Question on PowerTank

[CaptainShiznit]

Might sound silly but I've never owned one before. The instructions are a bit pigeon English but said to charge initially for 12-16 hours but when I plug it in, both the red charging and the green fully charged light are lit. I'm wary of over or under charging it. Is it already charged?

[dobblob]

Looks like your power tank may have "tanked" already.

 I have/had one and for a few months from new things seemed normal but very soon the status LEDs began to contradict each other, just as yours are .

The indicators were meaningless. Then I discovered that the battery would not hold charge and anyway was not sufficient for more than a few hours running my AVX mount.

Consigned it to the bottom of a cupboard just in case there is a short power cut...

Replaced it with a much cheaper, greater capacity battery.

Can't see exactly what you have and it may be the newer Li type in which case you may have more luck but already it is off to a bad start.

 

[Geoff Lister]

If the unit was "factory fresh" when you received it, it is quite possible that it was close to being fully charged. The "12 to 16 hours" figure is to cover units that have been sitting on a shelf for many months. The charging system should prevent overcharging.

Geoff

[Mikea]

If you have a decent car battery charger, I'd use that rather than the built in charger control circuit which, in my opinion, is a bit c**p. I use a Cetek MXS 5.0 (on motorcycle battery mode) to charge mine via the 4mm terminals on the back. Never had a problem. Take no notice of the LEDs!

[Aramcheck]

I got same LED problem on our Skywatcher PowerTank after it had been used 2 or 3 times. It still seems to be working ok but now I check the output voltage after re-charging for a while just to make sure.

I only bought it because it was recommended by the FLO site when buying the mount... wish I'd looked into a bit more first.

Cheers
Ivor

PS: Also noticed that I get a lower voltage reported in the Synscan Utilities menu, than I do with a multimeter.

[joe aguiar]

i have been in hobby since 93 and have never needed or owned a powertank. I think for visual its not really needed but i could see if u r imaging.

joejaguar

[Waldemar]

23 hours ago, joe aguiar said:

i have been in hobby since 93 and have never needed or owned a powertank. I think for visual its not really needed but i could see if u r imaging.

For visual you need power too when using a motorized mount...

[Jiggy 67]

14 minutes ago, Waldemar said:

For visual you need power too when using a motorized mount...

I agree, I have GoTo, and dew strips and I’m only visual. As I’m only visual I don’t need mains but I do need a power tank. A power tank is more useful for visual than an imaging setup which benefits from using mains

[Jiggy 67]

On 09/01/2020 at 17:43, Aramcheck said:

I got same LED problem on our Skywatcher PowerTank after it had been used 2 or 3 times. It still seems to be working ok but now I check the output voltage after re-charging for a while

The LED’s are notoriously unreliable on the SW power tank, they have a mind of their own. I’ve had two that have both been dodgy in the light indicating department 

[joe aguiar]

2 hours ago, Waldemar said:

For visual you need power too when using a motorized mount...

Not me on my meade 12 inch x90gps I only use the 8 c battery that go inside and have never run outtakes power

For my 8se/6se same only the 10 aa barriers, again never ran out

For a manual eq5 or 4 use the 4 d battery

Joejaguar 

[Waldemar]

8 hours ago, joe aguiar said:

Not me on my meade 12 inch x90gps I only use the 8 c battery that go inside and have never run outtakes power

For my 8se/6se same only the 10 aa barriers, again never ran out

For a manual eq5 or 4 use the 4 d battery

Joejaguar 

So, that is not power...??? How would you call that then?

[Alan64]

If I purchased a kit or mount that required bog-standard batteries, I would not use those, as there are single, 12V, Lithium powerpacks to be had instead.  After all, it is 2020 A.D.

[Alan64]

What you may want, in so far as a reliable source of power, is a marine, deep-cycle battery-box.  They can have USB-ports and 12V DC connections.  It would require a marine, deep-cycle battery, and a box to hold the battery, also to fit on the power-connections.  They can be had ready-made, for trolling-motors, or you can make one just the way you'd want it fitted out to your specifications.  Here's an example of a ready-made...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Minn-Kota-Trolling-Motor-Center/dp/B001PTHKMG

That's just the box; no battery.  Here's where someone customised a box, using that particular one...

https://www.offgridweb.com/transportation/last-man-projects-200-diy-emergency-power-pack/

Now that's not so much configured for our purposes, but as a general purpose power-box.

Research DIY battery-boxes online, for astronomy, and ones that make use of a marine, deep-cycle battery.

Edited January 11, 2020 by Alan64

[joe aguiar]

8 hours ago, Waldemar said:

So, that is not power...??? How would you call that then?

im talking about haveing like a power tank  or something like that car battery etc