Sky watcher battery pack charging

[Eslin Watson]

Where in East Devon can I get my Sky watcher checked out. The charging light does not come on.  The plug and internal fuse is okay.

[Neil H]

Hi I would not bother they are not very good to start with , mine leaked voltage so if you touched the tripod or mount it made your arm tingle , I think there was a thread on here about these power packs , I binned mine I now use celestron lithium power packs 

[michael8554]

An old-school "TV Repair Shop" should be able to diagnose, but repair might not be possible.

Michael

[Tony Acorn]

I replaced the battery in mine but then the charging circuit board blew. I now charge the battery using the screw-on posts so the 12V cigar lighter ports can still be used when I get out the HEQ-5 rig if needs. For my new, more portable rig I bought a Beaudens 1502 power supply from Mr Bezos's large ladies 😂 and it is smaller, neater, weighs less and does a full night even when powering my DSLR too. It doesn't have the cigar lighter sockets but does have 2 x 5521 DC sockets, three USBs (one is a power thru version) and an inbuilt inverter so I get 230V AC to feed the DSLR via its own regulator. That lets me power the ASiAir (and on to the connected devices), the dew heater and my iPad if I'm (rarely) sitting outside.

[Pixies]

As Tony says - you can charge using the rear posts (and a 12v car battery charger if you have one).

But I rarely use it now, as the small LiFePO4 packs are so much better.

[Clarkey]

Assuming it is one of these, mine had a dodgy connection on the charging socket. I re-soldered it, and it has been fine since. (That was until I left it on and completely flattened the battery - big no-no). FWIW you can replace the internal lead acid battery with an identical LiPo battery (as I have done) which is the same size but will be much better. Providing the voltage is right you can charge this through the socket, but I use the pins on the back. 

[Paul M]

I had one for a while, never a great fan of it but it worked ok until I left it too long and it suffered deep discharge. The charging circuit then refused to see the battery.

My solution was to open it up, remove the battery and give it a bit of a charge using a constant current power supply I have. That way I limited the charging current to an amp or so. Once the battery voltage got up near 12v I put it back in the unit and it continued charging off the supplied charger. The battery lost some capacity eventually so it got scrapped.

I'm sure you could use a normal car battery charger on "trickle" to bring the battery back to life, if that is what your problem is here.

[Neil H]

Don't get me wrong they are ok but there are things if you do by accident they need replacing after,  the celestron lithium power packs can be run to flat and will charge up again also be left flat for 6 months and will still work after,  the power tanks won't if you run them flat and can't be left flat also the lithium power packs are so lite I can put 3 and a bag and still don't feel heavy

[Pixies]

On 24/07/2024 at 21:45, Clarkey said:

FWIW you can replace the internal lead acid battery with an identical LiPo battery (as I have done) which is the same size but will be much better

Hi 

Do you have a link to these replacement batteries?

[Mick J]

Charging lead acid and LiPo -  different chargers ?  for that or will the unit understand and switch profile.

[Carbon Brush]

If you don't understand the lead/lithium charging differences...
If you don't know what protection circuits are in the SW box...
If you don't know what is in the lithium battery....
If you don't know what voltage comes out of the charger....
Stay well away. Leave any modifications to someone who knows.

If in doubt about lithium charging, refer to the many online doorbell/security camera pictures of unattended lithium battery powered equipment going up in flames.
 

Lead acid batteries have limited life. They degrade with time. They often can't be recovered from deep discharge.
But they are cheap!

HTH, David.

[Clarkey]

3 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

If you don't understand the lead/lithium charging differences...
If you don't know what protection circuits are in the SW box...
If you don't know what is in the lithium battery....
If you don't know what voltage comes out of the charger....
Stay well away. Leave any modifications to someone who knows.

If in doubt about lithium charging, refer to the many online doorbell/security camera pictures of unattended lithium battery powered equipment going up in flames.
 

My comment above was probably a bit frivolous. However, you can replace the internal battery with an equivalently sized 17 Ah lithium version and charge through the rear pins on the SW which attach directly to the battery.

5 hours ago, Pixies said:

Do you have a link to these replacement batteries?

I got one of these:

Ultramax LI18-12, 12v 18Ah LiFePO4 Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery (batterymasters.co.uk)

So far, no issues, but I would not charge unattended. I also use a charger I already had as I am not 100% convinced of the one supplied.