Dew Controller

[Triskellion]

Just a quick apology to all in my area. At last i have bought myself a dew heater system and so expect coulds and rain for the forseeable future. It arrived yesterday and it has been cloudy ever since! Got a Dewbuster controller from the states and a couple of kendrick heater strips for the corrector and eyepiece. i plan to make my own heaters for finder, diagonal and maybe handbox. Will let you all know if its any good if and when the clouds ever clear. Also got one of the power packs from Telescope house to run it off but i must say im not convinced its very good. not had a chance to use it properly yet only ran the scope of it so far but it doesnt seem to hold the charge as well as i was expecting and seems to charge up and say full power pretty quick so im a bit worried i got a duff one. Anyone know of a really good reliable heavy duty long lasting power pack in the uk?

Andy

[FLO]

Looking forward to your report Andy 8)

[daz]

Andy

Visit Halfords and look at their range of Leisure batteries.

Of course, you'll need to work out your Ah requirements, but I would think something like 17 Ah would be fine.

[Triskellion]

Well its the first night out with the new dew controller etc and im afraid its bad news and good. As far as the controller and heater strips are concerned everything seems to be going well. At least i have seen no dew so far anyway. As far as the battery pack is concerned. no good! as i suspected i reckon i have a duff one. it lasted about 1 hour before the low battery lights came on and things went bad. I have now connected my housemates car battery charger to the jump leads on the power pack and have some green lights so maybe i can keep going for the night but the reason for getting this was so i could go to some remoter darker skies with no plugs etc. For info this is actually supposed to be a 17ah rated power pack. Am i right in thinking that means i should be able to draw 1 amp for 17hrs or conversly 17 amps for 1 hour before the battery is dead? If so its far from perfect. i only have 1 10" heater strip + a 2" eyepiece strip running which by my calculations is about 2 amps tops at full power. I just wanna get my head straight before i start complaining. i did look in halfords at their power packs but the only ones they had in the local shop only had one cigarette output and i need 2 if im to run the scope and dew controller. Thanks for the input guys. i will try to do a first light report on the controller once ive made it through first light.

[daz]

Hi Andy

Yes, you are correct in your assumptions of the Ah.

[The Warthog]

In North America, we can get 'deep cycle' batteries, of very high amperage, used for powering electric outboard motors and other high draw appliances. They are fairly expensive, running into the low $100's or higher, but do the job magnificently. OTOH, a standard car battery should provide you with enough power for more than one night, and you can get things like cigarette lighter plugs that attach to the battery with clips if you look around. If you can drive up to your scope, you can use your car battery.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

But leave the car pointed downhill if you think you might flatten your battery. Helps to be able to bump start it.

Captain Chaos

[The Warthog]

Or let the engine run from time to time.

[Triskellion]

Cheers for the input guys

i have been thinking about the car battery thing and thinking how i could stick it in a box or something. trouble is ive spent all my cash on the last one so a bit stuck there. For info ive read in the instructions for the current power pack that "if the red light comes on indicating properly flat then charge the pack for 30 hours!" ive since done this and will give it one more cahnce before i send it back as useless. unfortunately its cloudy as heck here now so i cant try it out tonight. Im coming round to WH's idea though that i want a big old car battery that is never gonna run out of juice,

Andy

[Kai]

Dont use a car battery as its a short term saving,use a Leisure (Deep Cycle) Battery as that is what its designed to do.Most Caravaners/Campers use them as they are designed to be run flat and then charged up again rather than a car battery that is designed to give a short high powered delivery (starting the car).