What's INSIDE a Kendrick Dew heater ?

I recently made an insulated aluminium dew shield for my LX200 which works
really well. The only problem with it is that now my Kendrick dew heater
gets in the way as I slide the dew shield tube down over the OTA.

I could make up a nichrome based heating element that would fit inside the
corrector plate mounting and solve the problem, but when I was playing
around with the heater strap today, it felt as if the actual heating element
itself is a flexible rubber strip. If this was the case, then I could just
take the fabric covering off the heater and simply use the rubber strip
itself as the lower profile would allow the dew shield to slide past.

So - before I go and hack up a perfectly good heater, does anyone know what
is inside these and if it would be possible to use without the fabric
covering ?

Thanks,

Alasdair

So - before I go and hack up a perfectly good heater, does anyone know what
is inside these and if it would be possible to use without the fabric
covering ?

I've never pulled one apart so can't really say, I use a car 'stick on' 12V
DC rear screen heater (£3.47). I imagine aquaria heat mats, or those used
by home brewers are similar but mains voltage.

"john carruthers" wrote in message
...
I use a car 'stick on' 12V DC rear screen heater (£3.47).

Clever idea, d'ya get these from Halfords?

Regards


Chris

Clever idea, d'ya get these from Halfords?
The local motor factor, I imagine Halfords do them, I know they did in the
70's.
jc

So - before I go and hack up a perfectly good heater, does anyone know what
is inside these and if it would be possible to use without the fabric
covering ?

Thanks, Alasdair[/quote]

Could try a 'pussy warmer' from your local pet shop;-) Aparently they're as good as superglue for moggies.

Nytecam

"nytecam" wrote in message
...

So - before I go and hack up a perfectly good heater, does anyone know
what
is inside these and if it would be possible to use without the fabric
covering ?

Thanks, Alasdair

Could try a 'pussy warmer' from your local pet shop;-) Aparently
they're
as good as superglue for moggies.

Nytecam
In the past, I heated a piece of optics in some industrial equipment, with
'heating tape', from 'Amptek'. The units are specified to give vaious
wattages at 120v, but for my application, I only wanted a couple of watts,
so (given that they will give approximately 1/100th the heat at this
voltage -ignoring resistance changes in the wire from heating), I ran the
nominally 208W unit from 12v (this is about 9" long), to give the heat I
required. These tapes, and some other similar units, seemed to be readily
available from laboratory equipment suppliers. This was a sort of silicon
rubber 'strip' about half an inch wide. It was though about $40 at the
time...

Best Wishes