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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
I'm looking for a portable power source for my LX90 and imaging equip.
I am not an electronics buff, and I am confused by all the different posts that I have seen regarding this. In addition to the scope, I want to power a video camera, monitor, & VCR. What kind of portable power supply do I need? Do I need to be concerned with amps, volts, watts, wobbelators, kenuten valves? AND, where does a power inverter fit in to all this? Do I need one of those too? Thank you in advance. ** If you want to send me e-mail, remove the NOSPAM from my address ** |
#2
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
Get a marine battery. A jump start batter will not take the constant
power drain and recharging. The power inverter will allow you to run the VCR, etc on 110v off the marine battery. Get a good size battery that is gel filled. It should withstand 300-500 charge/discharge cycles. I use one rated 585 CCA and for what you want to run, you will want one this size. Everything should be rated for 12 volts. As for the amperage, it will be important for the inverter. Add up the amps requried for all the equipment you want to run at the same time and then add 20% or so to that total to get the size of the inverter you need. On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 17:14:58 GMT, (Russ) wrote: I'm looking for a portable power source for my LX90 and imaging equip. I am not an electronics buff, and I am confused by all the different posts that I have seen regarding this. In addition to the scope, I want to power a video camera, monitor, & VCR. What kind of portable power supply do I need? Do I need to be concerned with amps, volts, watts, wobbelators, kenuten valves? AND, where does a power inverter fit in to all this? Do I need one of those too? Thank you in advance. ** If you want to send me e-mail, remove the NOSPAM from my address ** |
#3
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
If you were intending to use this battery supply source for only the LX90
and maybe a dew heater, one of the small jump start batteries would do well (these are usually 17 AH batteries). However, the other stuff you wish to power complicates things. If you absolutely need to power all this stuff in the field, I would suggest 2 batteries...a small jump start battery for your telescope and a marine deep cycle battery for the rest of the accessories. You could buy both at a membership store such as Costco or Sams for $50 each. BTW, a power inverter simply changes DC current to AC. Al "Russ" wrote in message ... I'm looking for a portable power source for my LX90 and imaging equip. I am not an electronics buff, and I am confused by all the different posts that I have seen regarding this. In addition to the scope, I want to power a video camera, monitor, & VCR. What kind of portable power supply do I need? Do I need to be concerned with amps, volts, watts, wobbelators, kenuten valves? AND, where does a power inverter fit in to all this? Do I need one of those too? Thank you in advance. ** If you want to send me e-mail, remove the NOSPAM from my address ** |
#4
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
"Russ" wrote in message ... I'm looking for a portable power source for my LX90 and imaging equip. I am not an electronics buff, and I am confused by all the different posts that I have seen regarding this. In addition to the scope, I want to power a video camera, monitor, & VCR. What kind of portable power supply do I need? Do I need to be concerned with amps, volts, watts, wobbelators, kenuten valves? AND, where does a power inverter fit in to all this? Do I need one of those too? Thank you in advance. ** If you want to send me e-mail, remove the NOSPAM from my address ** Inverters convert DC to AC. The ones you might be interested in also convert the car battery voltage to domestic mains voltage. I use a power inverter when at a dark spot to keep all my stuff in juice for the duration because I drive to a dark spot. I plug the inverter into the cigarette lighter socket of the car and have mains voltage to plug things into (like VCRs). Yes you need to watch your WATTS. Simply add up all the Watts that everything you want to plug-in uses and the power inverter has to be more than that (the more the better). One thing you need to watch is your car battery! It may be worth a periodic engine run to keep it charged. For example, monitor: 80watts, VCR 60 watts, scope power supply 25 watts; total is 165 watts. You'd really be looking at a 200+watt inverter, but that's just an example. Always read the VA value or Watts value at the mains voltage (ie input voltage), not, for example in a power supply, the output watts or VA value. You might want to ensure your wabbelators don't drop off in the cold... Cheers -- K. |
#5
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
Marine batteries have the advantage of being able to repeatedly handle long
periods of use (discharging) better than typical auto batteries. Auto/starting batteries are made for short periods of high current use followed by recharging. If they are repeatedly used for long periods as with a scope, they will not last as long as a marine battery. Clear Skies Chuck Taylor Do you observe the moon? Try the Lunar Observing Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/ "Russ" wrote in message ... I'm looking for a portable power source for my LX90 and imaging equip. I am not an electronics buff, and I am confused by all the different posts that I have seen regarding this. In addition to the scope, I want to power a video camera, monitor, & VCR. What kind of portable power supply do I need? Do I need to be concerned with amps, volts, watts, wobbelators, kenuten valves? AND, where does a power inverter fit in to all this? Do I need one of those too? Thank you in advance. ** If you want to send me e-mail, remove the NOSPAM from my address ** |
#6
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
"Russ" wrote in message ... I'm looking for a portable power source for my LX90 and imaging equip. I am not an electronics buff, and I am confused by all the different posts that I have seen regarding this. In addition to the scope, I want to power a video camera, monitor, & VCR. What kind of portable power supply do I need? Do I need to be concerned with amps, volts, watts, wobbelators, kenuten valves? AND, where does a power inverter fit in to all this? Do I need one of those too? The LX90 runs on 12 volts direct from the battery. An inverter will give you 120 volts AC, probably needed by your video camera, monitor, and VCR. It is inefficient. If possible you should find 12-volt-operated equipment instead. Yes, you have to know about volts, amps, and watts. Briefly: Volts are the pressure of the electrons. A power supply delivers a fixed voltage (e.g., a 12-volt battery). Amps are the rate at which electrons are actually flowing. A power supply has a maximum number of amps that it can deliver. Connect it to something that requires the same number of volts but fewer amps, and everything's fine. Watts are volts times amps -- a measure of the rate of energy consumption. The maximum output of an inverter is often measured in watts rather than volts. Never ask an inverter or power supply to deliver more amps or watts than it's rated for. Things will fry. -- Michael Covington Author, Astrophotography for the Amateur www.covingtoninnovations.com |
#7
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
Please note that while the term "marine battery" is oftened used as a
synonym for "deep cycle battery", manufacturers also make marine starting batteries which are not deep cycle. Starting batteries (such as jump start batteries) have high cold cranking amp ratings, but do not tolerate deep discharge without damage. A marine starting battery is just a starting battery built to be resistant to the pounding sometimes experienced in boats, and is no better than any other starting battery for deep cycle use. What you want is a deep cycle battery, marine or otherwise. Wheelchair batteries (available at Sears, etc.) are deep cycle batteries and come in various sizes which would probably meet your portability requirements. |
#8
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
Hi Russ,
My solution was a Marine Deep Cycle battery from WalMart ($48) rated at 115aH (115 amp hour). I bought a 350Watt inverter and a 1-to-3 12V receptacle splitter. Connect both the inverter and splitter to the battery (make sure to add fuses if necessary!) and I am able to run my scope, dew heater, laptop and music source for a few nights. The battery is quite heavy but worth it. In your case, you may not get as much time as I do simply because of all the extra stuff you want to power. Add up all the power usage (watts) for you equipment (should be printed on the box/tag/instructions/case and make sure you get an inverter that can handle all the power combined of the stuff you want to run on AC. Be careful not to use the PEAK power output of the inverter as your guide. Inverters usually have a peak and nominal rating and nominal is usually half of peak. USE THE NOMINAL!! or you might burn something up. :-/ Email me if you have specific questions and I will be glad to assist. Best, -Al A. (Russ) writes: I'm looking for a portable power source for my LX90 and imaging equip. I am not an electronics buff, and I am confused by all the different posts that I have seen regarding this. In addition to the scope, I want to power a video camera, monitor, & VCR. What kind of portable power supply do I need? Do I need to be concerned with amps, volts, watts, wobbelators, kenuten valves? AND, where does a power inverter fit in to all this? Do I need one of those too? Thank you in advance. ** If you want to send me e-mail, remove the NOSPAM from my address ** -- ~/.signature |
#9
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 10:16:10 -0800, "Chuck Taylor"
wrote: Marine batteries have the advantage of being able to repeatedly handle long periods of use (discharging) better than typical auto batteries. Auto/starting batteries are made for short periods of high current use followed by recharging. If they are repeatedly used for long periods as with a scope, they will not last as long as a marine battery. Any reason not to use a deep cycle marine battery in the car in place of a regular auto battery? |
#10
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
"Al Hall" wrote in message ... On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 10:16:10 -0800, "Chuck Taylor" wrote: Marine batteries have the advantage of being able to repeatedly handle long periods of use (discharging) better than typical auto batteries. Auto/starting batteries are made for short periods of high current use followed by recharging. If they are repeatedly used for long periods as with a scope, they will not last as long as a marine battery. Any reason not to use a deep cycle marine battery in the car in place of a regular auto battery? Seems like a very good question to me. I asked this very question when I was buying some batteries for astronomy use and I'll paraphrase what I was told... A boat and a car place different requirements on a battery and it's a good idea to buy a battery that's made for those requirements. As an example, it's very important for a car to have a big reserve of cold cranking power, while this is not too important in a boat that is used during the warm weather months. On the other hand, it's common to draw small amounts of power from a boat battery while the engine is shut down and the system is not charging. Of course, when you're ready to go home, it's important that the battery has enough power to get you home. In spite of the superior marine batteries available today, you should see some of the batteries going into boats these days. I have a huge 75 pound battery for each of the engines, plus a bank of 3 deep cycle batteries to operate accessories. Not too many gas stations out there. These days, boatmen pray that they never need a tow, as a tow could cost you a thousand dollars or more. Al |
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