Power Packs

I'm after a power pack for my Meade LX90, sick to death of buying 8 C type
batteries all the time. Is there anything available? What about those
booster pack things for jump starting car batteries? Are they any good?

TIA

Redman

Redman wrote:

I'm after a power pack for my Meade LX90, sick to death of buying 8 C type
batteries all the time. Is there anything available? What about those
booster pack things for jump starting car batteries? Are they any good?

I got one from some Surveyors supplier in York. It's been great for the
Nexstar I have and I can think of no reason it wouldn't work for your
Meade.

It's damned good for powering a stereo when camping at rock festivals
too.

FoFP

"Redman" wrote in message
...
I'm after a power pack for my Meade LX90, sick to death of buying 8 C
type
batteries all the time. Is there anything available? What about those
booster pack things for jump starting car batteries? Are they any good?

TIA

Redman
The key 'problem' with these (and the cheaper scope packs), is that the
chargers are made down to a budget, and generally do not help the
batteries have a long life. Two things kill lead-acid batteries faster
than anything else. The first is periods spent run down ('deep discharge'
batteries, slightly reduce this effect), and the second is poor charging.
The problem here, is that a good charger, will cost more than these packs
sell for (something like the 'Accumate'. So you either have to accept that
the battery life will be poor, or pay rather a lot extra for a good
charger. Given the low price that mny of the battery packs are available
for, a lot of people go with the former solution.
I had three of these packs, fail over as many years. I then bought an
Accumate, and a new pack, and this latest one, has now gone three years.
Even with the improved charger, it is very important to not 'over
discharge' the pack. If you can ensure it'll stay over 50% charged, it'll
last a lot longer. So chosing a slightly bigger pack than appears
necessary, is a worthwhile long term saving.

Best Wishes

This is what I use to power my scope and laptop in the field. For added
longevity, I connect a 12v auto battery to it with its supplied cables.
I've never run out of power. You can't beat the price.

http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/182/p/1/pt/29/product.asp

Scott
"Redman" wrote in message
...
I'm after a power pack for my Meade LX90, sick to death of buying 8 C type
batteries all the time. Is there anything available? What about those
booster pack things for jump starting car batteries? Are they any good?

TIA

Redman

On Thu, 1 Jun 2006 11:11:24 +0100, "Redman"
wrote:

I'm after a power pack for my Meade LX90, sick to death of buying 8 C type
batteries all the time. Is there anything available? What about those
booster pack things for jump starting car batteries? Are they any good?

TIA

Redman


I use a 12V leisure battery such as the 85A/Hr one on this page:

http://www.towsure.com/default.asp?s...ttery&x=10&y=7

and I connect it with a home made cable with an LED at the croc clip
end to show that the polarity is correct before plugging the other end
into the LX90 (which is not protected against reverse polarity).

- Mike

Mike Murphy wrote:
On Thu, 1 Jun 2006 11:11:24 +0100, "Redman"
wrote:


I'm after a power pack for my Meade LX90, sick to death of buying 8 C type
batteries all the time. Is there anything available? What about those
booster pack things for jump starting car batteries? Are they any good?

TIA

Redman



I use a 12V leisure battery such as the 85A/Hr one on this page:

http://www.towsure.com/default.asp?s...ttery&x=10&y=7

and I connect it with a home made cable with an LED at the croc clip
end to show that the polarity is correct before plugging the other end
into the LX90 (which is not protected against reverse polarity).

- Mike

Hi Since the Meade LX90 uses "C" size batteries, it is very unlikely to
draw more than 1 Amp maximum at 12 volts (8 x 1.5 volt cells).
So I would think that a good stabilised 12 volt "plugpack" or similar
with a 1 to 2 Amp rating would work fine. That's of course if mains are
available. Otherwise a good Gell Cell 20 AH 12 volt battery shou;d run
it for a couple of nights and get recharged during the day.
Another idea would be to buy 8x Ni Mh "c" cells and recharge them.
Don't use NI Cd's as they are not as reliable and also pretty toxic when
disposed of.
These should have a capacity of up to 6 AH each and give you quite a
long run time with the ability to recharge them up to 500 times.

Reagrds Cliff Wright.

You are quite right about the indequacy of batteries in many modern
equipments. Trouble is energy storage hasn't really kept up with
the loads required.

I used to use a Jumpstarter. It works extremely well. I changed up to an
85Ah battery when my power requirements increased. I still have it as there
is a backup as it does run the scope for several nights without a problem.

"cliff wright" wrote in message
...
Mike Murphy wrote:
On Thu, 1 Jun 2006 11:11:24 +0100, "Redman"
wrote:


I'm after a power pack for my Meade LX90, sick to death of buying 8 C
type
batteries all the time. Is there anything available? What about those
booster pack things for jump starting car batteries? Are they any good?

TIA

Redman



I use a 12V leisure battery such as the 85A/Hr one on this page:

http://www.towsure.com/default.asp?s...ttery&x=10&y=7

and I connect it with a home made cable with an LED at the croc clip
end to show that the polarity is correct before plugging the other end
into the LX90 (which is not protected against reverse polarity).

- Mike

Hi Since the Meade LX90 uses "C" size batteries, it is very unlikely to
draw more than 1 Amp maximum at 12 volts (8 x 1.5 volt cells).
So I would think that a good stabilised 12 volt "plugpack" or similar with
a 1 to 2 Amp rating would work fine. That's of course if mains are
available. Otherwise a good Gell Cell 20 AH 12 volt battery shou;d run it
for a couple of nights and get recharged during the day.
Another idea would be to buy 8x Ni Mh "c" cells and recharge them.
Don't use NI Cd's as they are not as reliable and also pretty toxic when
disposed of.
These should have a capacity of up to 6 AH each and give you quite a long
run time with the ability to recharge them up to 500 times.

Reagrds Cliff Wright.

You are quite right about the indequacy of batteries in many modern
equipments. Trouble is energy storage hasn't really kept up with
the loads required.

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 23:54:51 +1200, cliff wright
wrote:

Hi Since the Meade LX90 uses "C" size batteries, it is very unlikely to
draw more than 1 Amp maximum at 12 volts (8 x 1.5 volt cells).
So I would think that a good stabilised 12 volt "plugpack" or similar
with a 1 to 2 Amp rating would work fine. That's of course if mains are
available.

Hi Cliff,
Yes, a suitable mains adapter will work fine; I prefer not to use
mains outdoors in the damp.

Otherwise a good Gell Cell 20 AH 12 volt battery shou;d run
it for a couple of nights and get recharged during the day.
Another idea would be to buy 8x Ni Mh "c" cells and recharge them.
Don't use NI Cd's as they are not as reliable and also pretty toxic when
disposed of.
These should have a capacity of up to 6 AH each and give you quite a
long run time with the ability to recharge them up to 500 times.

A gel battery will work but they tend to stop working in very low
temperatures. NiMHy cells also are very susceptible to voltage drop in
low temperatures as well, even the more recnt ones. Nicads are much
better in this respect and are quite cheap nowadays; they can also be
re-cycled with little or no environmental impact. You'd need 10 cells
really to achieve 12V.

- Mike