I am looking into a battery for traveling with my setup. I bought a 330 W RockPals. It could not power the mount, ASIair, dew heater, cameras for more than two hours. I'm now considering a 500W Jackery. Does anyone have experience with a 500W equivalent battery powering a travel system overnight?
Battery power question
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No experience yet, but very interested by the feedback you’ll get.
But considering the figures : you have a 288.8Wh battery and look at a 518Wh battery. So if your devices doesn’t change, you’ll go from 2 hours of use to 2h x 518 / 288.8 = 3h34 of use... not much improvement :-)
Not sure it helps you, but making some research, I recently found some nice DIY projects, that mix battery and counterweight for the mount (why not use the battery as counterweight instead of using a dead weight ?). You’ll have more freedom on how much Ah you want to stock... or as a complement of your existing battery.
I put the thread here in case you are interested. There are several projects going on : a « simple » DIY and a more elaborate one using 3D printing :
https://www.webastro.net/forums/topic/185745-projet-collaboratif-réaliser-un-contrepoids-batterie/page/12/
https://www.webastro.net/forums/topic/185745-projet-collaboratif-réaliser-un-contrepoids-batterie/page/8/
But considering the figures : you have a 288.8Wh battery and look at a 518Wh battery. So if your devices doesn’t change, you’ll go from 2 hours of use to 2h x 518 / 288.8 = 3h34 of use... not much improvement :-)
Not sure it helps you, but making some research, I recently found some nice DIY projects, that mix battery and counterweight for the mount (why not use the battery as counterweight instead of using a dead weight ?). You’ll have more freedom on how much Ah you want to stock... or as a complement of your existing battery.
I put the thread here in case you are interested. There are several projects going on : a « simple » DIY and a more elaborate one using 3D printing :
https://www.webastro.net/forums/topic/185745-projet-collaboratif-réaliser-un-contrepoids-batterie/page/12/
https://www.webastro.net/forums/topic/185745-projet-collaboratif-réaliser-un-contrepoids-batterie/page/8/
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I use a 12v deep cycle battery (lead acid). I think it is 120amp hour rated. I can get one night out of it. Things like temperature the amount of load and age of the battery all have an effect on how long it lasts. I used to get two nights…. Batteries are a complicated subject. I don’t think the 500w jackery would last the night. There are internet resources that can help you figure out amp hours battery types and capacity. I went with the basic lead acid because of cost. Yes it’s very heavy!
Concise
I got one from Aliexpress (Kanavano). I made a post also on CN. Very happy with it, it's a 12V 100Ah LifePO4 battery. Been using it for 2 months now.
Nice thing is that you can customize it (I have usb-c, usb QC, DC regulated outputs, etc).
Nice thing is that you can customize it (I have usb-c, usb QC, DC regulated outputs, etc).
Hi, I have a Hyundai 555Wh which comfortably lasts 12hours.
I power a ZWO 1600MM pro or 2400MC pro (-20C cooling) plus ZWO ASIAir, EFW, EAG ZWO 1200mM mini, EQ6R mount and Google WiFi point .
My total draw ranges between 15W (tracking) and 40W (slewing)
I would have thought your battery should have lasted longer than it does unless something there is a big power draw (the dew heater - usuaally
only a few W).
Do you know your total power draw from the battery?
Either that or your battery is not as advertised.
CS and long battery life
Brian
I power a ZWO 1600MM pro or 2400MC pro (-20C cooling) plus ZWO ASIAir, EFW, EAG ZWO 1200mM mini, EQ6R mount and Google WiFi point .
My total draw ranges between 15W (tracking) and 40W (slewing)
I would have thought your battery should have lasted longer than it does unless something there is a big power draw (the dew heater - usuaally
only a few W).
Do you know your total power draw from the battery?
Either that or your battery is not as advertised.
CS and long battery life
Brian
Helpful
As you already have a battery with circuitry and connections with your Rockpals the cheapest thing to do would to get a Lithium Fe-PO4 battery with the necessary amp hour rating and hook it to the charging port of your Rockpals. To figure out how many amp hours you need, add up all the watts yout devices draw at maximum, divide by 12 and multiply by the number of hours you want the rig to run. You could add a bit of fudge factor if you want but as the devices don’t all draw all their rated power constantly you can get away with less capacity than you might otherwise think.
‘A new Jackery 500 will set you back about $500 and for that you can find a 100 amp hour battery to add into your system and have no worries.
‘Clear Skies.
‘A new Jackery 500 will set you back about $500 and for that you can find a 100 amp hour battery to add into your system and have no worries.
‘Clear Skies.
Helpful
Hi,
i 've also bein thinking about a battery for my setup. Since i got lost in the wild two years ago, when i draw from my car's starter battery, and then wasnt able to start the car anymore. Had no blankets with me, and got me a two-weeks bad cold.
I personally would go for LiFePo, because of durability and ecological considerations. It's however not cheap, expecially if you aim for 500 Wh and above. About the desired power i'm not sure yet, but it must be in this range. There are some further things to consider:
one thing i bookmarked was the Kirron AC50. But maybe this is a Li Ion battery, not sure.
CS Horst
i 've also bein thinking about a battery for my setup. Since i got lost in the wild two years ago, when i draw from my car's starter battery, and then wasnt able to start the car anymore. Had no blankets with me, and got me a two-weeks bad cold.
I personally would go for LiFePo, because of durability and ecological considerations. It's however not cheap, expecially if you aim for 500 Wh and above. About the desired power i'm not sure yet, but it must be in this range. There are some further things to consider:
- weight
- self discharge, and how deep discharging affects lifetime
- temperature range
- output voltages (my laptop requires 20V)
- maybe, there is a sinus converter built in (is it a true sinus? what about ripple? conversion efficiency?)
- often, the batteries are equipped with fancy blue LEDs, or some kind of christmas tree illumination
one thing i bookmarked was the Kirron AC50. But maybe this is a Li Ion battery, not sure.
CS Horst
I've been using a Goal Zero to power the mount and other accessories. Works great but It 's not strong enough to power my laptop which draws quite a bit of power since it's a gaming computer. For that I use a portable car battery with an inverter.
It was suggested to me to look into the Jackery 1000 portable power station. It costs about $1000.00 american. I'm ordering one of those as it can power just about anything (including computer) that you can plug into it. More than enough to get you through a night of imaging. the less I have to carry into the field, the better. Hope this helps.
CS
Patrick G
It was suggested to me to look into the Jackery 1000 portable power station. It costs about $1000.00 american. I'm ordering one of those as it can power just about anything (including computer) that you can plug into it. More than enough to get you through a night of imaging. the less I have to carry into the field, the better. Hope this helps.
CS
Patrick G
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