Jumpstarter or power supply?

[RayD]

13 minutes ago, Jamie16v said:

fair enough mate, it was only a thought! ATB

No it's all fine, it wasn't a dig, many people use LiPo's fine.  Tracer do them and they're not bad, but when you're looking at higher powers the price rockets.  It was a very valid suggestion 

[RayD]

1 hour ago, Northern Soul man said:

Ray - Thanks very much - no the 5aH I was referring to was how much current I need - I think only 1.5 amps for the mount and the rest for the dew heater - worst case with the dew heater on full power I would be looking at about 3 amps or so for the 11" dew shield/heater  - so around 5 amps in total - my battery chargers output is only around an amp or so - so ideal if you think it would be ok to use to charge and keep connected when not in use.

 

Thanks again Ray and regards to all for the help and advice.

Paul.

I was referring to the charger Paul   Mine is a 5A one as my battery box is 34Ah and it's hard to find a 4A charger, but at 22Ah you would only need a 2A one.

As a rule of thumb for SLA batteries you should aim for a 10% charge rate.  You can go under this and it will just take longer to charge.

[BRUN]

Ive gone for the 22Ah golf battery and a 4A smart charger, ill make a box for it out of spare plywood ive got, saved £50+ against the official power pack which is 17Ah

Cheers Ray

[Northern Soul man]

Nice 1 Thanks again Guys, Just an update, I've ordered the AGM 22aH (same as you Brun!!) - just hope that its the battery now?? - I think it is, the slewing when all was set up was making a very dull labouring sound on both axes when GOTO was selected, My dew heater needs a good 3 or so amps on full power and the other night the dew was very noticeable, the outside of the OTA was wet, looking at the corrector - the dew was beginning to form - so even the 3 or so amps from the heater was beginning to take its toll on the Jumpstarter.

The battery looks to be quite small, I've ordered a cigarette socket with 2 clamps to attach to the battery to keep things all the same and I plan to use my Datatool Optimiser to keep connected all the time - the Moons going to be in the sky for the next week or so - so will give me time to check out the charging and may just set up and have a Luna night - it really doesn't take me too much time to set the 11" up - got it down to 15 minutes or so depending on me doing F10 or F6.3 - just have to take the click lock off and the other adapter on the end of the Diagonal to accept the focal reducer when doing deep sky - and not having to set the Bino viewer up as Jupe and Saturn aren't about yet for me - so all's looking good I HOPE !!

 

Paul.

[RayD]

1 hour ago, Northern Soul man said:

Nice 1 Thanks again Guys, Just an update, I've ordered the AGM 22aH (same as you Brun!!) - just hope that its the battery now?? - I think it is, the slewing when all was set up was making a very dull labouring sound on both axes when GOTO was selected, My dew heater needs a good 3 or so amps on full power and the other night the dew was very noticeable, the outside of the OTA was wet, looking at the corrector - the dew was beginning to form - so even the 3 or so amps from the heater was beginning to take its toll on the Jumpstarter.

The battery looks to be quite small, I've ordered a cigarette socket with 2 clamps to attach to the battery to keep things all the same and I plan to use my Datatool Optimiser to keep connected all the time - the Moons going to be in the sky for the next week or so - so will give me time to check out the charging and may just set up and have a Luna night - it really doesn't take me too much time to set the 11" up - got it down to 15 minutes or so depending on me doing F10 or F6.3 - just have to take the click lock off and the other adapter on the end of the Diagonal to accept the focal reducer when doing deep sky - and not having to set the Bino viewer up as Jupe and Saturn aren't about yet for me - so all's looking good I HOPE !!

 

Paul.

Great stuff Paul, sounds like it's all sorted.  Fingers crossed the problem was the battery