Aldi 120W Solar Panel & 40Ah Battery

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Just got the latest Aldi catalogue in the mail and was wondering if anyone here could give me some recommendations.

Would this 120W solar panel be enough to recharge a 26Ah battery during the day ready for the next night? The picture in the catalogue says "perfect for charging your 12v battery"... I am picturing that I would need to have the battery attached the the panel all day just to charge it a bit but I may be wrong. There are also some cheaper deals on ebay, but I am unsure of quality, etc...

Also the Aldi 40Ah battery seems good value at $99 but might be too good to be true.

I already have 2x26Ah batteries. But here is a list of the gear I typically use on a normal night.
NEQ6
Kendrick Dual Channel 4 Port Dew Controller (but only using 1 port say on half power)

I plan on adding to this list by also running my Canon 6D DSLR via these batteries along with a Peltier Cooler box (which will be taken from this) I am building and I believe just the Peltier alone will use a lot of power. Also eventually I plan on using my Laptop and Lodestar autoguider in the field. I plan on being away for 3-4 nights at a time without any access to mains power.

That's a lot of gear I plan on using and a bit of time away from mains power. I just want some advice about my current power supply and what my next steps should be to power it all.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Jason

[glend (Glen)]

Jason, AP will certainly require more power than visual observation simply because of the need to drive the imaging camera, guide camera, laptop for PHD or Metaguide, other software etc. The NEQ6 mount itself will only draw about 2 amps so you would seem to have adequate battery capacity now to operate just the mount at night without going into the red zone on discharge (provided you are not jumping all over the sky at a high slew rate, ie if your just tracking various things during imaging). There are ways to approach it to keep the power requirement at night to a minimum.

As far as the camera is concerned, I took a different tack and bought a couple of new high capacity internal batteries for my Canon 450D. The ones I picked up (on ebay) are 1600mA compared to the standard 800ma and I can run fairly long imaging sessions without having to swap batteries (which only takes a few seconds and can be done on the scope). So I have four camera batteries (2 x800ma and 2 x 1600ma). I also run my camera control via a battery powered (AAAs) remote and not an application.

The Aldi solar panel seems ok in terms of capacity but there maybe cheaper solutions around, check the amps it generates off the panel and that it does come with a controller ( which is seems to if they can onnect it directly to the battery)? If not you will need to buy a controller (only about $20 on ebay).

I take an old 80 Watt panel with me when I go to Bretti and that charges everything, including the camper batteries (150 AH), the solar controller is in the camper. I also take a generator with me as supplemental power in case of daytime cloud, etc. My scope battery box is 28AH, but I have a long AMP plug cable so that I can tie it into the camper batteries (150AH) if I need to do so. I carry two inverters in the camper so that I can run chargers during the day for the Netbook PC which runs Metaguide and the guide camera. If necessary I can run the Netbook off the camper batteries via the small inverter (it doesn't draw much at all unlike my laptop). My AC generator can run a Cetek charger to top up the camper or scope batteries as required. I only run the Netbook at night for guiding, and all images captured are uploaded to my laptop the next day (when the sun is shining), so no stacking, or processing at night - this lowers power required considerably and gives you things to do during the day.

I know Arthur has a big battery box and carries a generator with him which he runs during the day to charge (I think it also runs his fridge), and he doesn't use any solar as far as I know. Allan_L has a Waeco 36AH Thumper pack, I think with a small solar panel, to run his goto dob. Of course they are pure visual with goto dobs. Jakob images at Bretti and I believe he gets all his power (for the HEQ5, Netbook etc) from his motorhome batteries.

A Netbook is definitely a good investment as opposed to carrying a full sized laptop around with you (but I don't know if it would handle ASCOM scope applications, EQDIR etc, as I prefer to use either the hand controller and/or the Nexus wifi module I have that interfaces to my Android tablet and Sky Safari Pro).

[GTB_an_Owl (Geoff)]

hi Jason

this is similar to my unit
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/120W-FOLD...item53ed7b333f

it's pretty big! and you would not want anything bigger for your needs

geoff

[MrB (Simon)]

Hi Jason.
A 120W solar panel will be capable of supplying around 6A in full sun. If you are only discharging the 26Ah battery to around 50% depth of discharge(recommended for battery life) it would, in an ideal situation, bulk charge the battery in a little over two hours.
Nothing is ever ideal tho, the panel output will be reduced as its temperature increases and as the sun changes through the day(assuming panel will not be tracking the sun), but even then the 120W panel would be ample for the 26Ah battery.
It would even be capable of charging both 26Ah batteries in parallel.

I run a system with two 36Ah batteries in parallel and two 80W panels and I've never had any drama's, the batteries are usually bulk charged before lunch!
I'm not running any real power hungry items tho: one 13W CFL camp light(usually on for a few hours), two 5W LED camp lights (these only get short duration use), an Engel fridge, a small netbook, an EQ6, two dew straps(for ~80mm refractors) and a QHY5 and other small items (phone chargers etc)

[AstroJason (Jason)]

Thank you Glen for your very detailed response. Yes imaging will require me to conserve my current power. But like you say, I would not be slewing all over the sky all night as I have my targets planned and ready to go so it would just be tracking. I have 2 batteries for my Canon 6D but it recognises ebay rip offs and the 6D charger doesn't charge them. So I'm religated to either buying the genuine Canon batteries which are a rip off themselves or running the camera off one of my 26Ah batteries. I have ordered the gear for this from Kendrick, just waiting for them to send it out.

Thanks Geoff, I think I will just get that one off ebay, seems like a bargain compared to the Aldi one which I thought was already cheap!

Cheers Simon, you along with the other guys have all given me confidence in the 120 watt unit being more than ideal for my needs.

Many thanks all.

Jason

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

looks like a great option when taking the scope out bush!

[Sarge (Rod)]

Jason,

If you are looking for camera and or laptop batteries, give these guys a try.

http://www.betterbatt.com.au/

I have had a couple of dealings with them and purchased laptop and camera batteries as well as a battery grip for my 60D. No issues with quality or service, and I couldn't beat their pricing anywhere. They also offer free postage for 2 or more items, and there here Melbourne.

Not affiliated, just a happy customer.

Clear skies

Rod

[glend (Glen)]

Incredible scenes at Aldi at Westfield Tuggerah this morning at 8:30am! I went along at the published opening time and the place was already packed with people with trolleys loaded with 2-3 porta pottis and 2-3 camping fridges - really who needs 2-3 porta pottis? The aisles were clogged with these loaded trolleys. They need a rule to limit one per customer I think.

The folding solar panels were gone, dont' know how many they had there but the empty space suggests there would have been about 20 at least. I wasn't looking for them anyway as I have all I need, and besides they weren't that good a price compared to the ones on ebay.. I was there to look at the 40AH batteries, as you can never have too much battery power IMHO.

I went away and had a coffee and when I came back around 9am the place was near empty, as were the pallets where most of the camping gear had been. Surpisngly, most of the batteries were still there. So if your looking for a 40AH battery (AGM, Deep Cycle, SLA) there were about six of them still at Aldi Westfield at 9:15am.

I bought one, but there were six left at that time. No idea if they were going to restock later.

Very entertaining morning.

[loc46south (Geoffrey)]

Hi - On a casual basis the solar panel will recharge your batteries. What you really need to work out is your power needs - I run an observatory off solar power and with what you are looking at running you will probably need around 5 to 6 amps at 12 volts. Your biggest power user will be the laptop. I run a 24 volt system and use 4.8 amps but that includes running a computer and monitor.

For 6 hours operation you will consume 72 amps at 12 volts. Batteries will be your problem - you need deep cycle and you can not use them less than 20% unless you are prepared to damage them - Even though they will give power down to 11 volts Deep Cycle Batteries do not take kindly to being operated below 12 volts. My system is set to turn off at 24.2 volts.

If this system is for occassional use it may be cheaper to use a small generator, say around 600 to 800 watt

Cheers
Geof Wingham