Presentation on Power Away From Home

[curtisca17]

I spent a large part of last year improving my setup for use in the field.  This included replacing my power hungry laptop with a mini-pc, adding a power and USB distribution hub to make everything neat and computer controlled, learning how to make Anderson PowerPole connectors, and, certainly the most time consuming aspect, testing several different lithium based power sources and solar panels to replace my lead acid batteries and gasoline generator while in the field.  I put all of my learning together into a presentation that I gave last Sunday night on The Astro Imaging Channel.  This video presentation is available to view on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cCSPgtmd7U    I organized this around what I think are the 3 basic questions one needs to answer when designing a power setup for the field:

1.  How much power does one need

2  What are the latest in lithium based power options

3. What is a good way to connect everything

I hope others will find this helpful

Best Regards,

Curtis

[Martin Meredith]

Very useful video Curtis. In my own case I recently replaced a heavy car starter battery by the Bresser portable supply which by comparison weighs next to nothing and takes up hardly any space:

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/reviews/accessories/bresser-portable-power-supply-100-watt-review/

Martin

[curtisca17]

Martin,

Thanks for your comment.   There are so many power supply options out there that it is hard to know which are worthwhile and which are not.   As I mention in the video, I have had success with the solar generators from Jackery and Maxoak, but solar generators have a lot of added features that not everyone needs and is willing to pay for.  In that case, there are some very good LiFePO4 batteries available but one just has to add their own connections just like we do with lead acid batteries.

Regards

Curtis