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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 11:45:15 GMT
Hey Guys, Heres my monday morning stupid question Currently i use www.maplin.co.uk/p/maplin-jump-starter-digital-500a-150psi-compressor-n63nk Its a 12V 12AH Battery apparently. It powers the Dew heater, Scope, primary camera and my socket splitter thing.(findercam is powered by mains) The problem is i have a tendency to forget to plug it in after using it each night. And it also takes soooo long to fully charge! So looking to move to/add a solution that can power everything from the mains. I have various 12v mains plugs i can use. But my question is... can all be powered ok using just 1 cable? (i.e. the power cable on the joint power/bnc cable) Then... at the other side just add a 12v 4 way splitter thing then connect everything up. Will all things be getting enough power if i only use 1 power cable?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 12:20:33 GMT
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Post by johnno on Jan 27, 2014 12:44:07 GMT
test
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 13:29:45 GMT
Horrible mis sold devices those "power tanks". Im sure you've guessed I'm not a fan The key thing with cable and power is the Amp rating and how many Amps your kit draws. I use a CCTV supply from Ebay you can get a 5 Amp one for about £12.00. So if you count up all the current you are using you just need a supply that covers it with an Amp or two to spare. If you were going for a portable set up nothing beats a Leisure battery at about 80 Ah. But they are heavy brutes.
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Post by Dragon Man on Jan 27, 2014 14:22:53 GMT
Chis, I run everything out at the scope from one single power lead plugged into my Laundry room. Never had a problem in all the years I've been doing it. My Laptop and extra monitor are powered from in the house because that's where I sit. Here's a pic of everything on one powerboard using one power cable. With it I run the Mount power, camera power (sometimes 2 cameras) , and 3 heater strips on the scopes. And a hair dryer when I need to. Attachments:
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Post by johnno on Jan 27, 2014 14:50:22 GMT
I made my own power tank. uses two 12v 12amp batteries in parallel =24amps and a 4 way cigarette splitter, batteries have a inline fuse and LED, if the fuse blows the LED lights up which is quite handy in the dark.
all the cigarette plugs going into the splitter have LED and fused and the cables can carry more amperage than needed.
If your going for a power supply get one with amperage / watts bigger than you need, you don't want to over work it has it could shut down or even worse blow and bugger all your equipment up and fuse all your power lines to protect them from each other, same goes for cabling don't get the cheap speaker wire, Maplins to different size 12v cables.
you should of bought one of them chargers from Lidl, you could of then plugged it into the cigarette socket and it would charge your power tank in no time
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 15:57:51 GMT
Cheers guys! Seems everyone goes down a different route Please excuse my complete lack of knowledge on this stuff! Now im not looking to replace my current power setup. Just to introduce another option to use mains power if i ever need to. Basically will any of these 3 adapters work if used with the 'BNC/power joint cable' with a 4 way splitter at the camera side to power everything? Carl i wouldnt have a scooby how to work out what my stuff is currently using power wise!
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Post by johnno on Jan 27, 2014 17:16:16 GMT
I don't think so Chris, the one on the left looks like it puts out 1.2amp, middle 1/2 amp and the right 1 amp. They are ok for powering individual equipment.
And with our sort of climate it might be a bit dodgy using them outside, it will get damp in no time.
That middle one will take about 12-14 hrs to recharge your power tank if it was flat.
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Post by johnno on Jan 27, 2014 17:32:26 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 18:02:34 GMT
Ahhhh ok so 1000mA = 1 amp thanks John! Oh and i think it takes even longer than that to charge!!! Its crazy!
So i just need to find one that has 5000mA and im good?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 18:04:00 GMT
Agree with Johnno, They wont even touch it. I would think your mount say 2 Amp, Dew heater 1 Amp, Camera 1 Amp and thats a bit generous. So a power supply rated at 12V 6 Amps would suit you fine with power to spare.
Just for Ref 1000 ma = 1 Amp, 500 ma = Half an Amp
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 20:28:01 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 20:51:55 GMT
Oh no Chris this is for running off the mains no power tank at all. Its a mains 12 Volt supply not a battery charger. Battery chargers are a different game.
The 500ma one that comes with the tank are rubbish as they put 12 Volts into the battery. A decent charger should be putting in about 14 Volts in order to force the battery to take the current. If you want faster and better charges the one Johnno mentions would be 100 times better.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 20:56:33 GMT
you should of bought one of them chargers from Lidl, you could of then plugged it into the cigarette socket and it would charge your power tank in no time John i did check that out on the website. But it just showed the big clamp things so i thought it would only apply to you guys using the car batteries. There is a lidl a 30 second run from me! Will they not sell them anymore? Had a look and cant see them on the website but the website sucks so dunno.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 21:04:36 GMT
Just another bit of info on batteries. What does 12 Ah mean? Ah stands for Amp hours and the 12 is the max amount of Amps the battery can supply in one hour. So if your kit amounts to 12 amps to run the battery will last for 1 hour. If your kit draws say 3 Amps whilst running then just divide the 12 Ah by 3 Amps and your kit will run for 4 hours before dying. This is why its better to use a leisure battery rated at say 80 Ah, if your kit draws 3 Amps then it will run for 26 hours Hopefully useful
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 21:05:48 GMT
Oh no Chris this is for running off the mains no power tank at all. Its a mains 12 Volt supply not a battery charger. Battery chargers are a different game. The 500ma one that comes with the tank are rubbish as they put 12 Volts into the battery. A decent charger should be putting in about 14 Volts in order to force the battery to take the current. If you want faster and better charges the one Johnno mentions would be 100 times better. Ok thats cool to only be to power from the mains thats what im looking for. But i just assumed that cause it has a 2.1mm plug i could use it to charge too nah? Cause ive been using that charger to power one of my cameras for ages.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 21:08:28 GMT
Just another bit of info on batteries. What does 12 Ah mean? Ah stands for Amp hours and the 12 is the max amount of Amps the battery can supply in one hour. So if your kit amounts to 12 amps to run the battery will last for 1 hour. If your kit draws say 3 Amps whilst running then just divide the 12 Ah by 3 Amps and your kit will run for 4 hours before dying. This is why its better to use a leisure battery rated at say 80 Ah, if your kit draws 3 Amps then it will run for 26 hours Hopefully useful Ahhh ok thanks Carl that helps! Had no idea what the 12Ah meant Basically what your telling me tho is...Maplins done me for 50 quid and this aint up to the job lol!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 21:18:44 GMT
Now you know why I dislike them Not Maplins fault but Skywatcher sell them and Celestron same thing different label. The other thing with them is if you totally drain them every time, the battery will have a very short life and wont ever take a full charge.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2014 21:31:30 GMT
Maybe this will help illustrate what im trying to achieve. >>> >>> >>> Dew heater, Scope & Camera. This should work fine with the 5amp right? The middle cable doesn't need to be any mad fancy type to handle the extra power does it?
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Post by johnno on Jan 27, 2014 22:15:36 GMT
you should of bought one of them chargers from Lidl, you could of then plugged it into the cigarette socket and it would charge your power tank in no time John i did check that out on the website. But it just showed the big clamp things so i thought it would only apply to you guys using the car batteries. There is a lidl a 30 second run from me! Will they not sell them anymore? Had a look and cant see them on the website but the website sucks so dunno.
Chris all I did was cut the lead about 30cm down from the clamp and fit a female spade connector to the leads and get some wire about the same length and fit male spade ends on one end and a cigarette plug in the other so I could charge the batteries without removing the battery terminals .
You have to go to the store if you still want a battery charger, they might still have them for sale, you cant buy them on line
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