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Is my power supply connector failing me? If so, what should I get?

ZWO ASI2600MC Pro ZWO ASIAIR Plus Equipment Power Supply Troubleshooting
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Photon_Collector avatar
Photon_Collector avatar
I am trying to power all of the following from a Jackery battery via an AC power connection (12V/5A):

- AM5 mount
- ASIAIR Plus
- ZWO EAF
- Guide camera (ZWO 120mm mini)
- ZWO ASI2600MC Pro (cooling)


Other accessories are powered by USB power (dew heaters...)

The power cuts out when I try cooling past 0C in doors (~24 C), or when slewing the mount too much. 

I think I need a beefier power connector to the Jackery battery, but don't know where to get a reliable one made for this sort of thing. I see this one is on back-order, but am open to other opinions:

https://www.highpointscientific.com/apertura-universal-ac-adapter-5-amp-ac5

I'm hoping the connection is the problem and not anything else with the system.
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Roger Nichol avatar
Roger Nichol avatar
wsg avatar
wsg avatar
Your ASI2600MC Pro needs it's own power supply. 
Everything else will run fine off the  ASIAIR Plus
JohnBryantJr avatar
JohnBryantJr avatar
I seen the 2600 pull almost 5amps when cooling, doesn't leave much room for anything else. Solved problem by getting a Pegasus Astro box -> https://www.highpointscientific.com/pegasus-astro-pocket-powerbox-advance-gen2-ppbadv  just note you will need the 12v\10amp power adapter. No issues now running everything.  Mini-PC, Camera, Mount, EAF plus all the usb-3 connections plus the dew-heaters. Hope this helps!
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Monty Chandler avatar
Monty Chandler avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
Bill McLaughlin avatar
You need to be aware (if you are not already) that DC power plugs (and I refer to the standard barrel type as opposed to power pole and such) can wind up being not very compatible even if they are the same size and that can result in some less than stable connections. They often use different schemes for contacts on both the male and female parts.  For example, some have no spring pins on the female part, some do (see attached examples), the same can be true for the male parts. You need to look at what is on your equipment and find compatible ones.

To make matters worse, barrel lengths vary and a too long males can result in an unstable connection and too short no connection at all.

I have taken to making my own wherever possible using plugs from Mouser and silicone wire and heat shrink/solder. More work but more reliable.

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psparkman avatar
psparkman avatar
@Bill McLaughlin brings up very important points.  In addition, his images of the male connectors show another critical area.  The male connector on the top image shows the inner part of the connector flaring out before the black insulator area.  I had a connector just like that wipe out a Pegasus Pocket Power box.  I had that connector on the main 12V power lead, and when plugging it in, that mis-configured end allowed the connector to short.  The PPB smoked, and failed immediately.  Lesson learned the hard way.

The second picture is a much better design, and I have made sure to only use connectors with the insulator across the whole end from that point on.  I now only use the Pegasus 5.5 leads and find they work very well.

CS

Patrick
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Huib Wouters avatar
Huib Wouters avatar
I run a similar setup, just different brands of hardware, but its the mount, APS-C cooled camera (Player One Poseidon), guide camera (ASI 290MM mini), two dew heaters and a mini PC, and I power those of a Bluetti EB3A. Not exactly the same, but in terms of power usage it should be pretty similar to your setup.

When I set the cooling to -30C below ambient, and dew heaters to 50 - 70%, I can see the power output of the battery pack on my iPad. Typically it's 25 - 30W of power, sometimes peaking at 35W. A 12V 5A output should be sufficient to run this. I have two 10A outputs on my battery pack, and I run the mount from one and the mini PC, camera and dew heaters from the other., but it should be possible to run everything from just one port.

I use the Mele quieter as mini PC, so I made my own power distribution box. I made sure all wires are thick enough (AWG 18) to make sure there are no issues with high currents. All connectors are standard 5.5x2.1 barrel connectors, I even replaced the RCA connectors on the dew heaters. I thought about replacing everything with GX12 or GX16 connectors, but since I haven´t had any issues with loose connectors, I stuck with the standard 5521 barrel.
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starpixels avatar
starpixels avatar
I mostly have the same ZWO products powered by a jackery just like yourself.  Last year I had those same power issues that you describe, cropping up around times of peak power load.  In my case it ended up being a DC converter that did not have the necessary 5A but turned out to be 3A. I then replaced it with a ZWO DC converter from highpoint to eliminate additional guesswork. The brand doesn't matter of course, but I was coming off of a critical mistake in matching power so I probably overdid the fix. I now power the AM5 with one and chain the ASIAIR to that. I avoid the power plugs on the AIR except for small things like dew heaters (which has the added function of scaling output in the software). I use another separate DC converter supply to power the camera directly, which according to most info out there is a must for power stability. The 2 DC converters are then patched into the one AC Power plug on the jackery (500W model). I avoid the DC outputs on the jackery because the DC connector size / depth / type is a bit of an outlier and I personally prefer to sidestep that along with any possible polarity issues. Small tip.. you can zip-tie a short 3 prong AC cable adapter to the leg of the tripod so that set up will be fast and easy - one cable to the jackery.  After making those changes last spring, I never once had another power issue and setup and storage became easier as well..
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Keith Hoard avatar
Keith Hoard avatar
The first thing I do with any piece of Astro equipment is change as many of the DC plugs to Anderson Power Poles as soon as possible.
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They are pretty much the gold standard in the Amateur Radio world and I used them in my R/C Helicopter days pulling 40 amps continuous with 120 amp bursts.
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