My current battery has flimsy handles that flex badly so i decided to put it in a safe case and flush mount a power panel on the side. This also allows me to stack it in the car along with my other hard cases. Being a waterproof case means i can leave it anywhere overnight.
1) 12v power panel (Lockable 12v socket, USB charge ports & Voltmeter)
If this project goes well then im gonna make an exact copy to power my netbook. Instead of 12v sockets though its gonna have a 240v power socket from a dissected 150w can inverter.
Last edited by killswitch; 10-01-2015 at 07:55 PM.
Can I make one suggestion, rather than fusing it, if there a circuit breaker you could use? Much more convenient if you manage to short something to remove the short and flick a switch back on.
Fuses are simpler and quicker to react to faults than breakers. All the gear I plug in has its own fuse so I don't really see the main fuse blowing. I got spares in the car anyway.
Narva does sell blade circuit breakers that could just replace my existing blade fuse.
Edison it's looking good. Not to 'chime' in on your thread, but I thought you or others might like to see other possible configuration options for the same solution. Here are some photos of the one I put together around the middle of last year, and you might have seen at Bretti. It runs my NEQ6 mount all night long, and can also handle dew heaters directly to the controller or bridged to the dew heater separate supply. It has three 12v outlets, two blade fused for 15amps, and one for 20amps which is used for the input/charging side. I can plug that 20amp side to an (Anderson plug to 12V cig plug) adaptor I have made up to feed power from my camper batteries to the scope power box in the field with a 10 metre cable. The batteries are held in place with double sided tape and small timber battens which are fixed through the bottom - they don't move around.
The 'tool box' came from Bunnings. The sockets are all Narva, as are the fuse holders. The batteries are just 12v 7AH Powersonic batteries off ebay wired in parallel to maintain 12V with cumulative AHs, so it's 21AH in total. I have another smaller Bunnings tool box (they were sold as a set of four for $25) that I use as an auxiliary booster supply (to add in another 14AHs) or separate dew heater power supply and it as RCA sockets on it as well as one Narva 12V for input and output.
I like your display setup, I just use a little multimetre to monitor what's going on supply wise, as I can use that for other things as well. I like your USB socket idea and will try to 'mod' mine later this year.
This little supply box is going to move into the observatory I am building and be on constant trickle charge from the solar panel so when going to the field I just need to grab it and go.
Cheers - happy to delete this if you wish, just PM me.
Both good setups, I have been planning to build one soon myself so it is handy to see how other people are doing it.
My biggest issue is my battery is going to need to be big to avoid over discharging it. The mount is one thing but with a 9.25" SCT, the corrector heater draws a bit of current, a couple of amps continuous on really cold nights.
I keep meaning to get myself a bench power supply which could be in my shed (Which is near where I observe) and have heavy wiring run out to the scope each night, that way I know it will just keep on going, not suitable for imaging as a small power interruption in the shed would probably wreck an imaging run but for my visual use the worst it would do would be leave me having to do a mount alignment again.
My biggest issue is my battery is going to need to be big to avoid over discharging it. The mount is one thing but with a 9.25" SCT, the corrector heater draws a bit of current, a couple of amps continuous on really cold nights.
You should monitor your power consumption first with a dc watt meter or multimeter.
Mounts only draw a lot during full slew of both motors. When tracking they dont draw much at all and the mount is tracking for most of the night.
The Kendrick Zapcap for my C8 ive measured to draw only 1A at full blast. With a controller i normally use less than that, unless its really dewy of course.
Gday Edison
Nice neat setup.
Pity i couldnt find a cheap pelican case in the past.
Have atrtached a piccy of what i made out of old jarrah floorboards.
It holds a 40 and a 20Ahr battery at the bottom ( plus spare leads )
and a microprocessor that shows voltage and current at the top.
The five small std DC connectors at one end are individually fused and the big grunter connection at the other isnt ( as i use inline fuses )
One thing i did was use Amphenol connectors for the heavy current as
a) They are locking,
b) I had some :-)
I then use Anderson connectors to allow me to swap what sort of lead i want to use. Expensive, but there is no way i can reverse polarity on anything after i have set it up.
I am also interested in making something similar.
