Qld AstroFest 2011

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

You are right there David. I was able to keep my mount ticking over and my camera imaging and autoguiding guiding for the short (5-10 min) period that power did drop out a couple of times. Plus it made sure that the voltage didn't drop and brown out for important equip. Dew heater pfft, laptop, mount and cameras

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Paul, maybe you could make some recommendations on what sort of UPS we'd need for our gear.
I was at Jaycar the other day trying to price them, then realised I had no idea what I needed.

[Louwai (Bryan)]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Paul, maybe you could make some recommendations on what sort of UPS we'd need for our gear.
I was at Jaycar the other day trying to price them, then realised I had no idea what I needed.

Janette in my home office I have a small one. It is 1100va. Connected to it I have 1 x desk-top PC + the PBX ph system.
When the power is off it keeps these running for about 35 to 40mins.
Mine has a warning "beep". If the mains is off, the UPS beeps every 5 seconds to alert you that the power is off.
This is quite loud & on the feild in the dead of night would be quite prominent.

A google search shows 1100va UPS for between $250 & $350 depending on what you get.

I still like the battery & solar panel option for personal power..

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Jaycar have one in their latest catalog which is basically the same one I have (mine is 500VA I think)

600VA 375W Line Interactive UPS $109

The only thing that concerns me about it and I've not had feedback from anyone about it is that its not a pure sine wave output but a step sine wave. I've not found it doesn't seem to worry my gear but I remember reading somewhere that step sine may not be good in some instances. remember all I know about electronics is that if you stick a screw driver in a powerpoint it hurts.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

As an aside, I do like the gadget just under it in the catelog.
Networking USB servers. Plug the gadget into your router via Cat 5 cable (eg external hard drive, printer, etc etc) and any computer on the network can access it. I've been looking for an easy way to have files available to all computers without having to go through the networking process. Networking for me is like electricity except you don't get hurt as much when you stick the screw driver in a cat 5 socket

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Cheers, thanks Bryan, Paul.

[RobF (Rob)]

I'd be interested to hear if any other people have comments on small UPS setups too. I'm not confident I could run all my gear through cigarette lighter adaptors etc to power off the battery and charger currently. I could probably handle up to $250 to get something to save headaches, especially if I'm there a number of nights as hope may be the case this year.

Maybe I should set up a stand hiring them out for $10 a night.....

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

For most people a small UPS as described should do the trick - the issue is protecting sensitive stuff for a few mins and I would expect that the cameras would be, but there is no need to protect a laptop or dew heaters. If you are bringing a computer into the field then you will need a much bigger UPS to give you meaningfull protection ie to allow you to keep imaging for a while before shutting down.

I guess that the various transformers in line may go someway to rectify the setpped sine wave

[hotspur (Chris)]

I can bring a Honda 5 kva generator,works first pull every time.

Living in the area of the astro fest site,there has been a large amount of damage to many roads,but I am sure by August we will all be able to get there.I just hope it does not rain again during astro fest they got 3 inches one night last year.I hope they also do something about the light curfew nonsense.Last year some person was very cranky when my friend had his very small light on in his caravan washing his dishes from his meal-when it was still twilight,and was harrased,that he should turn them off.This is clearly unacceptable-during twilight when people have a small light on washing up their dishes in their caravan,to have these whingers going off makes it very unpleasant.Sure when its dark-only red lights at a low rate.I feel a few people have been turned off this great event,because of a few people

Chris

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

the UPS advertised above have 3 / 240V outlets that are backed up by the battery and 3 that are simply filtered against spikes

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by hotspur

I can bring a Honda 5 kva generator,works first pull every time.

Living in the area of the astro fest site,there has been a large amount of damage to many roads,but I am sure by August we will all be able to get there.I just hope it does not rain again during astro fest they got 3 inches one night last year.I hope they also do something about the light curfew nonsense.Last year some person was very cranky when my friend had his very small light on in his caravan washing his dishes from his meal-when it was still twilight,and was harrased,that he should turn them off.This is clearly unacceptable-during twilight when people have a small light on washing up their dishes in their caravan,to have these whingers going off makes it very unpleasant.Sure when its dark-only red lights at a low rate.I feel a few people have been turned off this great event,because of a few people

Chris

I am sure all mean well Chris - this is not the time nor place to enter into any discusion about people whom may have irritated you at past astrofests. Mate SPSP is worse - never image on a viewing field with the club president near

I will be toting batteries and UPS's this next trip - looking forward to it. Its a tad too far for me to help out with the campsite but will do what i can when there

[Tandum (Robin)]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Paul, maybe you could make some recommendations on what sort of UPS we'd need for our gear.
I was at Jaycar the other day trying to price them, then realised I had no idea what I needed.

jjj, Something like this would handle everything you have plus a cooled camera. You don't need a line interactive device, you are not guarding against brown outs and over volts, just loss of power. Something like this has a tail which you can connect to a power board.

Cheaper still, replace the car battery, put the old one in a bucket and power everyting off that. Put a battery charger on it to keep it all going.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

You are right there David. I was able to keep my mount ticking over and my camera imaging and autoguiding guiding for the short (5-10 min) period that power did drop out a couple of times. Plus it made sure that the voltage didn't drop and brown out for important equip. Dew heater pfft, laptop, mount and cameras

A simple switching relay is not hard to wire up - they are great for instantly detecting a dropout of 240V AC and switching in a battery/inverter system. It would allow you to use your battery as a backup in the event of a Duckadang outage like we saw last year and permit you to continue uninterrupted until 240 was restored.
If anyone wants details of how to wire up such a hing, let me know. It just needs a Jaycar project box, a relay and relay connection block, some wires, alligator clips and then of course a decent battery and an inverter capable of powering your rig.
Peter

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

As an aside, I do like the gadget just under it in the catelog.
Networking USB servers. Plug the gadget into your router via Cat 5 cable (eg external hard drive, printer, etc etc) and any computer on the network can access it. I've been looking for an easy way to have files available to all computers without having to go through the networking process. Networking for me is like electricity except you don't get hurt as much when you stick the screw driver in a cat 5 socket

Paul, be cautios about those Ethernet/USB devices. I have a couple and have yet to find one that is capable of connecting more than a Thumb Drive or small external HD. The ones I've got won't drive any of my cameras. They might drive a web cam but a QHY5 or QHY8 won't work with them. My plan was to use one of these at the mount/pier side and run an ethernet cable back to a switch/router etc so I could control remotely. So far, no good.

Peter

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Thanks for that Peter. I'll keep that in mind. A 1 tb external HDD is about all I'm going to run off it. I don't have the upstairs sparks to work out how to create a network so I see this as a good option to make a central storage space to access 'stuff' from any computer, anywhere within range of the router. And maybe a printer, but its not essential seeing as I only print once in a blue moon.

[steve000 (Steve)]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Paul, maybe you could make some recommendations on what sort of UPS we'd need for our gear.
I was at Jaycar the other day trying to price them, then realised I had no idea what I needed.

Jaycar will be expensive, check out computer stores such as MSY or Umart
http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/PARTS.pdf hit CTRL F and type in UPS

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

I bought mine originally from Lawrence and Hanson Electrical in Nambour. From memory (two and a half years ago now) it was about $110. Its got all the bells and whistles where you can monitor it and do other stuff with it from a laptop. Never bothered. One thing I do like about this one over the only other one I've used is that when power goes back on the alarm resets and shuts up. I've conveniently forgotten the other one but even when the power came back on it was still screaming and you had to reset it before the power would flow. Pain in the neck it was, literally as it was under the floor of the Mapleton observatory and you had to get down on hands and knees to get under the floor to reset it. Stoopid thing.

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

OK, The AAQ have had its AGM today and have its new president - Me [GULP]

I have emailed the other presidents and will report back when I know more. There is no way I am going to rest until I am confident that this event is in safe hands [what a drama queen].

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Thank you Jonathan for stepping up to the plate.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Congratulations Jon!!