Battery for powering Heq5pro mount and zwo533mcpro camera.

[TomAstro]

Hello 👋 

I mostly set up at home,  but on the odd occasion I'd like to go to closest dark sky sight.    The issue is I'm not 100% sure on a reasonable power supply. 

The ZWO is 12v at 3A  and the Mount is 12v 2A. According to the official specs.  But according to another thread its 0.63A for the Mount tracking. 

Wondering if the 17 Amp  celestron power tank would be enough? I'm wanting at least 6 hours + of capacity 

Edited Thursday at 21:48 by TomAstro
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[ONIKKINEN]

First of all welcome to SGL,

The amp ratings are for peak load, as in cooler at 100% power and taking lots of short exposures while the mount is slewing at full speed so realistically only a fraction of time is this kind of power required. 0.63A sounds about right, its not far off at least. Do you have dew heaters by the way? They take a fair bit of power to keep running and you might need to account for that.

My AZ-EQ6, IMX571 cooled camera, Guide camera, and mini-PC draw somewhere in the region of 20-30 watts (without dew heaters). Your HEQ5 might draw a little bit less, but in the same ballpark i think. With the 17 amp power tank you'd have 204 watt hours, so somewhere in the region of 7-10 hours of use with a similar load so i think that would work.

How close to the full potential you can draw from the power tank will depend on how cold is it, and battery chemistry of the tank itself so it might not last 6 hours in every situation. I have a 288wh  Ecoflow River 300 power station and it has ran out a few times after 6-ish hours of use, but it was -15c at the time, which is not something most have to deal with.

[Elp]

You'd have to inline test it to be sure. 

When I tried my asiairs, hem15, cooled astro cam cooling to minus 10 indoors, taking subs, guidecam looping, and slewing in Ra and Dec I measured around 3A, the camera had already cooled by then. If the cooling is running high (for my test up to 80pc) it added 1.5A onto the power draw of the asiair and cams only just with this function of cooling in a high temperature environment. So to be safe around 4A total, but it won't be drawing this whilst imaging as it's not slewing very fast.

As mentioned, colder outside temperatures make a massive difference in battery performance, you'd have to work out how long you're likely to be doing it at a time, you can extend battery if you cool your camera to zero degrees for example to help extend it.

[Chefgage]

I use one of these

https://uk.iallpowers.com/products/allpowers-600w-299wh-portable-power-station-r600?utm_campaign=20508494343&utm_content=c&utm_term=pla&utm_source=google&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwko21BhAPEiwAwfaQCIcbws6ynPwTdUQz80xxl9ePyGz8oVCow4MgE6wCkxfd_YHZg_drEhoCnw0QAvD_BwE

It powers everything I use.  I have my heq5 pro mount, asiair pro, asi294mc-pro camera, pegassus power box, dew straps etc all powered off this.  keeps going for a good few hours (not tested full hours yet).

[Tomatobro]

I went down the route of the lead acid battery (same as in the power pack) but in the end I went for a similar one to Chefgages and although not cheap its the best. If you can run to one then its what I would recommend

[TomAstro]

16 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

First of all welcome to SGL,

The amp ratings are for peak load, as in cooler at 100% power and taking lots of short exposures while the mount is slewing at full speed so realistically only a fraction of time is this kind of power required. 0.63A sounds about right, its not far off at least. Do you have dew heaters by the way? They take a fair bit of power to keep running and you might need to account for that.

My AZ-EQ6, IMX571 cooled camera, Guide camera, and mini-PC draw somewhere in the region of 20-30 watts (without dew heaters). Your HEQ5 might draw a little bit less, but in the same ballpark i think. With the 17 amp power tank you'd have 204 watt hours, so somewhere in the region of 7-10 hours of use with a similar load so i think that would work.

How close to the full potential you can draw from the power tank will depend on how cold is it, and battery chemistry of the tank itself so it might not last 6 hours in every situation. I have a 288wh  Ecoflow River 300 power station and it has ran out a few times after 6-ish hours of use, but it was -15c at the time, which is not something most have to deal with.

Thank you 😊 

I do have a dew heater its 5v at 2A 

[ONIKKINEN]

3 hours ago, TomAstro said:

Thank you 😊 

I do have a dew heater its 5v at 2A 

That would be 10 watts extra load at full power, i think you might want to look for a bigger powertank if you want it to safely last an entire night.

Something in the 300wh/30+amp range as an example. Jackery, Ecoflow, or similar like the one linked above would probably serve you best.