I use the Kendrick 17amp 12-volt battery recommended by Astro-Physics
to power their scopes. It is just adequate for my AP600E GOTO. Even
though it shows 12.9 volts on the voltmeter prior to being used this
may not be enough to power the scope. My solution (apart from getting
a larger battery)is to charge it after every observing session.
My CCD (Pixcel 237) is powered by another Kendrick 17amp 12-volt
battery. Here to the CCD won't work unless the battery has been
charged right prior to each observing session. Even if the battery
shows 12.8+ volts the CCD may not work properly.
It is best to charge after each session even if you have a larger
battery.
I feel that the the Kendrick 17amp batteries are really too small for
running a GOTO mount (or even a CCD). As for running both the mount
and CCD off one battery - a huge one is required here!
--- In ap-gto@..., "Marj" <marj@a...> wrote:
Terry,
I have a voltage meter attached to the battery that displays the
battery
voltage. Do you know whether a short drop in voltage caused by
connecting an
additional CCD camera and PC would to the battery would cause the
keypad to
lock-up if the keypad was already attached to teh battery?<<
Roland said that this is likely to happen. Your meter is reading an
average
and will not show dips. Gel cells have internal resistance which
will cause
voltage drop when the load changes. When you connect an additional
CCD
camera and PC the load will drop below 9 volts and the keypad will
reset or
it may affect the GTO circuit itself and cause the keypad to lock
up.
We recommend that you use a large marine battery that is not a gel
cell and
hook everything up to it before powering up the GTO.
Hope this helps. Thank you for providing me with another issue to
address in
the troubleshooting section of the manual.
Marj, Astro-Physics
-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Johnson [mailto:tjohnson@c...]
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 11:35 PM
To: ap-gto@...;
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] GTO Keypad Freezes Problem
Bob, I have a voltage meter attached to the battery that
displays the
battery voltage. Do you know whether a short drop in voltage caused
by
connecting an additional CCD camera and PC would to the battery
would cause
the keypad to lock-up if the keypad was already attached to teh
battery?
Thanks...Terry Johnson
----- Original Message -----
From: rck
To: ap-gto@...
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 9:12 PM
Subject: Re: [ap-gto] GTO Keypad Freezes Problem
You have tested it at 12.8 volts or that is what it is
rated
to
produce?
I was getting under 12 volts when I had the problem. After I
switched
to a marine deep cycle 60AH battery, no problems--I can run
for 2-3
nights on one charge. Just the scope though, nothing else
on
it.
Regards,
Bob Kuberek
Terry Johnson wrote:
Bob, when you speak of undervoltage, when do you
consider the
voltage to be too low. My 88 amp battery with all the systems
connected puts
out 12.8 volts when the battery is fully charged to 12.2 volts
after
six
hours of usage.
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