (again)

Steve 

p.s. Sorry for not being more active on the thread, my workplace is going through a lot of changes right now and I am extremely busy with everything!

I have to juggle keeping active on here and keeping the missus happy

Nothing to apoligise for there.  Everyone gets busy. I figured you had everything you needed and were happy to let the thread got off into the land of archive

As for the cost breakdown.   You know, I dread to think.  hehe.

Let's take a stab (this is where I'm about to find out why my bank in empty)

Camping battery box.

Here's the rought breakdown....

JSB Site system   60 1   60 12v socket   3.94 4   15.76 USB   8.75 2   17.5 30Amp red   6.8 1   6.8 30Amp black   6.8 1   6.8 Battery Clips   2 1   2 Fuse box   5.86 1   5.86             Bus bar   10.88 2   21.76 Jump start booster terminals   49.99 1   49.99 100Amp cable Red   4.38 1   4.38 100Amp cable black   4.38 1   4.38             Switch   2.49 3   7.47 50A combined volt and amp meter   3.72 1   3.72             Push on crimp   3.23 1   3.23 Ring crimp 5mm   4.31 1   4.31             Blade fuses, bought as 120pc assorted box 2.95 1   2.95                       216.91

That's the price.  There are a couple of things that will really bring down the code. Firstly.  The jump start booster terminals are really hefty and with the 100Amp cable should be good to start a car.  I put that into my box, so that I can charge the battery without opening the box.  If you don't do that part of the build, it will save you over £50 of the total build price.   I put everything into my box, as I figured I'm going to keep this as my telescope power supply for the rest of my life.

[Megalot]

Its possibly not ideal but I use a Ring battery booster with 12v cigar lighter & USB sockets and a 600w inverter connected to the van battery tom power the laptop.  It seems to work OK if a little fiddly

[cjdawson]

Its possibly not ideal but I use a Ring battery booster with 12v cigar lighter & USB sockets and a 600w inverter connected to the van battery tom power the laptop.  It seems to work OK if a little fiddly

Lots of people do something similar successfully.

The points to why I ended up making my own were....

17Ah battery simply isn't enough for me.

Running laptop of 12v was a real pain in the backside as it didn't play nice with inversters etc.

After doing the fiddly thing for several years, decided to make a proper box that solves all the issues that I was having.

[Seraph_69]

OK Colin, 

Thanks for the price breakdown (I think    ) this does not include the battery either does it?! 

How would one go about charging it without the terminals? I have seen these 7-stage smart chargers for around £35. 

Would it be possible with your set up to charge it in the box, but with the box open? Or would it need to be completely removed from the box every time?

Don't suppose you have any photos of the inside you could share?

I think I'm perhaps more confused than when I started now to be perfectly honest 

I think what I want is just 1 box. 4 cigar/4 USB should do me for a very long time to come, but I do like future-proofing as much as the next man 

I am at a bit of a loss about this whole fuse thing, from what I understand, you have a fuse box fitted on the 'battery-side' of the box, and within your other boxes, you have lower Amp fuses to match the items you are plugging into them i.e. fitted between the sockets + the equipment? - is this right?

You suggested fused cigar lighter plugs, however I just did a quick google, and I couldn't really find them with fuse ratings as low as I would need for say the scope (2.5A fuse for example)?

How would I get around this with just 1-box setup?

Sorry for being such an idiot, my brain is still frazzled from work!!   

[jamie56]

Hi Seraph

I use a couple of 12 volt 50th gel batteries and they serve me very well, the benefits of the gels is if they get knocked over etc you don't get acid everywhere, ideal for us in the field or back yard, hope this helps.

Jamie

[cjdawson]

Yep. I have some photos of my complete setup.

This link contains the images of the outside.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/254985-diy-field-battery-plans-are-ready-should-i-start/?p=2784269

On the picture, you'll notice that there's a plug into the side of the box, with a red and black cable.  This is an XLR plug and socket. My telescope plugs into that rather than into the 12v sockets. The XLR plug and socket has a latch, meaning that I can plug it in and it'll click into place.  I won't be able to accidentally pull it out.  I have also made a cable that will plug into a normal 12v socket so that I can power my scope from something else.  (you'll see that in a post that I linked below)

I charge my battery using the red and black removable rubber caps at the bottom.  Don't need to remove the battery or open the box for this.   Without those terminals, there's nothing stopping you from making a cable that will plug into one of the 12v sockets.  I did it this way so that I can use a normal car battery charger.  Another alternative is to open the box, then connect onto the battery terminals.  There's no need to remove the battery.

This thread shows how I built the other two boxes.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/250514-power-to-my-scope/

I'm sure there's a picture of the inside of the battery box somewhere on here, can't find it in a pinch though.

[Seraph_69]

On 04/11/2015 at 09:28, cjdawson said:

Yep. I have some photos of my complete setup.

This link contains the images of the outside.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/254985-diy-field-battery-plans-are-ready-should-i-start/?p=2784269

On the picture, you'll notice that there's a plug into the side of the box, with a red and black cable.  This is an XLR plug and socket. My telescope plugs into that rather than into the 12v sockets. The XLR plug and socket has a latch, meaning that I can plug it in and it'll click into place.  I won't be able to accidentally pull it out.  I have also made a cable that will plug into a normal 12v socket so that I can power my scope from something else.  (you'll see that in a post that I linked below)

I charge my battery using the red and black removable rubber caps at the bottom.  Don't need to remove the battery or open the box for this.   Without those terminals, there's nothing stopping you from making a cable that will plug into one of the 12v sockets.  I did it this way so that I can use a normal car battery charger.  Another alternative is to open the box, then connect onto the battery terminals.  There's no need to remove the battery.

This thread shows how I built the other two boxes.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/250514-power-to-my-scope/

I'm sure there's a picture of the inside of the battery box somewhere on here, can't find it in a pinch though.

Hi Colin, 

 

Sorry to blow the dust off this old thread, but I'm starting to look into getting a DSLR soon, and I have a few pieces of software on my laptop since we last spoke, such as ASCOM drivers etc. that I want to use with my scope, hence the re-emergence of what we talked about on this thread all that time ago!

I am now in my new place, and have a garden I can get out in (UK weather permitting!). I'm using a Celestron 17ah power tank thingy at the moment, but I haven't forgotten about your beautiful battery box, and after re-reading the thread, I have 1 or 2 more questions if you don't mind?

1) I want to power a) HEQ5 Pro b ) Dell XPS L072X Laptop c) Canon EOS 6D DSLR (in future) d) Dew heaters (in future) e) Charge my phone would be nice (it can go straight to USB). 

Would your initial *1-box* solution be able to power all this? I'm thinking more from a connections perspective rather than questioning the amp hourage of the system.  

2) You mention various DC converters, to step down the voltage from 12v cigar sockets to say 8v for DSLR or ??v for laptop - *are these neccesary?* Is this only neccesary if not using the fused 12v plugs you were talking about? ie Can I just plug all items above into the 12v cigar lighter sockets using your suggested battery box fusing suggested in the 1st initial post...as long as I am using cables with 1) The right connection at the other end e.g. jack to the mount & 2) Appropriate amperage fused plugs e.g. 3A fused cigar lighter plug for my mount which pulls max 2A??

Reasons for asking:

1) I can't seem to find a DC adapter that is compatible for my particular laptop (at least not an OEM one on the Dell website). 

2) I don't have a DSLR yet and have no idea if you can get 12v plugs to power them?

3) I really want to just have a single box solution and you didn't mention about these converters in post 1 where you were listing everything I might need for said solution. 

4) I want it to be safe and not damage my equipment!

 

Thanks 

Steve

[cjdawson]

Hiya.

Sounds like your setup is much better.

On 7/10/2016 at 14:22, Seraph_69 said:

 

Hi Colin, 

 

1) I want to power a) HEQ5 Pro b ) Dell XPS L072X Laptop c) Canon EOS 6D DSLR (in future) d) Dew heaters (in future) e) Charge my phone would be nice (it can go straight to USB). 

Would your initial *1-box* solution be able to power all this? I'm thinking more from a connections perspective rather than questioning the amp hourage of the system.  

Power wise from my box, you'd be able to power all of that quite happily all night at full power.  It might even last for a few nights ;-)

 

On 7/10/2016 at 14:22, Seraph_69 said:

2) You mention various DC converters, to step down the voltage from 12v cigar sockets to say 8v for DSLR or ??v for laptop - *are these neccesary?* Is this only neccesary if not using the fused 12v plugs you were talking about? ie Can I just plug all items above into the 12v cigar lighter sockets using your suggested battery box fusing suggested in the 1st initial post...as long as I am using cables with 1) The right connection at the other end e.g. jack to the mount & 2) Appropriate amperage fused plugs e.g. 3A fused cigar lighter plug for my mount which pulls max 2A??

For some things you absolutely must switch the voltage.  Putting 12 volts into your camera will break it!   Laptops normally require something between 16 and 20 volts depending on the model.  So you do need a converter do so that.   On my setup my Skyfi uses 6V and my auto guider uses 5V.    They can run from higher voltages, but they get hot.  So rather than generate heat, I use a converter to switch the voltage down, and have them running as cool as I can get them.

 

On 7/10/2016 at 14:22, Seraph_69 said:

Reasons for asking:

1) I can't seem to find a DC adapter that is compatible for my particular laptop (at least not an OEM one on the Dell website). 

 

Something like might do the job.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Genuine-Original-Dell-Adapter-Charger/dp/B00LVVN7NO

From my experiences with my old Sony Viao, I had enormous amounts of problems with this, and found that the best solution was to use a 12v - 240v inverter instead, then plug in the laptop as if it's mains powered.

If you were to build a power box the same size as mine, you would be able to include the inverter inside the box, so that there wouldn't be any worries of it getting wet, you would need to ensure enough airflow though.

 

On 7/10/2016 at 14:22, Seraph_69 said:

 

2) I don't have a DSLR yet and have no idea if you can get 12v plugs to power them?

For canon cameras, you can get them easy enough

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=cannon+EOS+12+power+supply

I've still not done it yet, the solution for my scope will be integrated into the setup that I already have so that there won't be an extra wire from the battery.

 

On 7/10/2016 at 14:22, Seraph_69 said:

3) I really want to just have a single box solution and you didn't mention about these converters in post 1 where you were listing everything I might need for said solution. 

The DC-DC converter that I was talking about are these kinds of things.

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=dc+dc+step+down+converter+ebay

They efficiently step the voltage down from 12V to the voltage that you choose.

 

On 7/10/2016 at 14:22, Seraph_69 said:

4) I want it to be safe and not damage my equipment!

 

Thanks 

Steve

The secret to that is testing and lots of it.   Actually I had an incident with mine at the SGL star camp earlier this year.  I had a single loose strand of copper in the plug that attaches to my telescope.  This caused me to blow 4 fuses before I figured out what had gone wrong.  (The scope was working fine the night before!)   The solution to that problem was to add a piece of electical tape to ensure that the no more wire could short circuit.  Luckily I had spare fuses, so it wasn't a big problem ;-)

Shows that my setup works and that the safety aspect is covered.

The cabling inside the box itself was rated for about 50A, which is more than I could ever use. So there is no fire risk.