HEQ5Pro owners - Have a question

[prova]

just got my new mount this afternoon and would like to know what fellow owners use as a power supply?

i thought it would've come with a battery pack but guess i was wrong...?

[monoxide]

i use a SLA battery + charger
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=7094

a lot of people are using jump starter packs though which would probably be a bit more convenient

[tnbk00]

I have a jump start pack that works fine. But I just bought one of these:
http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/p/12v-power-station-power-supply/
which is basically a jump start pack without the jump bits....and for $30 its not too badly priced.....I will post once i receive it.


Daniel

[monoxide]

Hi Daniel,
from the specs on that power pack it looks like it only has a 4.5AH battery
and i'm not exactly sure how much the HEQ5 draws but id say it will run flat fairly quick, not so much a problem if your only out for a couple hours but it means you will probably have to charge it every time you use it

[tnbk00]

yeah probably :) I charge the jumpstarter every time anyway, and i need to keep it in the car now thanks to dodgey battery....so i always have a backup

[prova]

Looks good.

Have to goto Bunnings tomorrow for something else and will look there but if all fails I'll just order one of these ..

[csb]

The specs do say 4.5aH (aH = Amp hours) which means if your mount uses 1.5Amps you will get about 3hrs use before it goes flat (if it uses 4.5Amps then only 1hrs use).

DealsDirect have that pack out for 20$ plus $10 shipping - may be worthwhile getting 2 (esp. if shipping is still only $10 for 2).

It's certainly a handy sized pack & no jumper leads to worry about.

[Starkler]

Not quite right.

The discharge rating is based by convention on a 20hr discharge period. ie a 20A/h battery can give one amp for twenty hours. 20A/h does not mean it is capable of 20 amps for one hour or even 2 amps for 10 hours.

You really do want to be conservative when calculating the amps budget and always buy bigger so as not to run your battery flat, which will shorten its life considerably.

A tip: When the unloaded voltage of an SLA battery is 12.0V you have drained very close to 50% of its capacity.

[Maverick]

Hi
From Supacheap auto, yellow jump pack works nice.Peak 900Amps and constant 450Amps , 17aH.HEQ5 uses around 2amps so you could go for 8hours no probs there.When I got mine there was purple pack with double speck and price.
http://www.supercheapauto.com/products/batteries.aspx

Cya

[Kokatha man]

Geoff's on the money there prova: there's also been quite a lot of threads/info of late in IIS on this very subject.

SLA's (along with others) perform and last best when they are "floated" or maintained at terminal voltages between approx 13 - 13.5 volts: effectively meaning that you should not heavily discharge them in useage before recharging. Also, it is important to realize that the "trickle charging" devices that come with the auto jumpstart units should not be left on permanently when the battery is not in use, only employed to bring the unit back up to full charge after use, or to re-float (boost) the unit for short periods every couple of weeks if the battery is stored for some time (allways storing it fully-charged.)

I operate an HEQ5 Pro mount and purchased a 17 Ah auto jumpstart unit for its' operation; these are also rated in "CCA" units (900 amps for the 17Ah) which is a "cranking amps" capacity rating because they are, after all, all automotive units. This 17Ah job runs the HEQ5 Pro adequately for a night's use, the mount drawing a couple of amps in use.

The greater the amp-hourage, the bigger and heavier the unit: you may wish to consider the next size up if you have intentions of drawing other loads (devices) from the battery other than just the mount operation.

As Geoff said, the 20 hour rating has been the auto industry standard since time immemorial: other deep cycle batteries (stationary etc) will have the 10 hour rating (not allways) and will allow a greater current to be discharged over this 10 hour period: eg, two batteries, each 100Ah with one at the 10 hour and the other at the 20 hour ratings - theoretically, you can draw 10 amps for 10 hours from the 10 hour rated battery, but only 5 amps for 20 hours from the 20 hour rated battery.

Geoff's comments about not being able to automatically extrapolate/infer different lengths of discharge times for various loads (current draws) are also correct, the lower the discharge amperage, the nearer, technically, you can get to its full 20 hour rating capacity.

Don't get a unit less than 17Ah (900CCA) and don't forget to recharge the battery after using:

don't leave it recharging beyond fully charged and don't use another charger with it unless it is a fully regulated one:

don't have the charger operating whilst using the unit to power the mount (unless it is fully-regulated, and don't even then!)

and don't forget to periodically recharge the unit if it is not being used regularly.

You should then have good service from the jumpstart jobs!

Please forgive my (usual) full-on rave here, being an old "battery man" there's the subconscious imperative to grab any opportunity to barf on on this particular subject!

Cheers, Darryl.

[prova]

Cheers Darryl, I'll take that into consideration when buying a battery pack today .. It's only going to be used on the mount nothing else

[prova]

Just bought this from Bunnings for $45, should do the job?

http://www.gmcompany.com/download/products/VEC012-AU_IM_Ed10.pdf

[davewaldo]

That looks like a good buy, just remember that the batteries in these units are not deep cycle. So you need to make sure you don't run them too flat and NEVER leave them at anything other than full charge for more than a few days. Otherwise these batteries may only last a few months.

If kept at full charge during storage and not run too flat, they should last a couple of years.

[Luke]

I got my heq5 yesterday from star optics. It came with a cord to plug straight the lighter socket in the car. Runs it fine so far [4 hours, no cut outs] didnt come with a power adapter which was a bit of a bummer.
This whole polar alignment thing is killen me.......killen me i say:screwy:

[westsiderailway]

Seeing that we are talking Batterys.... or going batty:screwy:;):lol:

I just purchased a Celestron Power Tank 17
Jump Starter Unit.

12v/17ah sealed battery.

Has 12v & 3,6,9v sockets.

Also got a Inverter 500w the other day (for running my XPS M1710)

Now what sort of usage would i get using as well as HEQ5 Pro.

Can the Oh Mighty Battery Man ;) tell me this....

Bow to his Greatness

[westsiderailway]

Excellent it will plug stright into my Power Tank then.;) Which is all charged and ready to go.

One slight problem...:screwy: All i need to do now is BUY the Mount/Tripod.;):lol:

[White Rabbit]

I have the big purple jump starter from Super cheap auto, cost me about $185 and is 1900Ah. I could run the my eq5 for days with it. It also has a light built into it that you can take the cover off and put a red gel in so when you use the light you dont wreck your night vision.

I take this camping with me and use it as a light in the tent and also for playing dvd's a and cd's and it lasts about 5 day when camping.
As a bonus, the alternator in my car died a couple of weeks ago and I broke down, I strapped the jump pack to the car battery and strapped the boot down and made it to work just in time lol. So they are handy things to have for more than just the telescope.

Sandy

[omnivorr]

he has been removed from the member list

much to my bewilderment and disappointment.

I dare say no more on the matter.