Portable power supply for mount & accessories?

[Spider-Man]

Hi, I'm interested to know how people power their Mount and telescope accessories (dew heaters, cameras, etc.) when out on location.  I've seen mixed reviews of the Skywatcher/Celestron Power Tanks 7 & 17Ah battery packs and was wondering if anybody has any experience using Solar Generators like the Allpowers 372W Solar Generator or similar, which contain Lithium Polymer battery packs.  The Lead acid type Battery packs have their limitations and it would be nice to power the mount on electricity derived from solar power.

https://www.youtube....h?v=4C4yp4-aL_I    

or search Amazon for Solar Generators, and you'll see various alternatives

Any advice or constructive comments welcome.

 

Peter P.

[jambouk]

I have no experience of that device, sorry.

You first need to work out how much power you will need per observing session, probably in watts, for all your kit. 

The 7-20 amp hour things are fine if you use it to just power a basic mount for an hour or so, and then recharge immediately after. If you are using dew bands, laptops, peltier coolers, then you need significantly more capacity. This device is 370 watt hours, which at 13v is only 28 amp hours, so £8.57 per amp hour. A 75 amp hour deep cycle lead acid battery is 86p per amp hour... the latter could be charge dup with a small solar panel.

Do work out your power needs, then look at what size battery you need, I think this will help.

James

 

 

[DaveL59]

bear in mind if you want to use the inverter output you'll likely not get great run-times. Sure LiPo or better LiFePo batteries are way better than old lead tech, much lighter and less volt-drop under load, not to mention maintenance of. But to get one of those systems recharged by solar alone you'll likely need a decent sized panel and that's another chunk of funds. Unless you get a good clear sunny day the charge rate may leave you short on capacity for your night session, simpler to plug into the mains and charge that way, will cost pennies and a lot of electricity here is now generated from so-called renewable sources.

[Supernova74]

17The skywatcher power tanks are ok as I’m aware tho the battery chemistry is not the best and if drain them below a certain point can damage the cells you kind of get what you pay for in most cases anyway the skywatcher 7 amp hr battery bank retails for around £55-70 at rother valley optics and flo so don,t exspect long run time as it’s designed for the smaller goto scopes and to my knowledge including my set up all are 12v 5amp or there abouts.so personally if that’s what your useing it for should be fine and the more exspensive model skywatcher do is the 17 amp hr would be an alternative as has more run time and is designed for the slightly larger intermediate scopes and will be able to run a heated dew strap,s as well as a smart device also.And lastly to put a spanner in the works tracer do lithium polymer power banks thease are at the higher end of the scale much better battery chemistry (lipo) thease have a longer recycle life in how many times you can charge them however yet again don,t drain them to low and I wouldn’t go down less then 25% this maintains that the individual cells are not drained to much and will give you full capacity once fully charged and are very compact not to heavy basically can carry one around with you in your pocket thease start from £140-250 respectively 

[Supernova74]

Ps solar power Astronomy is night time lol 😆 

[Spider-Man]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

I have Solar PV panels on my house so all electric is solar when the sun shines, so charging any sort of portable power tank isn't a problem.

I'll definitely look into the cost of storage; deep cycle batteries Vs the more fashionable Solar generators.  I've also seen some Lithium based mobility scooter batteries on eBay which might do the trick as well. 🤓

[Gorr_77]

On 20/05/2020 at 15:43, Spider-Man said:

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

I have Solar PV panels on my house so all electric is solar when the sun shines, so charging any sort of portable power tank isn't a problem.

I'll definitely look into the cost of storage; deep cycle batteries Vs the more fashionable Solar generators.  I've also seen some Lithium based mobility scooter batteries on eBay which might do the trick as well. 🤓

Gel batteries m8. i am building my rig now with 60AH...

Have a look in there:

 

[Neil H]

Hi I use this to power mine you can run it flat it then had 6 months shelf life before it has to be recharged 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/celestron-lithium-lifepo4-powertank.html

Then I use this for mirror fan etc 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaisiy-Starter-18000mAh-Portable-Flashlight/dp/B0872QPD4H/ref=sr_1_36?dchild=1&keywords=12+volt+power+pack&qid=1590502563&sr=8-36