Hi folks: I'm moving in a few weeks, and the new backyard has no view of Polaris, but a field nearby offers better views and slightly darker skies. I'll be needing power, though, and I was considering the new Bluetti EB3A. Right now, I'm imaging with an iOptron Skyguider Pro which runs off its own battery, so I'd only need juice for my DSLR, a Raspberry Pi 4 (Astroberry) which in turn is powering my guide-cam, and a small dew-heater. But I'm hoping to upgrade my rig in the next 6 months, and I'd want to be sure that whatever power solution I choose will provide power to the new rig. New Rig: CEM26 Astroberry (Raspberry Pi 4) ZWO ASI120MM (plugged into Astroberry) ZWO ASI533MC Pro Dew Heater I'd also be adding an EAF, but since that runs infrequently and not during exposures, I'm not considering the draw in the total. Will the Bluetti's 268Wh be sufficient to power the above for 4-6 hours? I did a bit of math on my own and it looked tight, but it's hard to know how much juice the camera will need. I'm located in Canada, and I wouldn't need to crank the cooler too high. What do you all think? I'd appreciate any input! CS, Mark
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Hi Mark,
Not sure about the power, but as I got a CEM26 a few month ago I thought I would give you my thoughts:
First, I love it! I use the ASIair Plus for control and really like it so far.
But, I am so far ok with the 26 lbs but see that it is limiting. I just got a 6 inch RC telescope and it makes it on the mount. I might have purchased an 8 inch but it put me way too close to the limit. If I had to do it over, I would have gotten the CEM40. Or at least would have thought long and hard about it!
Gary
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Thanks @Gary! I'm feeling pretty good about the CEM26, though the ZWO AM5 looks interesting too. Lightweight and you don't have to fuss with balance, just a lot more expensive - though not as expensive as a CEM40. Thanks for your thoughts!
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Hi Mark! I basically have the exact setup you aim for (CEM26, 533mc, EAF, but laptop instead of Raspberry). I got a pretty cool powertank in a fisherman equipment shop: A Fox Halo Power Pack 96K. It's rugged and very robust, can be charged with USB-C, has two 12V and several USB ports. I love it and it easily brings me through a whole night, if not two. The main power drain is your camera cooling. I go for -10°C with my 533mc, which takes usually 40-60 % power, which results in up to 24 watts. The CEM26 only needs 0.75 amps (less than 10 watts). Your suggested Buetti power tank also looks nice, maybe even too powerful!  I don't know where you are located. The Fox Halo might be a Europe-only device. Here is a link to the german Amazon. https://www.amazon.de/FOX-Halo-Power-96K/dp/B07Z6HP3VT=hidden-xs Edit: I missed the Canada part.. ;) Let me add my calculation I did in before I got the power tank: Camera: 1.5 amp (average) mount: 0.75 amp dew heater: 0.3 amp sums up to 2.55 amp. With 26 Ah, my powertank can last 10 hours. My laptop holds up a lot on its own battery, but one charge is also possible and leaves me still with 7-8 hours.
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Thanks Björn!
I had a look at the unit you use, and it has 307Wh. If you can get up to two nights, I should be able to get 6-8 hours on my 268Wh Bluetti without difficulty. Maybe I'll play around with finding the right balance of battery life and cooling temperature. Do you run your laptop on its internal battery, or power it off your Fox Halo?
CS,
Mark
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Björn Hoffmann:
My laptop holds up a lot on its own battery, but one charge is also possible and leaves me still with 7-8 hours. Oops, was replying while you were editing. That's good to know. I might try and swap out Astroberry for Stellarmate so I can use an app on my phone and leave the laptop at home. I also found the power:cooling graph in the 533 manual and apparently it takes .5amp to cool to 30 below ambient, which is 6W instead of the advertised 22W max (or 24W in your case). Off-topic, but how do you like the CEM26? Also, I love your work! The combination of the small 533 chip and the FL of the Redcat is killer - it looks like stuff done with a longer FL but you're getting that f/4.9 advantage. Nice. CS, Mark
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I got the Bluetti EB70. I had a "bad" feeling about price and will it do the job the whole nicht but yes - this was the best decision i have ever made. We are in field for some days, so a solar panel was purchased also and we are absolutely happy. I think, the Bluetti Cube will drive two rigs (EQ6-R with ASI Air and cameras) the whole night, this will be tested in the very near future. https://www.bluettipower.eu/products/bluetti-poweroak-eb70regards, Gerhard
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Mark Germani:
Thanks Björn!
I had a look at the unit you use, and it has 307Wh. If you can get up to two nights, I should be able to get 6-8 hours on my 268Wh Bluetti without difficulty. Maybe I'll play around with finding the right balance of battery life and cooling temperature. Do you run your laptop on its internal battery, or power it off your Fox Halo?
CS,
Mark My laptop holds up to six hours on its own battery, then I need to plug it to the powerbank. I don't know where you got the 0.5 amp for 30 degree below ambient. To my knowledge it draws up to 3 amp in full cooling power. Mark Germani:
Off-topic, but how do you like the CEM26? I really like it! It's my first heavy mount, before that I only used a Star Adventurer for many years. The CEM26 is comparabely lightweight, modern and in good nights I have < 1" guiding rms. Together with N.I.N.A. it does an amazing job in making fully automatic mosaics. The only problem I have from time to time is the DEC backlash. But you can adjust that, it's a very common problem and you will instantly find it when you search for experiences and reviews.
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Hi Mark,
first of all I can confirm Björn's concerns regarding power usage of a cooled CCD. I'm powering a QHY 268 in the field and 3 A is what you have to take into consideration for 100% cooling. On a positive note you will only need the 100% in the warm and short summer nights so the capacity should still work out. Given the modern sensors there is also no real need to push the sensor to -10 deg Celsius, so you may just decide on -5 deg C or even 0 deg C without significant loss of quality. As with any equipment you will need to invest some test sessions anyway.
Looking at the Bluetti I would be a bit concerned about the shiny display. If you can turn it off it's ok, if not I would hesitate to buy it. At some point you may want to take your rig to a dark site used by other people without disturbing them. I'm very happy with my Jackery Explorer 240. Admittedly it has 10% less capacity but so far I'm getting along with it without issues. I'm powering a ZWO ASI 120mini, QHY268C, 2 dew heaters controlled by a Pegasus Powerbox, a Mele Quieter 2 and an iOptron iPolar. I don't have to power a mount since I'm currently using the iOptron SkyGuider which comes with an own battery (sufficient for >16h according to my tests).
Good luck with your decision and clear skies
Wolfgang
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I should have written "cooled camera" instead of "cooled CCD" ...
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Björn Hoffmann:
The main power drain is your camera cooling. I go for -10°C with my 533mc, which takes usually 40-60 % power, which results in up to 24 watts. According to the ASI533 manual, on pages 8 & 9, is looks like 22w is the maximum the camera will draw. So at 40-60% power, it will be considerably less. If the target temp is easily achievable, the power drops even more when it gets to the desired temps - as it fluctuates to maintain the fixed temp. To the OP: If your power bank has 268wH and you want to get 6 hours out of it, that's roughly 44w of draw for 6 hours to empty the battery from full. Taking into consideration that batteries tend to not supply the specified capacity, lets say 5 hours at 44w. But I would say your kit wont be using anywhere near 44w all the time. CEM26 - 10w Astroberry (Raspberry Pi 4) : 6.5w ZWO ASI120MM (plugged into Astroberry) : 0.5w ZWO ASI533MC Pro : 22w Dew Heater : 5w The above equals 44w. But it is also assuming the CEM26, AstroBerry and Camera are working 100% flat out all the time - which they wont be. I would say it will be closer to around 30-35w average. TL;DR - I'm confident you will get 6 hours out of a 268wh power bank using the kit listed above.
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Mounts draw every little power while tracking. Only when slewing to a target will you see it get anywhere close to max draw. Take that into consideration for total current draw required by the rig, but it's very small otherwise. Camera and dew heaters are the big draws followed by computer. Guide camera will draw a little bit, but not a ton. EAF and EFW will be very little. I don't have numbers for each device in my rig but I can tell you what the total draw was over a period of time since I track it. I am running an EQ6-R Pro with ASI2600MM-P and ASI290MM Mini. I have a Mele PC Stick which is powered over USB 20, 5V. One 6" dew strap, EAF, and EFW. Everything is powered through a powerbox advance, including mount, from which I collect telemetry on all sorts of things. The last night I had this out it was humid (I'm in North Carolina.. it's always humid) and pretty warm. The camera had to work a bit harder at the beginning of the night but as it cooled down less power was drawn. I have included a capture of the current draw over the full night averaged over a 1 hour time period. Fwiw, the max draw at any point was when slewing to a target in the early morning, peaking around 4.3A. The way I'd read this graph is I want about 3A average for the rig. It draws less in the winter since cooling is not running as hard, but I personally ignored that. So shooting for 12 hours (winter night) would be 36AH. Nominal voltage draw for the powerbox is 12.8V, so 12.8V * 36AH = 461W. I got the Jackery 1002Wh which is complete overkill but can run my fridge, meaning my wife was a bit more OK with this purchase ;)  |
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Maybe this is not directly useful to OP, but I strongly suggest anyone who does portable imaging to consider getting a hybrid vehicle in your next car purchase. I have been using my Prius to power my imaging for 12 years. Very convenient. Its engine turns on by itself when battery is low. No need to worry that you may drain the battery during the night. The only catch is that some newer models always turn on the head light when the vehicle is powered up. You either avoid such models, or ask some professionals to help to change the head light setup.
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It's really a good idea to control your dew heaters based on dew point. Depending on your climate conditions it can save quite a bit of battery capacity. When I started into this hobby I was just mindlessly fixing the dew heaters to my lens / scope and ran them on full power. These days I rarely see them running on more than 30%.
I saw several people mentioning just one dew heater. Is this due to using OAG or are you not using dew heaters on your guide scopes? (If so, why not?)
Clear skies
Wolfgang
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It's really a good idea to control your dew heaters based on dew point. Depending on your climate conditions it can save quite a bit of battery capacity. When I started into this hobby I was just mindlessly fixing the dew heaters to my lens / scope and ran them on full power. These days I rarely see them running on more than 30%.
I saw several people mentioning just one dew heater. Is this due to using OAG or are you not using dew heaters on your guide scopes? (If so, why not?)
Clear skies
Wolfgang Yes, this is very useful. Using a dew controller that can take ambient conditions into consideration is great. I run a single dew strap because I have an OAG. If I run with a guide scope (recently did with a Rokinon lens) I run second dew strap. The smaller the dew strap the lower the draw. And if you don't have a dew strap you can use hand warmers. They work great and last for a night. Just strap on with some rubber bands, velcro straps, etc. Bonus is they don't draw power. Of course, you have to buy them so it's not super economical  |
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Thanks everyone for the feedback - so appreciated! @Wei-Hao Wang - another great reason to buy a hybrid! I'll be on foot without a vehicle, though, but something to think about when/if I buy one in the future. Looking at the Bluetti I would be a bit concerned about the shiny display. If you can turn it off it's ok, if not I would hesitate to buy it. @kuechlew - the display is on for a few seconds, then automatically shuts off. There's actually a bluetooth app I could use instead to monitor power consumption, though I imagine that would use some of the battery. I wonder if I can shut bluetooth off on the battery to conserve power? I saw several people mentioning just one dew heater. Is this due to using OAG or are you not using dew heaters on your guide scopes? (If so, why not?) I don't actually have a fancy dew control system, just a basic USB heating strap. I added a "dimmer" so I could control the heat manually, as it would often get REALLY hot otherwise. I don't use one for my guide-scope - I don't think it's ever dewed-up, and if it has it's never impacted my guiding (I image wide-field in poor seeing). Perhaps something to consider if I ever go for a longer FL. Thanks again to everyone who responded! CS, Mark
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Just following up here, I sprang for the EB3A, and Bluetti is actually having a sale right now (in case anyone else is looking to get themselves a nice new LiFePO 4 battery Cheers, Mark
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