Is voltage regulation required on scope battery supply?

[Stonius (Markus)]

Just wondering if I need to put anything between to make sure the supply stays constant as the battery is drained. At the moment I just have a 12V sealed lead-acid battery of 18mAH and another of 7mAH. Would they work? Or do I really need to get one of those Marine deep cycle things? And if so, back to the original question - do I need to regulate the voltage as it is drained?

Best

Markus

[glend (Glen)]

Depends on what your trying to run and for how long. Most new SLA batteries have no trouble holding a charge above 13.5v, but you want to avoid discharging them below about 12.6v for preservation. Put a battery voltmetre on it and watch it as its being used, stop it when it gets down to 12.6v - that is the useful time you will get. Going deeper, like right down to 12v will significantly shorten battery life, even deep cycle ones.
A 18ah and 7ah are not big, and I certainly would not be running heat straps off them. You could easily run a Dob push to system, like the Nexus, but for EQ mounts I would want much more AMP hours. I have a 40ah SLA that I use, with a voltmetre, just for my heater system in the field. Add up the draw of each of the things you want to run and come back.

[raymo]

Hi Markus, there are two ways you can power your gear with ease. One that costs less than $100, and the other that costs between ziltch and $20.
For over 30yrs I have used one or the other.
1. Get a car battery around $90-100, around 60a/hr. This will power all
your gear[ say HEQ5, laptop, and a dewheater or two] for two four or five hour sessions, and if you put it on trickle charge between sessions you'll never have a problem.
2. My favourite method which I have used for the last six or seven yrs.
Auto electrical shops usually have car batteries that have been removed
from cars, but have plenty of life in them. Frequently, four wheel drivers
convert their vehicles to double battery systems, and install two new batteries even when their existing battery is fine.
The last one I got from my local Auto Leccy was an 85a/hr that cost me
$20 and was still powering all my gear five yrs later when I sold everything.
Many members IMHO are needlessly over complicating things, and
spending quite large sums of money quite unnecessarily.[ I'm not referring to heavy usage permanent setups here].
Incidentally, my laptop has worked just fine for yrs using a $25 300w
inverter hooked up to the car battery.
As far as voltage regulation is concerned, most mounts will operate
satisfactorily within quite a wide voltage range, SW mounts such as the
HEQ5 and EQ6 work fine between 11 and 15v, and will give you a low
voltage warning. I suggest that you check your specifications to see what
yours accepts.
raymo

[Capella_Ben (Ben)]

Most electronics have built in voltage regulators that will keep the voltage down to what they want. I'd be amazed if your mound did not have that.

When the voltage goes below 12v you car battery is too low anyway (bad for it).

I just have a 12 deep cycle battery (that I used to use for camping) and it does the job all night with no problems.

Like others have said just keep it simple. There is a lot of useless info on the Internet about batteries (especially on 4wd forums); be cautious.

[Capella_Ben (Ben)]

...Also if you don't want to lug around a car battery you might be able to use one of the lithium battery packs they use for jump starting cars. Some also have higher voltage ports for direct laptop connection.

Not sure of they all will last a full night, but I'm going to try once my deep-cycle eventually dies.

[Stonius (Markus)]

Thanks for the input guys. I just want to make sure I'm not going to kill my mount with some hidden gremlins that I don't know about.

Thanks for the advice. I'll have a look at the auto electrician option too, thanks Raymo.

Cheers all

Markus

[AndrewJ]

Gday Markus
A voltage regulator is probably not required, but for batteries that can be easily damaged by over discharge, a battery protector can be useful.
This device essentially isolates the battery if the voltage gets too low.



Andrew