Powering a mount options

[DaveL59]

Not asking for assist here folks, just been re-working my 12v converter as I had to nick the floating cigar plug for something else a while back so while putting in an alternate solution earlier this eve I thought I'd grab a few pics and share. After all this often comes up so it may be useful to someone down the road.

So For my EQ5/SynScan setup, it needs a 12V 2A supply to be able to slew and not drop out with undervolt issues. I also wanted another 12V out in case I want to hook anything else up, at the moment a modified mini-CCTV that uses 12V power. At home I can run a mains lead out, sure, and use a regular 12V 5A power brick, which as you can see gives a correct output.

But that means a mains wire and isn't always convenient. So portable power options then - Lead batteries are a no, I use way too many of those in UPS's, they're heavy and having to recharge after use each time etc is a drag. LiFePo are way too expensive for me given I'm pretty casual at this lark, as for those fancy powertanks, way too pricey for what they are IMHO  So a simple cheap, lightweight solution that's easy to swap out once worn out, a LiPo car jump starter, in this case a 20AH one that has 12V out and 2x USB out, plus USB micro/C in for charging it up. It came with a cigar socket outlet as well as the car battery croc-clips so I can plug the OEM cigar lead for the SynScan directly into this and away we go, right. NO, don't! Here's why

Now in theory the SynScan (mine according to the manual) has a 15V max limit, so here we're teetering on the edge of maybe blowing the boards?

I wasn't going to risk that, given how expensive new boards would be. So the solution, put a buck converter between the LiPo pack and the SynScan controller. So my setup is LiPo pack -> Cigar outlet -> SynScan Cigar lead -> buck converter -. SynScan module power-in.

As you can see, the buck converter drops that LiPo pack output to just a shade under 12V, so a safe level to feed into the SynScan controller boards. Yeah that inline socket with screw connectors ain't ideal I know, I do have some moulded ones on flyleads... somewhere in another black hole that formed in the house after I put them down  Now if I'd got a starter unit that had a regular 5.5x2.1mm or laptop output as well it'd have been even simpler to wire in lol

So a side concern, perhaps, what happens to the output on that mains power brick should we get a surge or it starts to fail? So just in case, how about feeding that through the buck converter too as a failsafe?

So there you go, a simple 12V 5A buck converter with a couple plugs on flyleads to hook to the mount and camera and a socket to connect to either the LiPo starter or the mains brick and I should now have peace of mind that the power source won't blow the SynScan boards. Works very nicely too, no idea how long continuously as I'm not imaging or running dew heaters or fans but the battery level hardly drops with a couple hours play time slewing and tracking. Yet to hook the CCTV which will be an extra 0.5-1A draw.

Hopefully useful to someone else, but also hopefully a prompt to check the output voltage of this type of battery pack before hooking them straight to your GoTo controllers.

cheers  

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by DaveL59