HEQ5 Syntrek on household power?

[RogerTheDodger]

That's the one I use to run my HEQ5, ATIK 314L+, Powered hub, Loadstar, EFW2 filter wheel....

[Bizibilder]

You will be absolutely fine - I use one as well (most folk on mains use them). They are exellent for running your mount and accesories (But don't exceed the 5 Amp continuous rating - your HEQ5 draws a bit less than 2A when fast slewing and less than that when tracking, which leaves you with 3A to play with). And don't worry about them being 13.8v either. Most "12v" mounts will operate safely between 12v and 15v. (A "12v battery" will give 13.8v when fully charged - hence the "odd" voltage of 13.8v)

[Macavity]

I think the (any) problem would be if you are powering a large "inductive" load? This because such things (unlike a purely resistive load) can take a subtantially larger current on startup? But I sense that's re. powering things like washing machines, power drills... not some titchy little mount motors? Or, at least that's my theory...

[Tinker1947]

If you want RCD protection and you house consumer unit is the MCB type, they now do MCB's with RCD's built in there around £20 each but rather than single RCD on the Consumer Unit you can protect the Ring Main, Lighting, Cooker ect ect, i will be upgrading mine one new MCB/RCD per month......on the cable size for the Mount Lead i brought a Screwfix 50m reel of 1.5mm twin.

[TonyB]

Many thanks for your reassurance and advice; so knowledgeable you are! Now....does anyone know where I can get my hands on an effective cloud-busting device??

[astromartian]

Well over a year since my last post in this thread and all is well with my bench PSU. Runs the mount and a 12v LED red light strip perfectly.

[Geordie mc]

I've just bought a bench power supply from Maplins too. Can I safely run my QSI ccd camera from it. The camera came with all sorts of warnings about only using the supplied power adapter. I presume ill void the warranty if I use anything else, but really don't want a mains cable on an extension lead outdoors! Others seem to be running ccd cams perfectly happily. Also, how are people powering laptops? Is it best to leave this indoors and run powered USB cables out to equipment? Thanks.

[daz]

At star parties, I use a maplins bench supply on an extension lead. The extension lead houses the laptop supply, monitor, 12v adapter for the dew controller and bench supply. It runs from an RCD unit so if there is a power issue, it will trip and nothing goes up in flames!

I tend to use a cloth/blanket over the table top to stop excess moisture getting into the laptop and on the screen...

The only thing I split off is the dew controller from the bench supply so as not to introduce any additional noise to the CCD - but this may be overkill!

[Geordie mc]

I run the cigar lighter cable that came with my mount to the maplin bench supply. Can I extend this using this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/3M-Power-Extension-Cable-2-1mm/dp/B003AN8X0I/ref=pd_sim_ce_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=17KQPECSAQZMD7QGZYZQ