Mag1 Portaball 10

[Fspp369]

Hi everyone,I'm the pleased owner of a Portaball 10 which is quite superb, but I have a problem with the batteries.

I am trying to find the contact details of the new owner and producer of PB's I have tried the contact details I can find and none of them work, the email gets bounced as undeliverable and I haven't found a contact number yet.

Does anyone have Mag1's contact details please?

Fang.

 

[johninderby]

Their website seems to be off line and not sure if it is case of being closed or just crashed.

Have an old US phone number for them.

(920) 849-9151

[Stu]

Plenty of comments about them being hard to get hold of. I found the same number John had. Dave Juckem is the new owner apparently. Some chat on this thread.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/517866-portaball-still-around/

[lenscap]

Apparently the electrics on some Portaballs were poorly executed.

If you post a specific query here or on  Cloudy Nights you may get help from experienced PB owners.

[Fspp369]

Thanks all for the info ..I have to say this is the info that came to a dead end when I tried, perhaps I'll find an email address.

my specific problem is that the previous owner of the PB had substituted 6v 1.3Ah batteries for the 12v 2.1 Ah stated in the OM they were in series so gave 12v but their capacity was dire! and the charger that came with the PB wouldn't work properly...the batteries got a bit warm.

with the 10" mirror in the base there is not a lot of circumferential space to put large/ long batteries and most 21v 2.1Ah I can find are long beasties that bridge the 2 supports inside the ball, hence my queries.

just as an aside this is the first Zambuto mirror pair that I've used........I shall get another scope with these in if the situation arises , the views are bright with superb contrast and quite frankly I've seen stars I've never seen before ...bit of a cliche I know but it's true.

thanks again all, please keep the info coming if you can, I don't want to compromise a great design with a botch up.