Running QSI straight off 12v battery

[Geoff45]

Does anyone run their QSI straight off a 12v battery? I had a look on their website and got the specs for the connector that goes into the camera, but the one I got from Jaycar looked different to the one on the supplied cord. The other problem is that with the recommended wire gauge (16) for a 3m cable, there is no way that it's going to be an easy job fitting it to the connector
Comments welcome.
Geoff

[gbeal]

Don't know about the QSI stuff Geoff, but the later/latest Starlight cameras all run straight from the 12 volt DC. I dumped the power supply unit altogether and hook mine directly from a 12 volt outlet, albeit a 240 to 12 volt transformer, it feeds the mount, the camera, the dew heater, the flat-box etc.
Gary

[cfranks]

I use a large 12v battery to power my G11, Gemini, Laptop et. al. and feed it directly to my QSI 540wsg. I'm not sure what swg the wire to the camera is (about 16) but I've had no problems so far. For devices that use different to 12v, I use the Jaycar 12v to '5v - 19v' inverters and one of the supplied connectors fits the camera nicely.
Charles

[Geoff45]

As I understand it, you don't use the DC-DC converter to power the camera, but you take one of the supplied connectors to make up a cord for the camera. Is this correct?
Geoff

[Barrykgerdes]

When running your equipment direct from a 12 vot storage battery make sure the equipment is protected by a HRC fuse of suitable ratings. Storage batteries can supply enough power to cook delicate equipment if a component failure does not instantaneously cut power!

Barry

[cfranks]

That's correct. Raw 12v for the camera, Light Box, Focuser and Dew Shield. The DC-DC convertors are used for non-12v gear. 19v for Netbook, 16v for Gemini and 5v for USB Hubs (mounted on telescope). I've also got a 12v to 240v invertor for a cooling water pump for the camera's water jacket. Barry's comment is good. I don't have any such protection so I had better do something about it.
Charles

[Geoff45]

Thanks for the advice guys--ready to go. Up to now I've been running the camera on AC, which is a bit restrictive.
Geoff

[Benny L]

I run my STL and my Losmandy titan off a big Gel-Cell battery. I have power drops and spikes all the time and the mount pops up with "autoguider error" every time the fridge switches on lol.

Never had any problems, just bought the relevant cables from SBIG and away I went ;)

[troypiggo]

Sorry to drag up oldish thread. How'd you go with this, Geoff? I'm off to Jaycar tomorrow to grab cable, jack for camera and plug into 12V power supply. No tricks?

[frolinmod]

I think it's been a long time since QSI cameras had trouble running direct off a 12V battery. There was a time when the camera wanted pretty much exactly 12V, despite having an onboard voltage regulator. At some point they enhanced the firmware to accept a fairly wide range of voltage. They have a knowledge base article on their support website that gives the particulars. I've been using a QSI 500 series camera for over a year now off a 12V battery (actually 13.6V nominal?) with all sorts of other things connected to it including a dew heater controller with no problems of any kind. I never let the battery go below 50% depth of discharge. I don't want to kill my battery. So the voltage never dips dangerously low either.