Makeshift Power Source

[Sunshine]

My Viden GP has one motor on the RA axis which is powered by a heavy battery pack using four D size batteries which I usually hang off the accessory tray and is unwieldy. Solution, I have several Lipo RC batteries which produce just the right voltage, are a lot smaller  and weigh a fraction of what the giant D-cell pack weighs. This particular battery produces 8.4v max but I only need to charge it to 7.5-8v which when tested, ran the mount for an hour straight with lots of power to spare. This is far more than I ever need as I only track for a minute at a time when imaging planets and for outreach I use it to keep on target for maybe 10 min stretches. It is now more pleasant to use  as accommodating the brick heavy old battery pack was a pain.

[Alien 13]

Nice, you might find that even a mobile phone power bank (5.2V output) will work, it certainly does on the Skywatcher versions..

Alan

[wulfrun]

A word of caution, apologies if this is patronising you (if you use RC Li-Po packs you'll probably know already): be careful not to over-discharge the pack accidentally. If you do, you'll ruin it. RC electronics will know and cut the power but a mount designed for D-cells won't care how low they go. I use a 3S pack for my SW Virtuoso but I plug a low-voltage alarm into the balance lead. It shows green for good and red for low, one per cell and shrieks if any cell goes too low. The alarm is readily available from RC gear stockists etc.

Edited February 12, 2022 by wulfrun
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