Recommendations on portable power for entire rig?

[Bluemoonjim]

Hi

I'm looking for a portable power unit that will reliably power my rig over a 12 hour period (minimum).
My rig includes: powered mount, imaging cooled camera, guide camera, slave mini pc, laptop, dew bands (2 or 3)

Have been looking at the Eco Flow range of power stations but not sure which would best fit the bill. Anyone out there using one of these?
I would prefer not to go the diy route but I'm open to suggestions

Edited July 16, 2023 by Bluemoonjim

[Carbon Brush]

Your first task is to define the power requirements.
How much is on 12V? Dew heater go from eyepiece size to 12" OTA. 
Does anything need 240V? etc.
A laptop may be a power miser, or a power guzzler!

[Bluemoonjim]

All 12v apart from laptop.

Dew bands are for 102mm scope and 50mm guide.

[ONIKKINEN]

Not including the laptop you are looking at a 300wh power station at minimum, and you need to control your dew bands so that they only eat the minimum amount of power and not full strength all the time. Even then its going to be close.

I have an Ecoflow river 300 (no longer sold) which is a 288wh power station. The shortest amount of time it has lasted was 8 hours, but it was around -15c at the time. I am running a cooled camera, AZ-EQ6, guide camera, Mini-pc with a mini wifi router. In warmer nights judging from how much charge was left after i was done power should last for 10-12 hours. However the dew bands will probably take at least 5-10w of extra power for you, and the laptop will probably take at least 10w throughout the whole night. So you are probably looking at a 600wh power station here.

So something like this: https://eu.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-max-portable-power-station

Or this: https://eu.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-pro-portable-power-station

Getting expensive quite fast here. I would recommend you ditch the laptop entirely as its not really needed at all and will just eat power while doing nothing but showing you the remote desktop view of the mini-pc. Instead go for a tablet which while will still need to be charged will eat significantly less power and can be charged with a cheap pocket power bank. You can remote desktop to the mini-pc with the remote desktop app for android (no clue about apple, never used one and never will). Without the laptop i think the 512wh version will do you nicely. Maybe even the cheaper 256wh version if you run the dew bands on a separate "dumb" pack like a talentcell 12v power pack.

Another question, why the need for more than 12 hours of runtime? Night lasts for 12 hours only in December, and even then how likely is it that you will actually have 12 hours of clear sky? Seems like an unnecessarily long time to want the gear to be running.

[Bluemoonjim]

Thanks for reply Onnikinen.
My trips to dark sky usually involve a couple of nights away, hence the 12hr minimum. I don't usually shoot more than 5 or 6 hours (if I'm lucky) in one imaging session, more often around 4 hours, so I figured 12hr reserve would cover the two nights and some.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Bluemoonjim

[ONIKKINEN]

45 minutes ago, Bluemoonjim said:

Thanks for reply Onnikinen.
My trips to dark sky usually involve a couple of nights away, hence the 12hr minimum. I don't usually shoot more than 5 or 6 hours (if I'm lucky) in one imaging session, more often around 4 hours, so I figured 12hr reserve would cover the two nights and some.

Ah, that makes sense. Would there be a possibility of recharging the battery from wall power while on location? (like an RV campsite or similar) The rivers charge really fast in about an hour from 20% to 100%. If you drain it completely then it takes a while to get the charge going.

The Ecoflow rivers can also be charged with a car through a standard cigarette lighter plug. They advertise around 6h charge time to full with the 512wh version. You would probably need to have the car idling for at least a few hours during that so that you dont flatten your car battery but if you're out in the sticks then there is probably no-one around to complain about that. You could shave a few hundred off the purchase by going for the 256wh version and charge that off your car during the day. You could also buy a cheap lead-acid battery and use that solely for the purpose of charging the smart battery during the day. Then there would not be a need to charge off your car and have the engine running.

[Dark Raven]

For remote multi night imaging sessions with full AP cooled camera and dew bands, I decided on Ecoflow Delta 2 just to be sure. Yes, it does cost significantly more but this way I am at peace regarding power.

On single night local imaging I can run multi rig full AP setups. Again without power concerns.

So far I am fully content with performance, capacity and portability. Delta 2 has other benefits for in home use as well.

Whatever you decide to go with, make sure to use LiFePo4 battery chemistry. For Ecoflow it means River 2 or Delta 2 range. It has significantly more charge cycles and does not have thermal runaway issues of regilar Li Ion batteries. 

[moggi1964]

I used to use a marine deep cycle battery in a custom-made box that was fused and had various outlets on it. It was heavy but the box was bungeed to a small troller with big wheels which made it useful for star parties.

I would run a go-to mount; dew heaters; and imaging camera from the setup as well as the laptop for imaging.  Seemed to last forever.

This was about 10 years ago so technology may well have moved on since then.

[GTom]

LiFePO4 12.8V/30-40Ah should cover you fine even with a power-hungry low-temp ccd and heavy mount.

[CCD-Freak]

I use a 40Ah LifePO4 battery pack and it powers my rig easily for a night.  I can recharge from the mains using a 4A charger or a solar panel with a charge regulator. 

I installed the batteries in a plastic ammo box.  The battery pack and the mains charger cost less than $100.  I use Anderson Power Pole connectors on everything to make a very flexible power system.