New Lithium Battery Celestron due end 2019

[Alan White]

New Lithium Battery Celestron due end 2019, on FLO and looks most interesting if you do not have high power demands.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/celestron-6-1-ah-powetank-lithium-lt.html

 

[Carbon Brush]

An output current rating of 3 amps is good for slewing heavy or off-balance scopes.

I like the idea of the internal voltage regulator. For those who do not measure voltage and keep an eye out, a regulated supply is a good idea.

My own preference is a voltmeter, whether on lead acid or lithium batteries, allowing me to get an indication of impending shut off.

I note there is no mention of a 'nearly depleted' alarm or indicator. Did I miss that?

David.

[Gina]

My NEQ6 mount needed more than 12v to operate reliably.

[happy-kat]

Sorry but that is full of precious metals, not the way to go, a step backwards.

[Phillips6549]

19 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Sorry but that is full of precious metals, not the way to go, a step backwards.

Which battery technology should we be looking at then?

[scrufy]

I use an XP-10 from antigravity batteries. Has the right plug at 12v/10a for the mount and I tee it to power the camera cooler.

never gets hot, runs for days, no complaints..except the price. $189 i think US for the regular and $219 for the heavy duty.

but its seriously 3 times the capacity of the new celestron I see at 6 or 7 ah.

its 18 ah (18,000mah) and has jump started my 4x4 on occasion.

https://antigravitybatteries.com/products/micro-starts/xp-10-hd/

[Carbon Brush]

Interesting comments about 'precious metals'.

Unfortunately every battery technology has it's environmental impact.

Lead acid is very polluting if not dealt with properly.
Fortunately the lead is easily recycled - or should be. Have you tried returning AGM/GEL batteries for recycling?
Don't forget the plastic case. What about the glass mat with acid?

Those in favour of lead acid would argue that 90% of batteries are currently recycled.
Against this, they are short lived as a result of their chemistry. Many are made in China to a poor standard so have even shorter lives. Then the plastic parts not properly marked for easy recycling.

Lithium batteries are long lived. In part is is the chemistry. In part it is the fact that proper charging is usually part of a supplied package.
Against this, recycle rates are currently low. But this can only improve with time as we rely on (expensive) imported materials.
Don't forget that lithium rechargeable in consumer equipment is only a bit more than 20 years old. Even then it had a slow uptake. Recycling is therefore not yet well established.

Back to visual astronomy only? Or imaging with a pedal dynamo?

 

[happy-kat]

I do have a lithium liFp04 as it's phosphate based rather then extra precious metals, has much greater charging cycle # and better battery life

[Alan White]

9 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

Back to visual astronomy only? Or imaging with a pedal dynamo?

So very tempting, the Dynamo would give the imagers something to do while sitting waiting for the kit to do it's thing.
Must beat picking fluff from your belly button 😉 and exercise as well 🤣

[Carbon Brush]

On 21/10/2019 at 18:01, Gina said:

My NEQ6 mount needed more than 12v to operate reliably.

Hi Gina.

I'm not picking on you. Not trying to be controversial. Just putting your comment together with my, and others, experiences.

The biggest issues with mount power are a combination of wire/connector resistance and unstable power supplies.

You may well have a 12V supply. But Long thin wires and poor quality car cigar plugs or chinese DC plugs often mean the voltage at the mount dips when the load current increases for any reason.

Then if a mains power supply is used, what happens if there is a step change in load current?
The simple answer is when the current suddenly increases, the supply voltage drops, then recovers, then overshoots, then returns to 12V.
These transients can last for tens of milliseconds on some linear supplies. This can trigger a mount power loss response - shut down. Or upset tracking. Or stall a stepper motor.

A switched mode power supply suffers the same sort of voltage variance on step load, but events are over more quickly. Typically sub-millisecond.

The usual 'fix' applied in astro circles is to increase the 12V supply to 13V or even 15V so any dips do not cause problems. But mounts have an upper voltage limit.
Choosing power supplies and measuring transient performance is beyond most peoples ability.
Changing to good quality connectors is beyond some peoples skills, and will often void equipment warranty.

It would help overcome the problems of grotty supply/cable/connectors it possible to add a large electrolytic capacitor at the mount. Say 1000uF or more, to smooth the voltage steps.
But again you are into opening the mount and is there space inside?

No easy solutions. Other than visual astronomy!

David.