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Battery Chargers


BAZ

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I have popped into JTF and they have some of these chargers, which are very suitable for sealed lead acid batteries and power packs.

I have bought three, one of which is already bagged, there are two more left on the shelf, so if anyone wants one, let me know.

Otherwise they can be obtained from this supplier, but I have no idea how good/bad he is.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motorhomes-Boats-Lawnowers-Car-Motorcycle-12-volts-Automatic-Trickle-Charger-/110816644783?pt=UK_Campervan_Caravan_Accessories&hash=item19cd2fceaf#ht_1871wt_982

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Hi Martyn,

Seems like you are the resident battery/charger expert, tea guru, coffee shop magnate and all round top guy :) - This red wine is really good stuff!

I have never used a scope on battery power before, only a 10" LX200 mains powered goto or star hopping with various other scopes. I am thinking of getting a goto scope for dark site use and was wondering about various aspects like battery size (amp hours) and goto scope power requirements etc. I am quite capable of doing the math on this (when not on the wine :wacko: ), but was hoping that you could give me a little general advice from practical experience. Such as a rough guideline for what size battery would power a goto scope for how long. I will probably want to control the scope via laptop, so after the laptop battery expires a substantial amount of power would be required to run that as well. Maybe you have experience of how a laptop would change the equation. In the past in my obsy, I would often do an observing session from dusk till dawn, so I just want to be sure that I will get the right equipment to do the job out in the field, without too much trial and error.

Regards,

Pete.

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I have popped into JTF and they have some of these chargers, which are very suitable for sealed lead acid batteries and power packs.

I have bought three, one of which is already bagged, there are two more left on the shelf, so if anyone wants one, let me know.

Otherwise they can be obtained from this supplier, but I have no idea how good/bad he is.

http://www.ebay.co.u...f#ht_1871wt_982

I have this battery charger off Martyn and it is excellent. Trickle charges the battery then when at capacity it runs the battery down a bit, then charges it up etc etc.....Had my battery and charger for a few months now and is in excellent working order, currently powering the mother in laws 130P sync scan goto, powered it for 3-4 sesions each session about 4 hrs long before I put it back on charge again.

Peter, I have the 38 amp and hour battery, if you are looking to power a laptop and a scope (any dew heaters etc) for a whole night, then I would say you would need one of Martyns bigger batteries, around the 75 amp range. Must admit, I have no idea how much power a laptop would require off the battery, so best wait for the expert.

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Thanks Darren,

Just the sort of info I'm looking for.

I'm sure that laptops and heaters will probably use more power than your average goto scope. So I'd better consider a bigger battery - or two.

Cheers,

Pete.

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Guest Tweedledum

Pete,

I would recommend that you use a netbook to control the scope, you could charge using a simple inverter or via a 12v adapter which is easily sought to power/charge the netbook... You should guage around 2A for the charger, with lithium batteries full charge in c1.5 hours

I have one of Martyn's batteries that I used (once) to power the dew heaterband on the LX, if you want to give it a try you can use that one.

Cheers

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Thanks Damian.

Martyn has put me a big battery to one side, so I'll be getting that soon.

I might be able to pinch Matthews old netbook, he hasn't used it since he got the laptop. I presume you suggest a netbook due to its portability, lower power usage and cheaper adaptor.

Cheers,

Pete.

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Guest Tweedledum

Hi Pete,

Absolutely, you need little processing power for either guiding the scope or collecting the images from the cameras which would either be a DSLR or a USB. Different story processing them, then your current kit is going to struggle!!! I'll rent you some time on my pc :)

You would probably get max 4.5hrs from netbook screen dimmed and little else running, most newish laptops / netbooks you can get an adapter to run off 12v dc very cheaply. You may also find that you as distances are small then any extra external usb hubs can be powered from the netbook, but this is an additional drain. I would also consider a separate usb disk drive as you could then just store images on the drive and then saves swapping to and fro.

Once you know what you are going to connect it is easy to do a profile of your battery and know when the power curve is going to drop off the cliff!...

I have found some very nice 12v marine grade conectors that are easily mountable so you could almost run a rail and have them properly fused and protected.

Cheers

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HI All, I have been out at the crack of sparrows this morning and bought the last three chargers from JTF.

For Pete, as discussed I have a 75 watt invertor with built in USB output.

Anyone who would like a charger let me know as soon as you can, £12 and it's your's.

These are designed to be left connected to the battery and will charge it, and discharge it so it doesn't build up crystalline deposits between the plates.

Please don't use a car battery charger on a sealed battery, as the heat build up may pop the safety vents, and release hydrogen.

This would put a bit of a crimp on your day if it ignited.

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Hi Martyn and everyone with a battery.

Here's a little item that is well worth 3 quid of anybodys money.


/>http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003SQ6U6Q/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

Nick from Altair Astro kindly suggested this item so I thought I'd pass it on.

Cheers,

Pete.

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That's good to know Darren.

Perhaps everyone else is already using them and I'm just the last person to catch on.

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