I finally got a chance to get my 1200 goto up on my pier and now have
a chance to pose some questions. The power supply cord is about 4'
short of what I need to reach my 110v-12v convertor at the wall of my
observatory.
I can make do by moving but would like to take advantage of the conduits
I already have in
place below ground. Has anyone used some type of extension
to get a longer power cord?




Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm




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Bob,

Since you have in place below ground conduits, I would pull 3#12 wires
(THHN type, +110, netural, ground) through the conduit to a new outlet
above ground. I would also use GFI recepticles, for your protection.

I use my 1200 as a portable mount, so my power supply always come from
12v gel cell batteries.

Tim



--- Bobby Middleton <bobm@...> wrote:

I finally got a chance to get my 1200 goto up on my
pier and now have
a chance to pose some questions. The power supply
cord is about 4'
short of what I need to reach my 110v-12v convertor
at the wall of my
observatory.
I can make do by moving but would like to take
advantage of the conduits
I already have in
place below ground. Has anyone used some type of
extension
to get a longer power cord?




Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm

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Using an extension is no problem, the power line for the a/p mounts are
mearly carrying DC voltage, simply go to a hardware store and get a 'DC'
cable extension ie: cigrette lighter feamle in to cigereet lighter male out.
this will permit any usable length you want..I have run 50 foot lenghts in
the past.

- Charles

Hi Bobby;
Glad to see you got your 1200 mount...you will be pleased. As to extension
cords i can only tell you my experience. I had Roland make up for me the
length of power cord I required from my pier to the outlet...it was 30 feet.
I would suggest you call them ...it will be worth the money for atleast you
will know that you are getting the proper power connection for the unit
.....&#92;
Have fun
Howard L

Bobby Middleton wrote:

I finally got a chance to get my 1200 goto up on my pier and now have
a chance to pose some questions. The power supply cord is about 4'
short of what I need to reach my 110v-12v convertor at the wall of my
observatory.
I can make do by moving but would like to take advantage of the conduits
I already have in
place below ground. Has anyone used some type of extension
to get a longer power cord?

Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm

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I finally got a chance to get my 1200 goto up on my pier and now have
a chance to pose some questions. The power supply cord is about 4'
short of what I need to reach my 110v-12v convertor at the wall of my
observatory.
I can make do by moving but would like to take advantage of the conduits
I already have in
place below ground. Has anyone used some type of extension
to get a longer power cord?

Hi Bobby, the power cord does seem to be very short for use in the field.
I extended mine with a simple cigarette lighter extension cord which has a
male on one end and a female on the other. You can buy these from auto
parts stockists. The only problem is that the cable is rather thin and
coiled, so I replaced it with a heavy duty cable to ensure minimum volts
drop across the cable. There's not that much available in terms of simple
two core cable with ultra low resistance. In the end I used heavy duty
speaker cable that has pure copper rope conductors. This has the lowest
resistance of anything I could easily find - you can use 4ft or more of it
and you'll see virtually no difference in working voltage under load.
Although the insulation is not spec'd for this kind of application, 12v
will not present any problem at all provided that you don't treat it too
roughly. Just don't use it to carry mains voltage! :-)

Regards
--Philip

Philip Perkins - philip@...
Wiltshire UK & Luberon France
Astrocruise - http://www.astrocruise.com

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Using an extension is no problem, the power line for the a/p mounts are
mearly carrying DC voltage, simply go to a hardware store and get a 'DC'
cable extension ie: cigrette lighter feamle in to cigereet lighter male

out.

this will permit any usable length you want..I have run 50 foot lenghts in
the past.

- Charles

Thanks Charles and thanks for the other responses. That's "sort of"
what I had in mind but I will really need a male and female of the other
smaller
end in order to be able to thread it through my 3/4" pvc conduits. The
cigarette
lighter plug-in will be too big to pull through the pipe. I would hope that
radio shack
will have something close to what I need........I will check as I get time.

I did get time to work on rough polar alignment tonight and set up my
location cooridinates and local time. The mount is beautiful.......a real
work of
art.


Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm



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Bobby Middleton wrote:

Using an extension is no problem, the power line for the a/p mounts are
mearly carrying DC voltage, simply go to a hardware store and get a 'DC'
cable extension ie: cigrette lighter feamle in to cigereet lighter male

out.

this will permit any usable length you want..I have run 50 foot lenghts in
the past.

- Charles

Thanks Charles and thanks for the other responses. That's "sort of"
what I had in mind but I will really need a male and female of the other
smaller
end in order to be able to thread it through my 3/4" pvc conduits. The
cigarette
lighter plug-in will be too big to pull through the pipe. I would hope that
radio shack
will have something close to what I need........I will check as I get time.

Could you cut off one end and rewire it after pulling it through?

Bob Kuberek


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->> Thanks Charles and thanks for the other responses. That's "sort of"

what I had in mind but I will really need a male and female of the other
smaller
end in order to be able to thread it through my 3/4" pvc conduits. The
cigarette
lighter plug-in will be too big to pull through the pipe. I would hope

that

radio shack
will have something close to what I need........I will check as I get

time.

Could you cut off one end and rewire it after pulling it through?

Bob Kuberek

Bob,
That would be a usable option with one of the male/female cigarette
plug-ins, but I will try to find a manufacture cord out there somewhere
first. If I can't, then your idea will work ok. Thanks.

Bobby Middleton

http://www.koyote.com/users/bobm/astro1.htm



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