Powering mount via UPS

[Dally]

At the moment I don't have a power tank (a decent one would set me ~£100 which I could get next month) but I do have a 600VA UPS which protects my whole computer setup at home. Has anyone tried using a UPS in lieu of a power tank to powering their mounts, and if so, how did it go? If I am to use a UPS to power a mount, how can I compare the uptime I'll get from a UPS (capacity measured in "VA") vs a power tank where the capacity is measured in Ah?

[fcwilt]

Hi,

It would work but you are going to waste a little power.

My mount requires 12 volts DC which I can get directly from a battery.

With a typical UPS your are converting battery power into an approximation of "wall outlet" power which you then need to convert back into whatever power you need for you mount.

Each conversion wastes a little power.

[Zakalwe]

Funnily enough, I was thinking something similar. I am having problems with a Mesu mount and was thinking of using a UPS to rule out brown outs/PSU problems.  There are 12V UPS units available (radio guys use them), so one of those might make a good power supply with power conditioning.

My concern with using a UPS for all power would be that the battery inside them (normally a lead acid) isn't really designed for hours of use and deep discharge. Plus the UPS would be prone to shutting down once the battery started to discharge to a significant level. Finally, any small end UPS that I have used starts beeping and kicking up a racket once the mains power fails.

[alexbb]

You could open the UPS and solder some wires directly on the battery. I have an old modded UPS for which I replaced the wires of one output socket and connected wires directly from the battery. I painted this output white so I don't mix them. However, the battery is very old and it can't keep a mount powered too much. If I go outside, I connect the wires directly on the car's battery. However, if you're OK with the wires, you could try to get a motorcycle battery and connect it in parallel with the UPS' battery.

Your mount would be probably able to show you the voltage of the battery and also blink some light when it drops below a level. That's when you should stop drawing power from the battery so that it doesn't deep discharge.