6 volt power supply for tracking mount.

[lenscap]

I do most of my observing with a 200p mounted on an EQ5 Onstep Goto powered by a 12 volt leisure battery. I'm putting together a second, more portable setup using a smaller scope on an EQ3-2 dual-axis tracking mount which needs 6 volt power.

This can use 4 x 1.5 volt "D" cells, which are a pain to keep replacing, or 4 rechargeable 1.2 volt cells which will work fine, but I'd have to buy a suitable charger.

I could  just buy a 12v/6v DC "buck" converter to use with my spare 12v battery but where's the fun in that?

Looking in my box of "Electrical bits that are bound to come in useful someday" I found a couple of in-car charger/power supplies. The Binatone belonged to a long-dead SatNav. It outputs 1 amp at 5 volts which is ideal.

The other charger, a Motorola, came with my very first mobile phone and produces 1 amp at 7 volts which might be even better on a long cold night.

 

Each charger has a replaceable 20mm fuse built into the barrel which is handy.

So I bought a cigar lighter socket, added a pair of crocodile clipped leads to it and replaced the Motorola charger's USB plug with a 5.5/2.1 mm power plug.

It works a treat and, since it can accept an input of up to 24 volts, I could also use it with most power tool batteries as a lighter alternative to lead-acid.

Waste not, want not. 😀

[kens]

And the winner of "Bodge of the week" is..... 😜

Edited January 24, 2021 by kens

[JamesF]

I have to fess up to doing something similar to power a Raspberry Pi when all I had was 12V.  I found a bit of kit that replaces a cigarette lighter to give a couple of USB charging outlets which meant I could power the RPi from a USB cable plugged into that.  I even 3d-printed a little mounting plate for it.

James

[Alien 13]

The EQ3-2 and 5 for that matter that use the 6V systems will happily run off 5.2V mobile phone/tablet power banks....simples.

Alan

[PeterW]

I run an AZ-GTi off  USB powerbank with  a cheap USB-12v widget I found online, enough welly for tracking, fast motion and even allows for running it with a handset. Not sure how well it would handle the EQ mounts.... definitely not enough for an EQ6z

 

Peter